ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the interrelationship of demography and regional and urban planning and focuses on contemporary spatial demographic issues in North-eastern Europe. The nations treated—Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Hungary, and Poland—are the most advanced Eastern European nations in terms of the industrial revolution and the demographic transition. In the planned socialist societies, the study of demography assumes a unique character, one imposed by the objectives of socialism and the requirements of comprehensive economic planning. In the planning process, the demographic components at the regional and local level must be closely interrelated to economic components of national and sectoral level plans. The demographic sciences are called upon to help identify desirable or optimal future population and settlement distribution patterns, to identify problems created by the discrepancies between current realities and desired goals, and to help form policy instruments or mechanisms to aid in achieving the goals.
