POPULATION TRENDS OF THE INNER PARTS AND OUTSKIRTS OF THE HUNGARIAN SETTLEMENS BETWEEN 1960-2011

Abstract

The Hungarian settlements have a special administrative structure, as they have inner parts (built-up area) and outskirts. It is common that there are inhabited areas even at the outskirts as well. So we can divide the inhabited areas of the Hungarian settlements into two part, the inner area and the outskirts. Within the inner area there are also two groups, the central inner area and the other inner areas. The last type consists of mainly the former villages which had been incorporated to the larger settlements. The major part (94%) of the population live in the central inner parts of the settlements, but 3-3% live at the other inner parts and the outskirts. During the communist period we could see a sharp decline at the population of the outskirts, they lost more than 70% of their population between 1960 and 1990. After 1990 the population decline of the outskirts stopped, we can see a moderate increase of their population. On the other hand the population of the other inner parts started to increase rapidly after 1990, first of all because of the suburbanization. The percentage of the outskirts population in the highest in the southeastern part of Hungary, especially in Bács-Kiskun and Csongrád counties. The demographic trends of the different types of settlements at the outskirts are also different. Some of them had large decline of the population before 1990 and the situation is the same now (manors, individual farmsteads (tanya), gipsy camps). On the other hand some of the types had decline before 1990 but now we can see increase of the population (wine-hills, hobby gardens, periurban settlements, touristic resources). The location is also an important factor, the other inner parts and outskirts near the large towns have population increase now because of the suburbanization, on the other hand the other inner parts of the small towns and rural settlements still have decrease of the population.