Recent developments in the Greek system of urban centres

In this paper we examine the recent developments in the Greek system of urb an centres, in order to assess the validity of the view that trends of deco ncentration have been in operation during the last decade. Estimation of th e rank-size distribution functions for all the postwar census years shows t hat concentration trends were prevalent until the early 1980s. During the l ast decade, however, stabilisation or even deconcentration trends have appe ared with the faster development of smaller cities. This finding should not be taken as an indication of a trend reversal towards more balanced spatia l development, as further analysis shows that the faster growing smaller ci ties are largely satellite cities of the metropolitan centres of Athens and Thessaloniki. Based on the results of regression analysis, we conclude wit h a discussion on the factors contributing to differential urban growth per formance and the policy implications of these findings for metropolitan reg ions and balanced growth in Greece.