REGIONAL CENTRES IN THE GLOBAL SPACE: POPULATION OR FUNCTION?

Large cities are of primary importance in the global settlement network in the 21th century. They have strong functions in the field of finance, culture and politics, the population of them is increasing dynamically than their countries population. However their position is not unambiguous. Mostly in the British and American literature the global cities are being considered as regional centres but in Europe and especially in Hungary the regional structure is distinctly different, so the definition of the regional centres are also different.