A Zipf-törvény érvényesülése a világ országaiban
Prevalence of Zipf-Law in Countries of the World

Summary/Abstract: The size-distribution of cities follows a simple rule, called the Zipf’s Law, which can be considered a special case of Pareto-distribution, where the shape parameter equals 1. In this study after a short summary of the theoretical and methodical background of the concept which has been so far missed from the Hungarian literature, the author tests for Zipf’s Law in 102 countries. Using three parametric estimation methods, my results showed that, even using the most compliant method, the Zipf’s Law only holds in 70 countries. Accordingly the Zipf’s Law is not valid generally, but in a narrow interval containing 1, the rank-size rule does hold.

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