Development regularities and specific features of geographic differentiation of population and its structure on the level of Czechia's municipalities in transformation period
Abstract
The paper is focused on the geographical differentiation of the population in Czechia between the years 1980 and 2011. Data from population censuses were adjusted in all years to the municipal structure in 2011, so an analysis of evolution on a municipal level could be undertaken.
Besides analyzing geographical differentiation of the population for different types of phenomena (demographic, social, and economic) and its evolution, we study underlying processes (such as concentration/deconcentration, convergence/ divergence) and conditional factors and mechanisms. When studying geographical differentiation, we distinguish between simple regional differentiation measured by standard statistical measures, relative regional differentiation measured by Theil index decomposition, and spatial differentiation quantified by Moran's I.
The empirical results show that the geographical differentiation of the population in the transformation period and beyond has been steadily decreasing in a majority of studied variables. Variables with increasing geographical differentiation of the population are always connected with specific conditional factors and mechanisms.
Moreover, the geographical differentiation of the population has shifed to lower geographical levels.