EN
The social infra-structure of a region is made of the totality of installations and institutions, sendering social, cultural and educational services, providing for peoples' needs of individual character. This article presents spatial differentiation of four basic sections of the social infra-structure, constituting its so - called narrow range, namely: education, medical service and social welfare, culture as well as physical culture and recreation. The analysis of the present state of the above mentioned installations in the Suwałki Province indicates that the needs of the province's population have been provided for only partially. The distribution of the infra-structure institutions is uneven and not always correlated to the distribution of population. There is also a substantial shortage of staff, technical equipement, buildings etc. Physical culture and recreation is a particularly neglected section. The basic problem in creating a network of the social infra-structure installations is the question of optimum concentration. High degree of concentration has its profits resulting in existence of big institutions concentrating qualified staff and fixed assets. On the other hand, scattering may have its advantage in simpler accessability of individual institutions. Assumptions of optimum concentration are different for individual types of installations and institutions, e.g. elementary education should be more scattered than institutions of socondary and higher education. The degree of concentration of the social infra-structure should be to a great extent subjected to the local conditions, with a particular reference to the transportation conditions. In the present spatial structure of the social infra-structure of the Suwałki Priovince, three types of cetntres can be distinguished with regard to kinds and range of services rendered, namely: village, community and town centres. Transformation of this structure connected first of all with the changes in the administrative division (creation of the Suwałki Province) consists mainly in increasing the role of the community centres which are to concentrate services providing for the basic needs of the community population. Town centres, on the other hand, should concentrate specialistic services like e.g. hospital service or elementary education. In that group of centres a special role should be played by Suwałki as a centre assembling the most specialistic services, covering the whole province.