Regional Centres and Intra-Regional Peripheral Zones in Poland

The new EU Cohesion Policy for 2021–2027 aims for inclusive and sustainable growth to address regional disparities by improving transport connectivity, digitalisation, and social inclusion, thereby reducing peripheral isolation. It is intended to provide development tools and enable investments in green and digital transitions to integrate peripheral areas more effectively with their development centres. This study assumes that, considering the EU cohesion policy objectives, regional centres (in Poland, centres of administrative territorial units named Voivodeships) should exert significant economic and social influence over their administrative regions. This aligns with both classic spatial concepts of socio-economic development and contemporary approaches to sustainable development. The research aimed to assess the extent to which regional centres are connected to their regions and their impact on the entire regional hinterland, particularly on municipalities outside the agglomeration system. The study identified municipalities that lack the influence of regional centres, creating zones with challenging socio-economic development conditions (based on the road network and the population potential of the Huff model). The analysis reveals that the highest probabilities are observed near Warsaw (Mazowieckie voivodeship; 0.7548) while the lowest are around Olsztyn (Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodeship; 0.6763). The deepest depression in terms of usage of the regional capital is observed in the Zachodniopomorskie voivodeship. In this voivodeship, municipalities in the internal peripheries have an average probability coefficient of 0.3015.