In the first years of the 20th century, Berettyóújfalu looked like as a settlement that went through significant development and urbanisation.  This trend can be seen first of all in the population growth: the population of the municipality was 5,000 at the beginning of the period, doubling by 1913. The establishment of public institutions, the boom in the economy and the press also accelerated the development of intellectual and cultural life, which was mainly reflected in the formation of social organisations. Among the organisations and associations representing a wide range of society, the most significant were the Sárrét Charitable Women’s Association, the Israelite Charitable Women’s Association, the Civic Circle, the Sárrét Folk Choir, the Firemen’s Association and the BUSE (Berettyóújfalu Sports Association), a sports club founded in 1911 under the direction of Kiss Antal, a dentist in Berettyóújfalu who was a prominent sport club organizer. As the population grew, so did the number of educational institutions. In 1914 Berettyóújfalu had one nursery school, nine Reformed, one Catholic and one Israelite elementary schools, one industrial and one economic elementary schools, and one civil school for boys. That number of schools was a good at regional and country level. In the first years of the 20th century, the number of doctors also increased, and in 1908 there were two municipal doctors, a private doctor and a dentist. On 1 December 1913, the Sárrét Lung Disease Control Association opened its first state-run health care institution in Berettyóújfalu, in the spirit of the fight against lung disease, the most serious public disease of the time. The last major innovation in public administration was the replacement of the old street names in 1901.  As a fundamental characteristic of a modern municipality, the intellectuals of Berettyóújfalu found it very important to introduce new street names instead of the old ones, which functioned as generic names, indicating street systems instead of streets. Berettyóújfalu’s development was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. There is no question that the four decades long period followed the Austro-Hungarian Compromise can be regarded as a success story for the settlement, and Berettyóújfalu became a real centre of the district named after it.