Living conditions in Poland:
Population in Poland –
38 million people in 2004year
Population
80
Population at age
70
pre-working post-working
per 100 persons at working age
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
Migration of population
Migration of population (for permanent residence) in 1950-2003
1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000
250
net international migration
200
urban areas
150 rural areas
100
in thousands
50
0
-50
-100
-150
-200 net internal migration
urban areas
-250 rural areas
Population by sex and age:
Age 2003
Grand total Urban areas Rural areas
Grand Mal fem total Of which Total Of which
total es ales females females
In percent (%)
6.7 7.0 6.4 6.7 6.3 6.6 6.4
30-34
35-39 6.3 6.6 6.0 6.2 6.0 6.5 6.2
40-44 7.2 7.5 7.0 7.3 7.2 7.1 6.6
45-49 8.2 8.3 8.0 8.8 8.8 7.2 6.7
50-54 7.5 7.5 7.5 8.2 8.3 6.3 6.2
55-59 5.1 5.0 5.3 5.6 5.8 4.4 4.5
60-64 4.1 3.8 4.4 4.3 4.6 3.8 4.0
65-69 4.1 3.6 4.6 4.2 4.6 4.1 4.5
70-74 3.7 3.1 4.3 3.6 4.2 3.9 4.6
75-79 2.7 1.9 3.4 2.5 3.2 3.0 3.8
80-84 1.5 0.9 2.0 1.3 1.8 1.7 2.3
85& 0.8 0.5 1.2 0.8 1.1 0.9 1.2
more
(Statistical Year-Book, 2004)
The statistical Polish citizen is 35 years old. The half of population is in the age to 35 and the
another half is after this age. What`s more, women are older than men. Older persons' number is
increasing systematically in the general population in Poland. Is being estimated, that 11% of the
community in Poland these are persons over 65 of year of the life, and so Poland has already exceeded
the threshold of demographic old age.
Life expectancy at birth:
Males- 71 age
Females- 79 age
Fertilyty rates in Poland : 1.2
Urban areas : 1.1
Rural areas : 1.4
(Statistical Year-Book, 2004)
It is possible to observe the drop in the birth-rate and lengthening the average length of lives
mainly in case of women. The number of live births is smaller and smaller from 10 years. In 2004
year there were 350 live births (in thousands). And the number of deaths was 365, of which
infants: 2,5 (in thousands). The natural increase was about –14.
• Figures concerning mortality are regularly
improving and exert a positive impact expectation
on life.
• It is projected that men will reach the average age
of 70.2 years while women-78.4 years, that is
approx.4 years and over 3 years more,
accordingly, than in 1991.
• The difference between expectation on life of men
and women in Poland is large (over 8 years), while
the European average is 5-6 years.
• Also, the age that people in Poland live up to is
below the level recorded in Scandinavian
countries and in Western Europe (for women- by
4-5 years, for men-by 6-7 years) (Central
Statistical Office, 2003).
Fertility
200
180
Fertility
160
1983 1988 1993 1998 2003
140
live births per 1000 women
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 years
Live births
in thous. Live births by birth order in 1970-2003
800 fifth and over
fourth
700
third
second
600
first
500
400
300
200
100
0
1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002
Marriages contracted and
dissolved (in thous.)
Marriages contracted : 195.4
Marriages dissolved : 210.7
By death : 162.1
By divorce: 48.6
Difference between contracted and
dissolved marriages:
-17.2(Statistical Year-Book, 2004).
Marriages contracted in 1946-
2003
in thous. Marriages contracted in 1946-2003
200
urban areas rural areas
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1946 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
Contracted and dissolved
marriages
in thous.
80
Excess of contracted marriages above dissolved
in 1970-2003
60
urban areas rural areas
40
20
0
-20
-40
1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Divorces in 1946-2003
in thous.
45
Divorces in 1946-2003
40
urban areas rural areas
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1946 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001
Families and children in families
Families (in thous.)- total 10457,6; urban areas 6596,9; rural areas 3860,7
Families (in thous.):
Marriages without children 2369,8
Marriages with children 5860,3
Cohabiting couples without children 86,7
Cohaboting couples with children 110,7
Lone mothers with children 1798,3
Lone fathers with children 231,8
Children in families (in thous.):
Total - 14245,0
Of which dependents up to age 24- 10808,7 (Statistical Year-Book, 2004).
I can notice that in Poland there are less marriages than a few years ago. More often people
choose living in concubinages and they don`t want to get married. Amount of divorces also
increased. In addition, newlyweds are older than a few years ago and what`s more, couples
decide on their first child in older age than their parents. Polish young couples don`t want to have
many children nowadays. They decide on one or two children.
Population by educational level
Total Educational level Unknown
Tertiary Post- Secondary Basic primary Incompleted educational
Specification secondary vacational primary level
In percent
Total 100 9.9 3.2 28.3 23.2 29.8 3.6 2.0
Males 100 9.3 1.6 26.0 30.1 28.0 3.0 2.0
emales 100 10.4 4.6 30.4 16.9 31.4 4.3 2.0
Urban areas
100 13.2 3.9 33.5 20.4 23.9 2.3 2.8
Rural areas
100 4.2 1.9 19.6 28.0 39.7 5.9 0.7
Statistical Year-Book, 2004)
Polish people have much better possibilities to get a good education than in the past. After
Polish social and political transformation in 1989 year there are more schools including private
schools. Young people also more often realize how important education is and they try to get the
best education they can and often they graduate with master degree. What`s more, I notice that in
Poland the educational possibilities are for people at every age. Adults could improve their
qualifications on different kinds of courses and also elderly people could take part in classes for
example at University of the Third Age.
Women and men on the labour
market
• Population at the working age comprise women
aged 18-59 years and men aged 18-64 years.
• People aged 0-17 years constitute a group of
persons at the pre-working age, while women aged
60 years or more and men aged 65 years or more
belong to a post-working age group.
Working and non-working age
population:
• Pre-working age (in thous.) - 8350
Males - 4276
Females – 4074
Urban areas – 4645
Rural areas – 3705
• Working age (in thous.) – 24039
Of which of mobility age- 15265
Males- 12337
Females- 11702
Urban areas –1534
Rural areas- 8696
• Post-working age (in thous.)- 5802
Males- 1874
Females- 3928
Urban areas-3526
Rural areas- 2276
Population by economic age
groups
Men and women by economic
activity
Unemployed rate by gender and
educational level
The unemployed by sex
Total (in thous.) –2970,9
men- 1387,1
women- 1583,8
Unemployment: in % of economically active
population- 19.4 (Statistical Year-Book, 2004).
Age of unemployed:
15-17 0.1% unemployed
18-24 34.5% unemployed
25-34 27.4% unemployed
35- 44 25.3% unemployed
45- 54 10.7% unemployed
55 years or more 2% unemployed (Stankiewicz, 2002)
Unemployment rate in different
areas in Poland
Wages and salaries
Poverty – 3,5 mln in poverty, 2 mln in deep poverty
Women`s unemployment expands the poverty of Polish families, especially if we are
talking of the families of single parents, where 90% of them are single mothers.
Households and population in households by socio-economic groups
Total (in thous.): 37812,7
Of employees- 16349,9 (43.3%); urban areas 50.1%, rural areas 32.3%.
Of employees-farmers- 1602,7 (4.2%); urban areas 0.6%, rural areas 10%.
Of farmers- 2377,8 (6.3%); urban areas 0.4%, rural areas 15.6%.
Of the self-employed -2831,3 (7.5%); urban areas 8.7%, rural areas 5.5%.
Of retirees -6955,4 (18.4%); urban areas 19.3%, rural areas 17%.
Of pensioners- 4316,5 (11.4%); urban areas 10.6%, rural areas 12.7%.
Maintained from non-earned sources other than retirement pay and pension- 2161,7 (5.7%);
urban areas 5.9%, rural areas 5.5%.
Maintained from incomes from owning- 42,6 (0.1%); urban areas 0.1%, rural areas 0.1%.
Remaining as dependents- 1174,8 (3.1%); urban areas 4.3%, rural areas 1.3%.(Statistical Year-
Book, 2004).
Homeless people -250 thousand; according to NGOs - 0,5 mln;
Gender
- men 79.8%
- women 21.2% (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Existence of homelessness
It is possible to state that with 70% homeless people this time lasts over a year.
Less than 3 months – 8,3%
3 months – 1 year – 24,9%
1 year – 5 years – 44,6%
more than 5 years – 22,2% (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Age
In this population prevail people at the age of ability of living
independence, being at stage of the greatest occupational activity. It is
observed that homeless people are getting younger.
Poland 2000
To 25 – 8,5%
26-30 – 10%
31-40 – 25%
41-50 – 35,3%
51-60 – 10,6%
61-65 – 8,8%
65 and more – 1,6% (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Civil status
The research of marital status and child- bearing prove that the homeless had either difficulties
with living in the society, and also in smaller social group, that is a family.
Two groups, according to marital status, dominate among homeless people: bachelors/spinsters
and divorced men/women.
Research in 2000
Bachelor/spinster 45,5%
Married men/women 10,2%
Divorced men/women 35,6%
Widower/widow 4,5%
Others 4,2% (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Education
The opinion of the public that the homeless are lower educated doesn’t confirm. According to
Henryk Gąsior’s research among the studied group: 44% of the homeless have primary
education, 40% vocational training education, 15% secondary education, 1% higher education.
As a result we can see that among homeless people dominate those with primary and vocational
training education (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Source of income
Homelessness and having no place to live doesn’t mean having no sources of income. 74.8% of
the homeless got money fro social service and working.
-occasional job
-pension
-retirement
-social assistance (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Penalty
According to Piekut-Brodzka’s research, about 40% of the homeless were punished.
Olsztyn research in 2000 showed that 68% of questioned people had broken the law
-thefts 28%
-not paying alimony 22%
-fights 4%
-killing attempt 4%
-other 10%
Part of the homeless were sent to penal institution several times for many different kinds of
crimes, mostly thefts. They admit that they broke the law before winter as there is warmth and
food in prison (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Illnesses, addictions
-alcohol and drug abuse 45-70%
-most illnesses are caused by alcohol abusing, but also by chilling the organism.
-mental illnesses (depression) (Stankiewicz, 2002).
Homelessness is a social problem of extreme character and in its consequences the most
tragic. Homelessness is a social complex phenomenon and a personal state of a homeless person.
Thank you