TRENDS AND TYPES OF CHANGES BY THE NUMBER OF SETTLEMENTS, AS ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS IN HUNGARY

Abstract

There are several papers in Hungary about the administrative changes and their effect on different settlements. The two most important topics were the new urban settlements and their functions and the changes at LAU-1 level. There is much smaller attention on those settlements which became a new administrative units or which lost their independence. The database of this research comes from the data of several census in Hungary between 1910-2011. In 1900 there were 3464 settlements (towns and villages) in Hungary, nowadays 3154. So the decline is about 300, but it means that there are almost 600 new settlements in Hungary during the 20^th century and almost 900 lost their independence. In the Alföld region, where the settlement density is low, there are a lot of new settlements, while in the western and northern part of Hungary, where we can find large settlement density, the number of the settlements decreased during the 20^th century. If we see the types of these administrative changes, one of the possibilities is the cessation (with unification, annexation or disunion), the other is being independent (with secession, disunion or union). Two thirds of the settlements were administrative units during the whole 20^th century, but some had been suffered two, three or even four administrative changes. There are large regional differences among the different types: in Heves, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg or Tolna counties 75-80% of the settlements were independent administrative units during the whole 20^th century, the ratio is only 45-50% in Csongrád and Vas counties. By settlement size (population) most of the administrative changes we can observe at the largest and smallest population-size categories. At the large ones secession and annexation occurs, while at the smallest categories annexation of unification. 67% of those settlements, where the population was less than 200 in 1910 lost their administrative independence during the 20^th century. Behind the statistical facts there are a lot of conflicts connecting these administrative changes. The next stage of this research can be these conflicts and reasons.