Development of socio-spatial polarisation in Czechia

The objective of this article is to analyze the process of spatial polarization following the initial transition that took place in Czechia in the 1990s. The authors seek to verify whether the trend of spatial polarization, consisting of the selective migration of young people with higher education to the capital and accompanied by massive suburbanization in the hinterland of the capital and regional cities, continued into the period between 2011 and 2021, or how changes in this period compared to the previous 2001−2011 period. With the use of census data, the development of this polarization is monitored using indicators describing the development of the share of inhabitants and dwelling units, economic activity, demographic age, and the university-educated population for individual micro-regions. On the basis of these indicators, types of micro-regions are identified and wider areas with similar characteristics are defined. The resulting findings show that the gap between growing and shrinking micro-regions widened in the 2010s, and that the “soft” factors expressed by the proxies of demographic age and education will affect their future prosperity.