The variety and types of goods and services can be classified into three main categories.
Low-order goods and services: These are required by people on a regular or often daily basis (e.g. bread). They are purchased from shops and premises located close to where people live.
Medium-order goods and services: These are not availed of as frequently and so people will be prepared to travel to access them (e.g. supermarkets, cinemas).
High-order goods and services: These are the luxuries that people do not purchase regularly. They need a large population to survive and are located in larger towns and cities. They include goods and services in large department stores and shopping centres (e.g. Blanchardstown Centre, Dublin).
Evaluation DID YOU KNOW?
According to Census 2016, Co. Tipperary had:
28 central places with a population of less than 500;
5 central places with a population greater than 5,000.
Christaller based his theory on a number of assumptions that exist in very few places (e.g. polders in the Netherlands).
His theory helps our understanding of: zz
zz
Issues include: zz
zz
the relationship between higher- and lower-order central places; the location of retail services in urban areas.
increasing wealth and mobility mean that rural populations can now travel further to avail of all services;
people’s shopping patterns can vary as they do not always go to the nearest centre.
A-Z
Urban hierarchy: Ranking of towns according to size and the number and types of services and functions they have access to.
Conurbation: A region comprising a number of cities, large towns and other urban areas.
Urban hierarchy
Christaller proposed that central places can be comparatively ranked in terms of size and the range of functions and services they provide to form a pyramid- shaped urban hierarchy model (Fig. 28.24).
As you go up the pyramid: zz
zz zz zz
settlement and population size increases;
the number of settlements at each level decreases; the number and variety of goods and services increases; the hinterland of each settlement increases.
Increase in size of settlement, higher population and more services
