SMALL SUCCESS TOWNS AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF 2040

Small towns of up to 20 thousand inhabitants account for roughly 80% of towns in Poland. One can distinguish among them the ones that have achieved a success in terms of socio-economic development. They are characterized by a positive course of the socio-economic processes, shaping high level and quality of life of the residents and stimulating the development of the spatial structure, featuring the above-average achievements against the background of the population of towns in Poland. The purposes of this report are to identify and characterize these towns of success and to attempt to cognize the opinions of their administrative authorities on the subject of selected development challenges, faced by them in the perspective of more than a dozen years to come. A set of diagnostic features was used to identify the success towns. On the other hand, the establishment of the opinions, concerning the development challenges, was performed on the basis of a questionnaire, addressed at the representatives of urban authorities. The study has shown that the successful centers concentrate in the vicinities of a couple of regional capitals. The output from the questionnaire-based survey generally indicates the optimism of the representatives of the analyzed towns, featuring a positive opinion as to the direction of the proposed socio-economic and environmental trends and a positive opinion on the potential influence thereof on the town.