The economic importance of cities and a comparison of the development of the largest slovenian cities with selected cities in the european union

Mesta privabljajo različne skupine ljudi, pri tem tudi visoko izobražene. Razlog temu pripišemo boljšim zaposlitvenim in družbenim priložnostim kot so na podeželju. Tako se izkoriščajo potenciali posameznikov, podjetja pa lažje najdejo ustrezno delovno silo in druge produkcijske dejavnike, kar vodi k inovacijam ter višji produktivnosti. Prednost pa predstavlja tudi lokacija mesta in ukvarjanje z dejavnostjo, ki je prilagodljiva na dolgi rok. Produktivnost je tako glavni dejavnik gospodarske rasti mest. Značilno je tudi, da manjša mesta dosegajo višjo produktivnost in rast kot velika mesta. Izzivi, ki nastajajo v urbanih središčih, so stanovanjska problematika, staranje in segregacija prebivalstva ter izzivi podnebnih sprememb. V diplomskem delu smo na osnovi podatkov Eurostata in OECD podrobneje analizirali izbrane kazalnike razvitosti in anketne zaznave meščanov za glavna in prva oziroma druga največja mesta držav članic EU za leta 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2018 in 2019 ter primerjali razvitost Maribora in Ljubljane z ostalimi opazovanimi mesti. Ugotovili smo, da sta slovenski mesti leta 2015 beležili eno izmed višjih stopenj brezposelnosti, skozi analizirano obdobje pa sta beležili tudi relativno visoko stopnjo odvisnosti starejših in nizko stopnjo odvisnosti mladih. Ljubljana in Maribor sodita med najvarnejša mesta EU, vendar je pri tem Ljubljana skozi leta poslabšala svoj relativni položaj. V Ljubljani se je v analiziranih letih 2011 in 2015 glede na leto 2008 BDP na prebivalca zmanjšal, v letu 2018 pa je bil BDP na prebivalca med analiziranimi leti najvišji. Pri tem je ustvarjala višji BDP na prebivalca kot nekatera več milijonska mesta, kot sta na primer Berlin ali Barcelona.Cities attract different groups of people, including the highly educated. This is due to better employment and social opportunities than in rural areas. This unlocks the potential of individuals and makes it easier for companies to find the right labour and other factors of production, leading to innovation and higher productivity. There is also the advantage of being located in a city and being able to engage in an activity that is flexible in the long term. Productivity is thus a major factor in the economic growth of cities. It is also typical for smaller cities to achieve higher productivity and growth than larger cities. Challenges arising in urban centres include housing, population ageing and segregation, and the challenges of climate change. In this thesis, we analyse selected development indicators and citizens\u27 survey perceptions for the main and first and second largest cities of the EU Member States for the years 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2019 on the basis of Eurostat and OECD data, and compare the development of Maribor and Ljubljana with the other observed cities. We found that the two Slovenian cities had one of the highest unemployment rates in 2015 and also had relatively high dependency rates among the elderly and low dependency rates among the young throughout the period analysed. Ljubljana and Maribor are among the safest cities in the EU, but Ljubljana\u27s relative position has worsened over the years. Ljubljana\u27s GDP per capita decreased in the analysed years 2011 and 2015 compared to 2008, while in 2018 it was the highest among the analysed years. It had a higher GDP per capita than some cities with millions of inhabitants, such as Berlin or Barcelona