Investigations on the structure of rural inhabited localities

Abstract

The article analyses the dislocation and changes of rural inhabited localities in Lithuanian administrative territories. 247 small towns and about 18 thousand villages are attributed to rural inhabited localities. During the Soviet period, central settlements of collective farms (into which inhabitants from liquidated individual farmsteads had been moved) were among the most rapidly growing ones. The formed large settlements can be considered as the safeguard for the stability of the rural population system, because they serve other rural inhabitants as well. There were 2374 settlements with more than 100 inhabitants in them in Lithuania in 2001. However, rural inhabitants are distributed unevenly by administrative territories: the highest density of inhabitants is measured in suburban regions as well as in southern and south-eastern Lithuania, the lowest density of inhabitants – in northern and north-eastern regions of Lithuania. Correspondingly, large settlements are distributed unevenly by the area of agricultural land. In the identified problematic territories, it is necessary to regulate the decrease of rural population with the help of economical and organizational measures while creating better conditions for the work and life quality of people. Without the significant state support, the further disappearance of villages and the decrease of the number of inhabitants in eight districts of our country can have negative impact upon the land use, the growth of the agricultural production and the rural development on the whole.