Abstract
After the Second World War the form of urban growth in Prague and Vienna begin to diverge in the consequence of different political-economic systems. Currently, the extent of metropolitan region of Vienna is more than threefold larger and the compactly build up urban area is almost fivefold larger to Prague.
On the other side population density in Prague is almost triple to Vienna. In Vienna, majority of growth since 1950 was realized in areas immediately adjacent to the city with the rest concentrated around nodes spreading to large commuting distances.
In Prague, virtually all investments during communism concentrated in the city, without any signs of suburbanization. However, since 1989, suburbanization became dominant way of urban growth taking the form of sprawl - spatially fragmented, low density development in city hinterland.