Peripheral municipalities are defined in the article based on their substantial time remoteness from higher settlement centres. Inside the catchment region of these centres, on the continuum: higher settlement centre – periphery, the zone of the remote peripheral municipalities, and zone of semi-peripheral and suburban municipalities can be distinguished. The human capital of municipalities in these zones is evaluated and compared subsequently in the article. This is necessary because the low human capital of peripheral municipalities is often due to their remoteness. In addition, the remoteness and low level of human capital require different mitigating and stimulating instruments and measures. The assumption of low level of human capital in peripheral municipalities can only be partially confirmed – only one third of the peripheral municipalities in South Bohemia report significantly unfavourable values of human capital indicators. The level of the human capital in some peripheral municipalities improves thanks to tourism, counter-urbanization, quality municipality management and government instruments and measures specified in the article. •Peripheral municipalities should be delimited by considerable time remoteness from commuting towns.•This delineation is necessary to distinguish problems of remoteness and low (human) capital.•Peripheral municipalities have low human capital compared to semi-peripheral and especially suburban municipalities.•However, some peripheral municipalities have a high human capital due to specific factors.•The effects of remoteness need to be mitigated mainly in municipalities located both on micro- and mezzo-regional periphery.