ANALYSIS OF THE POLYCENTRICITY OF THE HUNGARIAN NUTS 2 REGIONS

According to the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) basic element of the competitive economic development of the European Union is the balanced regional development through to achieve a polycentric spatial structure. At present, there is only one outstanding larger geographical zone of global economic integration: the core area of the EU, the pentagon defined by the metropolises of London, Paris, Milan, Munich and Hamburg. The monocentric spatial structure describes not only the territory of the EU, but also the territories of the member states and their regions. Analysis having designated by the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network (ESPON) points out that on the basis of the Functional Urban Areas Hungary is the most polycentric member state of the EU. Theoretically it is possible to analyse NUTS 2 regions but for lack of enough data ESPON could not fulfil that. The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the polycentricity of the Hungarian NUTS 2 regions on the basis of the rank-size distribution.