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