URBANIZATION IN HUNGARY AND THE CITIES OF THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN
Abstract
The urbanization process in Hungary has more special characteristics comparing to the more developed regions of Europe. First of all it had been occurred later, but there were other special characteristics as well. It happened first of all because of the special features of the cities of the Great Hungarian Plain (in Hungarian: alföldi város). The settlements give that scene, where the urbanization, this general process of society and economy occurred. In this process the structure, the occupation system, the living standards of the population had been changed. These processes are rather complex, so they are suitable to describe the complex phenomena of urbanization. Edit Lettrich made the first general research about the trends of Hungarian urbanization in the early 1960’s (Lettrich 1965, 1975). She would like to give an overview picture about the urbanization connecting with the lifestyle of the population. She chose one potential factor, the occupation structure of the population.
One important aspect of the Hungarian urbanization is the growth of the cities and towns, but an other one is more important. This one is the increasing number and portion of cities and towns, because of the administrative changes (in 2015 there are 346 cities and towns in Hungary) and the rural-urban migration. Today 69.1% of the population is urban in Hungary. Excluding Budapest this percentage is 62.6%, but in the Great Hungarian Plain is 71.2%.
So the portion of the urban population is higher in the Great Hungarian Plain, but the present situation and the changes of the settlement structure are also special here. The most important features of the special settlement structure of the Great Hungarian Plain are the next: 1. the towns of the Great Hungarian Plain (alföldi város), 2. the special type of scattered outskirt settlements (tanya). We can describe two stages in the development of the society at the Great Hungarian Plain in the last decades. In the first stage the agrarian society became industrial, in the second from industrial to service. We are now still in the second period. Another important consequence of the urbanization process in the Graet Hungarian Plain is the decline and restructuring of the tanyas. From the end of the 19th century the society of the tanyas became more independent from the towns, the connection between the tanyas and the towns became weaker, the tanyas became individual scattered settlements and not the part of the towns. The social structures also changed, the social connection between the tanyas and the towns had become much weaker.
