Functional Regions as Bases for Provinces in Slovenia

Socio-economically based functional regions, which are partially self-contained economic areas, are often more suitable for various structural analyses, implementation of state and regional policies, development of state administration, planning and monitoring of spatial development, identification of spatial disparities and other analyses of socio-economic relations than the traditional historically and geographically based administrative regions. This article therefore examines the assumption that functional regions are a suitable basis for the formation of territorial provinces in Slovenia. We have modelled the functional regions of Slovenia according to the established and internationally accepted method CURDS and compared them with the current proposals for provinces and established statistical regions in Slovenia. The results show a very strong functional contiguity and a good economic balance of eight provinces and a very good population balance of the provinces with two special status urban municipalities.