Activity in centre zones, 1 January 2010

People are increasingly choosing to live in urban areas. It is also a political goal to utilise the urban areas as intensely as possible in order to ease the pressure on the surrounding land and at the same time minimise the need for transport.

The centre zones have become denser in recent years both with regard to residents and employees per square kilometre. While the number of employees decreased somewhat last year, the density increase continued for residents. Nevertheless, there are around twice as many employees as residents in centre zones.

High density of residents is an indicator for effective land use utilisation as well as less energy-demanding transportation. High density of residents can on the other hand indicate poor dwelling conditions, scarcity and pressure on green areas.

The density in centre zones increased by urban settlement size. There are more employees than residents per square kilometre in all group sizes. The largest cities have almost 6 times as many employees and residents per km2 compared to small urban settlements. The centre zone growth has been equally high in big cities and smaller urban settlements alike. The resident density has had the weakest growth in the big cities, and employee density has even had a slight decrease.

The different group sizes do not necessarily include the same urban settlements. Urban settlement growth can lead to a shift towards the upper group sizes and small settlements on the other hand can fall below the definition criteria and be omitted.