Usage of the Mountain Areas in the Republic of Macedonia - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 78

7.3 Size of Villages According to Population Number
In order to have detailed and more complex realization of the population changes
of the villages which are defined as mountain villages, it is eminent to recognize
the changes that have happened in their population size. The negative tendency of
the number variation of the total population directly reflected the size of the villages
according to population number and the coverage of certain population groups of
villages.
According to the elaborated in detail data, we obtain more information about
the current changes. The main change is the one where population reduction of the
mountain areas led to reorganization of the villages according to their size and the
shift from one group to another.
From the total of 391 villages which are subject of research it is evident that
dominant villages are those small in population. The villages with a size from 1 to
300 people are most frequent and their number increased permanently. Therefore,
increase by 59.8% had been noticed in the whole analytic period. In fact, out of 174
villages in 1948, by 2002 that number increased to 278 villages which represents
71.1% of the mountain villages (Fig. 7.1 ).
Analogous to the changes in number of the total population, villages of
1-300 inhabitants in the period between 1948 and 2002, record 46% reduction
in population. Then again, a special characteristic of these villages, in terms of
Fig. 7.1 Settlements according to population size