Indicator: People Concentration Index

The concentration-per-population index is the Gini index. High values of the indicator show a high spatial concentration of flows, and low values show a low spatial concentration of flows in a given region.
The spatial concentration in the people basket varies greatly by flow. It is natural to have a strong spatial concentration for the flow of air passengers. Apart from the largest hubs, which are characterized by a large diversification of air connections, most of the smaller airports serve several or a dozen directions, so naturally the flows in these regions are strongly concentrated in space. In the rest of the regions that do not have an airport, there is no concentration at all in this flow, for lack of flows. In turn, labour mobili-ty, which is characterized by a strong spatial concentration, is a feature of most of the regions. Because of the above, the spatial differentiation of concentration, unlike with air passengers, is relatively small. Situations where the spatial differentiation of concentration is observed can be interpreted as hidden (unrecorded) migration to more geographically distant regions. On the other hand, there are migrations and tourism within the basket where differences in the spatial concentration of the abovementioned flows are clearly visible throughout the ESPON space. For migration, flows are strongly concentrated in the Scandinavian countries, as well as in Greece and Central and Eastern Europe, mainly south of Po-land in the group of smaller countries, i.e. Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, and Slovenia. These are countries characterized by short migration distance, mainly internal to a small number of regions. In turn, Poland, Romania, and Latvia, as well as Andalusia and Catalonia, are characterized by low concentration and high dispersion of mainly international migration. In many countries the concen-tration is clearly higher in areas around major centres (mainly capitals) than in the core city itself. This means that the main city remains the most important migration destination for its surroundings while at the same time itself remaining in a system of multidirectional migration relations. This can be interpret-ed as large centres functioning as "migration gates" for adjacent areas. The reason is probably that large cities (also in peripheral areas) function in pan-European network systems, because of the concentra-tion of international institutions and corporations in them (movement of skilled professionals). In the case of tourism, highly concentrated flows are visible also in Scandinavia and Ireland, as well as the Baltic States, Slovakia, Romania, and Bulgaria. In turn, strongly spatially dispersed flows are the domain of regions located in the European core, with a clear difference along the French-Belgian and French-German border. The French are strongly spatially concentrated in their tourism decisions, while Belgians or Germans have more diversified tourist destinations.
The synthetic matrix for the people basket shows a clear concentration of flows in Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Benelux countries, Lithuania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Greece. On the other hand, dis-persed flows in the people basket are the domain of Latvia, Catalonia, and Valencia, as well as central and northern Italy. Low concentrations are also found in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, especially in western Poland and northern Romania. Clearly higher dispersion of flows is observed in capital re-gions (Warsaw, Paris, Prague) and less in their immediate surrounding regions. The box-plot analysis shows a higher concentration in the people basket in non-EU countries, e.g. Norway, Great Britain, and Switzerland. The higher spatial concentration of flows in the people basket also affects rural regions (low total FUA populations). More-urbanized regions create networks of connections to a greater extent and are not so dependent on connections with individual regions. Among macroregions, the Batlic Sea macroregion is characterized by a higher concentration of flows, although it is also quite spatially diver-sified, because Latvia and Poland, as well as Mecklenburg, are regions with rather dispersed people flows.