The development of settlement systems in Poland and Belarus has many common features such as intensive processes of industrialization and urbanization, a centrally planned development of cities, a rapid growth of importance of big cities in settlement systems.
On the other hand, one can observe significant differences: a faster transition of Polish cities to the post-industrial phase, earlier deindustrialization and gentrification processes in large cities, advanced processes of decentralization and suburbanization, as well as socio-economic development of small and medium cities in metropolitan areas. The aim of the article is to explain the impact of metropolization processes on the demographic development of the urban settlement network in Poland and Belarus. Based on the population dynamics analysis in the period 1970–2014,trends characteristic for the settlement development processes in the researched countries were distinguished. The classification of population development of Polish and Belarusian urban centers was constructed, and 4 types of urban development were distinguished: population progression, moderate growth, depopulation, and shrinking. Both countries have a positive population dynamics in small urban centers within the boundaries of functional urban centers. However, in Poland we observe a decline in the population of the central city and a concentration of population in suburban centers, while in Belarus the impact of a large urban center (Minsk, Brest) does not lead to decentralization of the population in the core of a functional urban area. In the investigated countries, unfavorable demographic trends and the occurrence of dense areas characterized by depopulation were observed in peripheral cities as well as in post-industrial centers.
