Urban-type settlement


Urban-type settlement is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the Soviet Union and later also for a short time in socialist Bulgaria and socialist Poland. It remains in use today in nine of the post-Soviet states.
The designation was used in all 15 member republics of the Soviet Union from 1922. It was introduced later in Poland and Bulgaria. All the urban-type settlements in Poland were transformed into other types of settlement in 1972. In Bulgaria and five of the post-Soviet republics, they were changed in the early 1990s, while Ukraine followed suit in 2023. Today, this term is still used in the other nine post-Soviet republics - Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. It is also used in Transnistria, an unrecognised breakaway state in Moldova.
What counts as an urban-type settlement differs between time periods and countries and often between different divisions of a single country. However, the criteria generally focus on the presence of urban infrastructure or resort facilities for urban residents.

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, the criteria of urban-type settlements were set independently by the Soviet republics. Those criteria, however, only differed very slightly from one republic to another.

Russian SFSR

In the Russian SFSR, urban-type settlements were subdivided into three types:
  • Work settlements : localities with factories, mining industry, power stations, construction industry, with population of at least 3,000 and with at least 85% of the population being workers, professionals, and the members of their families;
  • Resort settlements : localities focusing on resort and health facilities, with population of at least 2,000, with at least 50% of the average annual population being non-permanent residents;
  • Suburban settlements : settlements with a focus on private summer-time and weekend recreation, with no more than 25% of the permanent population being employed in the agricultural sector.

    Ukrainian SSR

In 1981, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR defined an urban-type settlement as follows:
"To the category of an urban-type settlement may be included any settlement located near industrial enterprises, buildings, railroad connections, hydro-technical constructions, and enterprises in production and refining of agrarian products as well as settlements that include higher or middle occupation educational establishments, science-researching institutions, sanatoria, and other stationary treatment and recreation establishments that have a state housing provided to no less than 2,000 inhabitants.
The term was introduced in Ukraine in 1920s and became official since the resolution of the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine of October 28, 1925 replacing all towns as urban-type settlement.

Modern usage

Azerbaijan

As of 2011, there were 256 urban-type settlements in Azerbaijan.

Belarus

According to a 1998 law of Belarus, there are three categories of urban-type settlement in the country:
  • Urban settlements: with population over 2,000, industrial enterprises and developed residential infrastructure.
  • Resort settlements: with population of at least 2,000, sanatoriums, resorts or other health recuperation establishments, and developed residential infrastructure.
  • Worker settlements: with population at least 500, servicing industrial enterprises, construction sites, railroad stations, electric stations, or other industrial objects.

    Georgia

As of 2014, there were 47 urban-type settlements in Georgia. Eight of them are located on the territory of the partially recognized states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and are de facto not under the control of the Georgian government.

Kazakhstan

As of 2019, there were 48 urban-type settlements in Kazakhstan.

Kyrgyzstan

In accordance with the 2008 Law on Administrative and Territorial Subdivision of Kyrgyzstan, urban-type settlements are those that comprise economically significant facilities such as industrial plants, railway stations, construction sites, etc., as well as settlements with a recreational potential with population of at least 2,000. In exceptional cases, administrative, economic and cultural centers with a potential of economical development and population growth can be classified as urban-type settlements.

Russia

Inhabited localities

In modern Russia, the task of deciding whether an inhabited locality meets the criteria of urban-type settlements is delegated to the federal subjects. In most cases, the federal subject's legislative body is responsible for all administrative and territorial changes, including granting and revoking of the urban-type settlement and town status.

Administrative divisions

Apart from being used to refer to a type of inhabited locality, the term "urban-type settlement" and its variations is also used to refer to a division of an administrative district, and sometimes to a division administratively subordinated to a city district of a city of federal subject significance. This kind of administrative division is equal in status to the towns of district significance and selsoviets, and is normally centered on an inhabited locality with urban-type settlement status. As of 2013, the following types of such entities are recognized:
As of January 1, 2018, there were 57 urban-type settlements in Tajikistan.

Turkmenistan

As of February 1, 2016, there were 76 urban-type settlements in Turkmenistan.

Uzbekistan

As of January 1, 2011, 1,065 settlements have urban-type settlement status in Uzbekistan.

Former usage

Armenia

Urban-type settlements existed in Armenia until the 1990s. Currently, all of them have been converted into cities or villages.

Baltic states

In Estonia, the urban-type settlements were created in 1945 during the Estonian SSR. In the 1990s most of them were transformed into cities.
The urban-type settlements existed in Latvia from 1949 to 1993, when they were converted into cities and rural settlements.
Lithuania formerly used the urban-type settlement system until 1995.

Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, the first urban-type settlements were formed in 1964. In the 1990s they were transformed into villages and cities.

Moldova

The urban-type settlement system was used on the territory of Moldova since 1924. In the 1990s they were converted either into cities or rural settlements. The disputed and unrecognized Transnistria continues to use this system.

Poland

The urban-type settlements were used in the Polish People's Republic from 1954 to 1972. Nowadays, Poland has cities, villages and settlements.

Ukraine

Grandfathered from the Ukrainian SSR, Ukraine formerly used the urban-type settlement system until 2023. On 24 October 2023 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Law No. 8263 that abolished the concepts of "urban-type settlement" in Ukraine. The law came into an effect on January 26, 2024. Since then, settlements that belonged to the category of urban-type settlements have been classified as settlements. The law also redefined the status of settlement, which along with a village is considered a rural populated place, but unlike a village is more populated and maybe somewhat urbanized. The law was meant to facilitate "de-Sovietization of the procedure for solving certain issues of the administrative and territorial system of Ukraine".
In 1991, there were 921 urban-type settlements in Ukraine.