The master's thesis discusses the analysis of the Slovenian settlement pattern in connection with the occurrence of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the five waves of the pandemic in Slovenia. The feature of the Slovenian settlement pattern is a disperse type of settlements, which could contribute to a smaller number of infections during pandemics of infectious diseases in general. The research which embraces the sociological concept of the urban-rural dichotomy can be of help when interpreting the results of the statistical analysis. "Urban" refers to the densely populated areas, while "rural” to the sparsely populated ones. With the help of sociological theory, the research explains the importance of social distance as a geometric and at the same time metaphorical concept and is linked to the situation during the Covid-19 pandemic. The analysis aims to determine whether there is a link between population density and the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections based on the confirmed cases of coronavirus disease in Slovenia in the period from March 5, 2020 to the end of the so-called "fifth wave", i.e. March 1, 2022. We analyse the incidence of infections per 100 thousand inhabitants, according to the population density in all 212 Slovenian municipalities. On the ground of a weak relationship between the variables the hypothesis is rejected. However, some indications in the opposite direction as would be the case in theory are to be noted. Namely, there are fewer infections with Covid-19 infectious disease in urban / densely-populated areas than in rural / rarely-populated areas due to different lifestyles. The research concludes that population density does not present the key, decisive factor in the spread of Covid-19 infections.
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