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• Development characteristics of small villages in Hungary after the turn of the millennium

  48-57

  Lajos Kurucz

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  The aim of the study is to describe some characteristic features of Hungarian small villages. Based on a literature review, the topic of a comparative analysis of settlements with different populations has been the subject of research in Hungary for about half a century. Laws had been enacted since the 1970s to reduce the spatial differences. However, despite the national's intention, the differences between the individual regions and settlement groups continued to increase. This is also reflected in the fact that under the current development policy legislation – Government Decree 290/2014. (XI. 26.) – small villages have a higher than average chance of being included in disadvantaged districts. The aim of my study is to outline the situation of municipalities with a population of less than half a thousand people by analyzing statistical data and presenting the results of my own questionnaire survey. These municipalities make up more than a third of the Hungarian settlements population, while their population just only 2.2% of the national population. In the course of the analysis, I focus primarily on demographic processes and the development of communal infrastructure. These developments (sewage network, pipeline gas supply) could highly improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of small settlements. Despite all these investments, emigration is significant due to the lack of jobs, as a result of which the aging of local society continues. The importance of the regional embeddedness of the settlements is shown by the fact that while the situation of the small settlements of Veszprém, Vas and Zala county can be said to be relatively favorable, the small villages of Baranya, Somogy and Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén can be considered disadvantaged in almost all indicators.