Demographic potential in functional areas of the selected medium-sized cities in Poland and the Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract The article presents the population problem of urban functional area around selected medium-sized cities in Poland and the Czech Republic. Research work refers to six cities (on the Polish side - Jelenia Góra, Legnica and Wałbrzych – located in Lower Silesia region; on the Czech side - Hradec Králové, Liberec and Ústí nad Labem). These core cities with suburban areas co-create the functional urban areas with varied demographic structure and development dynamics. In the analysed period, the population growth was observed only in Liberec. The largest total population among studied areas refers also to Liberec functional urban area. The population in suburban areas of the examined Polish and Czech cities is relatively younger than in the core cities. Functional approach for development of urban areas founding depart from perception of demographic problem and challenges only by prism of administrative borders becomes more important.