Demographic Development of Settlements in the South Banat County / District

Abstract

The demographic development of Vojvodina settlements takes place in accordance with the laws of the urbanization process, which is manifested in two phases: the first - after the Second World War until the beginning of the 80's of the 20th century, which is characterized by a polycentric polarization, and the second – monocentric polarization, which is still present. Since the settlements leave a fundamental mark on the cultural landscape and are the main carriers of the functional organization and focal transformation of geospace, the paper analyzes spatial-demographic and functional determinants of development of the settlement network of the South Banat County (district) on the basis of quantitative and qualitative indicators. The settlement network includes 94 settlements distributed on the territory of 8 municipalities: Pančevo1, Vršac, Kovin, Alibunar, Bela Crkva, Kovačica, Opovo and Plandište. The time period of the analysis and statistical survey of demographic components in the settlement network is observed through three inter-census periods, as follows: 1981-1991, 1991-2002 and 2002-2011. The analysis of demographic components has indicated that two poles of population concentration dominate within the network of settlements in this district: Pančevo (a sub-centre of the Belgrade - Novi Sad metropolitan area) and Vršac in comparison to other urban centres and the municipality centres.