Adam Jelonek

Articles

Some problems of the demographic structure of Polish cities

Adam Jelonek

Geographia Polonica (1993) vol. 61, pp. 171-178 | Full text

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Abstract

Distribution and density of the population in a geographical space dependmainly on the geographical environment conditions, the historical-political developmentand the socio-economic functions fulfilled by this space. In the city the naturalconditions play a minor role; the functions of the particular districts are moreimportant, age and standard of housing included. In numerous geographical works achangeability and some rules of the population density within the urban space wereproved. In Poland detailed investigations of spatial demographic structures withinthe city were made by the author on the basis of the data from the 1970 and 1978National Censuses, which made it possible to distinguish the population age groups(those of 0-17, 18-59 and over 60) and the sex structure in small census units. Heanalysed over 20 cities, with populations between 6 000 and 700 000.In all considered cases the same regularities of population distribution were found,expressed by a pattern of concentric rings. The highest shares of women wereobserved in the city centre and decreased towards the city boundaries, being thelowest in the areas incorporated most recently into the city. A similar pattern wasshown by the post-productive age group, an inverted one by the pre-productive agegroup. The distribution of the productive age group was not so regular, showing thehighest shares in the rings surrounding the city centre, where the new housingestates were built.In the case of the cities of the complex morphological structure (i.e. that of Cracow,with the new district of Nowa Huta, planned at first as a separate city), this regularpattern of the concentric rings of the demographical structures is disturbed. Thereare separate concentric patterns.

Keywords: demographic structure, population density, Cracow.

Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Spatial patterns of urban demographic structures on the example of South-Polish towns

Adam Jelonek

Geographia Polonica (1984) vol. 50, pp. 55-66 | Full text

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Abstract

The spatial structure of towns has long been a common topic of interestto researchers in different fields. The problem of urban spatial structure croppedup first in studies on the physiognomy of towns and, through deepened analysesof the historical development of towns, of their gradual accretion and diversification,they gradually comprised the functional differentiation of individual city quarters.Parallel with studies on the spatial structure of immovable facilities and on thefunctional differentiation of the urban territory, the demographic line of researchin urban studies was developing too. Population size and population densitywere the demographic factors that most frequently appeared in those studies.Subsequent studies involved the age and sex structures of urban populations,their education and occupation structures (Bystroń 1915, Wąsowicz 1935, Jelonek1968. Jelonek and Werwicki 1971). On the ground of socio-cultural premises,a broad research trend known as urban social ecology has developed too (Weclawowicz1975, Zbieg 1978). An analysis and a comparison of studies in those variousresearch directions vindicate the contention that morphological and demographicphenomena in urban space are interdependent.

Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Urbanization processes and changes in the demographic region alization of Poland

Adam Jelonek

Geographia Polonica (1977) vol. 37, pp. 39-46 | Full text

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Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland

An application of factor analysis to demographic regionalization

Adam Jelonek

Geographia Polonica (1976) vol. 33 2, pp. 103-112 | Full text

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Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland