Human and demographic capital in peripheries of the Pilsen Region, Czechia

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to delineate remote peripheral municipalities and compare the human and demographic capital of peripheral, semi-peripheral, and central municipalities of the study area. The paper applies the concept of hierarchized remoteness peripherality – peripheral municipalities are delineated on the basis of their considerable time distance from the central towns at the micro-, meso-, and macro-regional level. First, we define micro-regional central towns on the basis of population numbers, commuters, bus and train connections, and services. Consequently, peripheral and other municipalities were delineated. Then, we evaluated the human and demographic capital of peripheral and other municipalities, simultaneously, using 10 indicators. Generally, values of human and demographic capital are increasing towards central towns. Nevertheless, almost 40% of peripheral municipalities at the micro-regional level show favourable rates. There have been improvements in the capital values in some peripheral municipalities due to the immigration of counter-urbanites and entrepreneurs in tourism, the opening of the border with Bavaria, and the stabilization of local communities.