valerie j carter president ecovast international & chair ecovast uk
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Study of Smaller TownsTheir size and potential importance in Europe
Presented in POTSDAM, GermanyNovember 2010
Valerie J CarterPresident ECOVAST International
& Chair ECOVAST UK
ContextRetz conference
jointly run by ECOVAST; Lower Austria and South East England
Highlighted a real policy gap with regard to ‘small towns’
Yet small towns provide a real focus for economic, social and cultural life in their sub regions interacting with other towns as well as their hinterland of villages and the countryside
Action to Strengthen Small European Townsneeded to be backed by evidence/research
Study covered all Europe
Purpose of Study
How many people in Europe live in small towns ?do 50% of people live in large
towns/cities ?
What is a small town ?
How important are small towns ?could they have a more effective voice in
Europe
The Research
Looked at the different ranges of population split into several categories
Larger towns/cities – 3 sub categories population over 1 million
population over 250,000 but less than 1mill.
population over 50,000 but less than 250,000
Smaller towns/cities – 4 sub categories population 40,000 to 49,999
population 30,000 to 39,999
population 20,000 to 29,999
population 10,000 to 19,999
What is a ‘small town’
Study has chosen 10,000 as the lower limit SEEDA study concluded that all settlements above
10,000 provided a good range of services
supermarkets; range of shops; magnet traders; employment; secondary schools; administrative offices; cultural attractions; accessibility etc
16 rankings (by function were established)
4 main categories- Top; Upper; Middle; Lower
179 towns agreed originally
14 did not meet the functional criteria
9 ‘top’ rural towns; 22 ‘upper’ rural towns
What is a ‘small town’ 2It is not about
historic ‘towns with Charters’eg: Oxfordshire,
England has many Charter towns but more then half are now ‘villages’
Bastide towns in France
Upper limit can be decided later
Data sources
Study covered all of Europe European Unionnon European Unionexcept European Russia
Wanted a single compatible source for all countries
Tageo.com provides information for more than 2.6 million towns/cities globally
Secondary sources needed for some countriesMichelin Red Guides
Findings: Larger Towns
Spain; UK & Belarus have over 50% of their population in towns/cities over 50,000
Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Netherlands; Bulgaria; Ukraine; Serbia & Macedonia have 40-49% of their populations in towns/cities over 50,000
There are 1,341 towns/cities with populations above 50,000 with a combined population of nearly 218 million
Findings: Smaller towns
There are 5,517 towns with populations of less than 50,000440 (3.3%) pop. between 40-49,999
768 (4.4%) with pop. between 30-39,999
1,388 (5.8%) with pop. between 20-29,999
3,191 (7.5%) with pop. Between 10-19,999
Belgium; Netherlands; Switzerland; Macedonia; Finland; Portugal; Iceland have more than 20% of their towns with populations below 30,000
Graph showing different sizes of towns
Percentages of population by size bands
Rural AreasThere are 244.6 million people living in
places where the population is under 10,00041.7% of the population of Europe
Undoubtedly some of this will be ‘very small town’ settlements it will not all be rural populations
Difficulties of comparable data sourcesSome additional work needs to look into
thispossibly for one or two countriesagreement would need to be made on what
constitutes a ‘town’
Further study – very small towns
Germany - additional 899 ‘towns’ below 10,000 population 44% of all German towns
462 between 5.000 & 9,999 pop.
437 below 5,000 pop.
Population 4,802,148 5% of the population of
Germany
Further study – very small townsVery small towns
in FrancePopulations of
Sous Prefecturesby definition
administrative centres – a functional criteria of a ‘town’
150 SP’s
30% less than 10,000 populations
some only 1,500
Conclusions
The average ‘urban’ population across Europe in places of over 50,000 is 37.2%
More than 80% of the towns in Europe are below 50,000 population1,388 towns are between 20,000 and 29,999
3,191 towns are between 10,000 and 19,999
Together these small towns have a population of more than 77 million 13.3% of the population of all Europe
larger than all European countries except Germany
Conclusions 2
These 77 million people should have a much stronger voice
Many are run by strong municipalities
They should work together to influence European politicians
They could help shape future policyAnd avoid a total dominance of an
urban based approach
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