New regulations of the European cohesion policy and the Polish development policy focus on the territorial dimension of public policies. They assume a shift in managing development, from the sector approach to the territorially integrated approach. Such an approach specifically focuses on using the internal potentials of functionally defined territories and involves integrating the activities of various public entities aimed at these territories. The analysed Cracow Functional Area (CFA) has been identified in the Regional Operational Programme for the Małopolskie Voivodeship as the delimitation of interventions in the formula of Integrated Territorial Investments. CFA includes the city of Cracow and 14 adjacent communes. The article focuses on the following issues: analysis of the demographic potential of the communes included in the Cracow Functional Area; evaluation of the potential related to the entrepreneurship and economic attractiveness of the Cracow Functional Area; evaluating the financial standing of the territorial entities included in the Cracow Functional Area. The analysed data covers the period 2005–2015.