Prešov Region


The Prešov Region, also Priashiv Region is one of the eight Slovak administrative regions and consists of 13 districts and 666 municipalities, from which 23 have a town status. The region was established in 1996 and is the most populous of all the regions in the country. Its administrative center is the city of Prešov.

Geography

It is located in the north-eastern Slovakia and has an area of 8,975 km². The region has a predominantly mountainous landscape. The subdivisions of TatrasHigh Tatras and Belianske Tatras lie almost entirely in the region and include the highest point of Slovakia – Gerlachovský štít. Other mountain ranges and highlands in the region are Šarišská vrchovina, Čergov, Ondavská vrchovina, Slanské vrchy, Pieniny, Levoča Hills, Laborecká vrchovina, Bukovské vrchy, Vihorlat Mountains and Eastern Slovak Lowland. The basins in Prešov Region are Podtatranská kotlina, Hornadská kotlina and Košice Basin.
Major rivers in the region include the Poprad in the west, which is the only major Slovak river in the Baltic Sea watershed, a small part of Hornád in the south-west, a small part of Dunajec in the north, the Torysa in the centre and the Ondava and Laborec in the east. As for administrative divisions, the region borders on the Lesser Poland and Subcarpathian voivodeships in Poland in the north, Zakarpattia Oblast of Ukraine in the east, Košice Region in the south, Banská Bystrica Region in the south-west and Žilina Region in the west.

Demographics

The population density in the region is 90.8 inhabitants per km², which is below the country's average. The largest towns are Prešov, Poprad, Humenné, Bardejov and Snina. According to the 2011 census, there were 814,527 inhabitants in the region, with a majority of Slovaks, with minorities of Roma, Rusyns and there are small minorities of Ukrainians and Czechs.

Administrative division

The Prešov Region consists of 13 districts. There are 666 municipalities, of which 23 are towns, where about half of the region's population live.