Rural Municipalities of Slovakia With a Positive Commuting Balance

High concentration of jobs in cities and towns is accompanied by labour commuting from the rural (urban) hinterlands. It is the phenomenon that generates functional regions characterized by the relationship between an urban centre and its rural hinterland. The inverse relationship is if a rural municipality with available attractive jobs becomes the centre of the special functional region (or a centre on a lower hierarchic level) and its hinterland consists of urban and rural municipalities with labour commuting to the rural centre. The aim of the paper is to answer the question whether such inverse relationship, manifested by the rural municipality with the positive commuting balance exists in Slovakia and what is its cause. The original statistical data concerning commuting obtained from the last 2001Census has been used in this study in order to identify what is referred to as rural employment centres (more than 100 commuters, and the positive commuting balance). The paper maps, analyses and explains spatial distribution of rural employment centres in Slovakia and adds their inner characteristics