Within the European Union, Slovakia is part of the countries with the smallest share of cities. Both the EU as well as the OECD define a city as an urban centre of at least 50,000 inhabitants. Based on this definition, there are only ten cities in Slovakia, moreover, their number is further shrinking. According to the data from the Statistical Office, the western Slovak town of Prievidza was the last to disappear from the group of cities, since in the last twenty years its population has fallen below the aforementioned level. "Due to their demographic structure, the lack of job offers and problematic accessibility, not only do cities lose their population, moreover these are also ageing," the Urban Development for Slovakia by 2030 strategic document describes the situation with Slovak cities. However, according to the SME daily, this document does not offer any conceptual solutions to the trend.
Even though the cities are losing their population, it does not mean they will cease to exist, says demographer Branislav Bleha of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava. According to Bleha, the decline in the birth rate, people moving to suburban areas, and the ageing of the city population are the main factors responsible for the depopulation of cities in Slovakia.
While foreign definitions distinguish between cities and towns, Slovak knows only the term "mesto", which represents both these concepts.
