Recent developments in the Greek system of urban centres

Abstract

In this paper we examine the recent developments in the Greek system of urban centres, in order to assess the validity of the view that trends of deconcentration have been in operation during the last decade. Estimation of the rank-size distribution functions for all the postwar census years shows that concentration trends were prevalent until the early 1980s. During the last decade, however, stabilisation or even deconcentration trends have appeared with the faster development of smaller cities. This finding should not be taken as an indication of a trend reversal towards more balanced spatial development, as further analysis shows that the faster growing smaller cities are largely satellite cities of the metropolitan centres of Athens and Thessaloniki. Based on the results of regression analysis, we conclude with a discussion on the factors contributing to differential urban growth performance and the policy implications of these findings for metropolitan regions and balanced growth in Greece.