Review article
The Effect of Transport Accessibility on Population Number and Ageing in the County of Međimurje from 1991 to 2021
Ivo Turk
orcid.org/0000-0001-6090-1327
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Rebeka Mesarić Žabčić
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb, Croatia
Nikola Šimunić
; Institute for Spatial Planning of Lika-Senj County, Gospić, Croatia
Abstract
Međimurje County is one of Croatian counties with less pronounced unfavorable demographic indicators. It is the smallest Croatian county in size which, for Cratian terms, has the above average population density. The aim of this paper is to establish in which way travel time accessibility by road transport, in regards to County center Čakovec, affects the change in population number and population ageing. The research was carried out for the period from the density maximum (1991) to the last population census (2021), with only the first results of the last census on the number of inhabitants by settlements available at the time of writing, as well as the composition of the population by age and gender at the level of Croatia and its counties. Therefore, the population ageing analysis (which includes the level of settlements) was done according to the 2011 census. The area of Međimurje County is divided into 8 travel time accessibility zones by isochrones of 5 minutes in regards to Čakovec. The analysis of the intensity of depopulation in the GIS environment showed a trend of its increase with the decrease of travel time accessibility in regards to Čakovec. Generally, this means that, with some deviations, the intensity of depopulation is higher in less accessible (traffic-isolated) areas of the County. The analysis of the ageing index did not show a trend of increasing the population ageing by reducing the travel time accessibility in regards to Čakovec.
Keywords
deperipherisation; depopulation; Međimurje County; transport accessibility; population ageing
Hrčak ID:
289355
URI
Publication date:
11.12.2022.
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