The Single-Industry Towns of Belarus:Differences in Demographic and Economic Development

Abstract

In this article we carried out an economic geographical analysis of socio-demographic and economic factors for the development ofsingle-industry towns in Belarus over the period of 2000-2013. We pinpointed the role of the single-industry towns of Belarus in thesystem of settlement, analysed some of their most significant features, namely: functional typology, structure by population size andtype of economic activity. Therefore, we introduced new typologies of single-industry towns in accordance with the dominant type ofeconomic activity and predominance of type of developed food industry. In the context of the current modern economic situation of thekey single-industry towns in Belarus, we have detected the centre-periphery polarization and also independent single-industry urbanagglomerations, whereas the peripheral single-industry towns were found dominant, which proves their issues in the context of moderndevelopment. (PDF) The single-industry towns of Belarus: Differences in demographic and economic development.