Zala county

**Zala**


Zala
County seat :	Zalaegerszeg
Surface:	3,784 km²
Residents:	275,027 as of 2016

Zala [ ˈzɒlɒ ] is a county in the southwest of Hungary . It borders Slovenia and Croatia, as well as Vas , Veszprém and Somogy counties . It has an area of 3,783.87 km² and has 275,027 inhabitants (as of the beginning of 2016). The county seat is Zalaegerszeg , other important cities are Nagykanizsa and Keszthely .

geography

The area is hilly. The Drava in the south also forms the Hungarian state border, and in the northeast the county has a small part of Lake Balaton , into which the Zala River flows.

structure

With the government ordinance No. 218/2012 of August 13, 2012, the statistical small regions (Hungarian kistérség ) were abolished on January 1, 2013 and replaced by an approximately equal number of districts (Hungarian járás ). The small areas were retained for a while for planning and statistical purposes, but were finally abolished on February 25, 2014. There were 9 small areas in the county before it was dissolved. Only the small area of Letenye remained unchanged in its borders during the reform.

Former classification

The following small areas ( kistérség ) existed in Zala county until the end of 2012

code	Small area	Administrative headquarters	Population (December 31, 2012)	Area in km²	Number of parishes	including cities
5001	Keszthely	Keszthely	34,011	349.34	16	1
5002	Lenti	Lenti	20,993	662.95	51	1
5003	Letenye	Letenye	16,413	388.69	27	1
5004	Nagykanizsa	Nagykanizsa	64,029	552.93	27	1
5005	Zalaegerszeg	Zalaegerszeg	93.201	788.65	65	2
5006	Zalaszentgrót	Zalaszentgrót	17.129	327.05	25th	1
5007	Hévíz	Hévíz	13,171	123.6	8th	1
5008	Pacsa	Pacsa	10,098	278.84	20th	1
5009	Zalakaros	Zalakaros	12,628	311.86	19th	1

Current classification

Zala county is currently divided into 6 districts (Hungarian járás ) with 109 localities. It includes the city of Zalaegerszeg with county law (Hungarian Megyei jogú város ), 10 cities without county law (Hungarian város ), 5 large municipalities (Hungarian nagyközség ) and 93 municipalities (Hungarian község ).

Counties in Zala county

Location type	number	Area (in km²)			Population on January 1, 2016			Population density (Ew / km²)
Location type	number	absolutely	proportionally	on average	absolutely	proportionally	on average	Population density (Ew / km²)
City with county law	1	96.28	2.60%		32,844	14.69%		341.1
Cities without county law	10	745.44	20.13%	74.54	92,885	41.54%	9,289	124.6
Large municipalities	5	290.90	7.86%	58.18	15,313	6.85%	3,063	52.6
Communities	93	2,570.55	69.41%	27.64	82,576	36.93%	888	32.1
Zala county as a whole	109	3,703.17		33.97	223,618		2,052	60.4

The current circles are:

code	circle	Circular seat	Residents (January 1, 2013)	Area in km²	Number of parishes	including cities
193	Keszthely	Keszthely	49,384	535.93	30th	2
194	Lenti	Lenti	19,783	624.12	48	1
195	Letenye	Letenye	16,413	388.69	27	1
196	Nagykanizsa	Nagykanizsa	78.022	907.91	49	2
197	Zalaegerszeg	Zalaegerszeg	102,553	1044.7	84	3
198	Zalaszentgrót	Zalaszentgrót	15,518	282.56	20th	1

Largest localities

City / municipality	German name	Residents (January 1, 2016)
Zalaegerszeg	Egersee	58,829
Nagykanizsa	Major churches	47,683
Keszthely	Kesthell	19,910
Lenti	Nempthy	7,756
Zalaszentgrót	Saint Geroldus	6,448
Hévíz	Heuwies	4,721
Letenye	Murstetten	4,060
Gyenesdiás ¹		2,912
Cserszegtoma ²		2,971

City / municipality	German name	Residents (January 1, 2016)
Zalalövő		2,945
Zalakomár ¹		2,912
Vonyarcvashegy ¹		2,209
Becsehely ²		2,025
Zalakaros		1.939
Sármellék ²		1804
Zalaapáti ²		1682
Murakeresztúr ²		1619
Pacsa		1610

Aerial view: Zalaegerszeg

Aerial view: Hévíz Spa

Locations without an addition are cities
¹ large municipalities ( nagyközség )
² municipalities ( község )

Population development

Population development of the county

An almost constant decrease in the population is remarkable. Dates in bold are census results.

date	population	date	population
01/01/1960 ¹	310.008	01/01/2007	293,443
01/01/1970	304.127	01/01/2008	291,678
01/01/1980	317,298	01/01/2009	290.204
01/01/1990	306,398	01/01/2010	288,591
01/01/2001	300,496	01/01/2011	287.043
02/01/2001	297,404	October 01, 2011	282.179
01/01/2002	299.112	01/01/2012	283.249
01/01/2003	297,853	01/01/2013	281,673
01/01/2004	296.705	01/01/2014	279.623
01/01/2005	295.197	01/01/2015	277.290
01/01/2006	294.175	01/01/2016	275.027

¹1960: present population; otherwise resident population

Population development of the districts

A negative population balance can be seen for all districts.

District name	Population level on January 1st
District name	2013	2014	2015	2016
Keszthely	49,384	49,280	49,072	49,040
Lenti	19,783	19,590	19,339	19.110
Letenye	16,413	16.207	15,962	15,664
Nagykanizsa	78.022	77,394	76,585	75,720
Zalaegerszeg	102,553	101,765	101.153	100,438
Zalaszentgrót	15,518	15,387	15,179	15,055
Zala county	281,673	279.623	277.290	275.027