Demograficzne oblicza ubóstwa na polskiej wsi - perspektywa historyczna, współczesna i prognostyczna
The Demographic Faces of Poverty in Rural Poland: Historical, Contemporary and Prognostic Perspectives

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article was to analyse the relationships between demographic changes and the scale, structure, and spatial differentiation of poverty in rural areas of Poland from a historical, contemporary, and prognostic perspective. The study adopted the assumption that demographic processes - such as population ageing, depopulation, out-migration, and changes in household structure - do not merely constitute the background to poverty, but represent one of the key mechanisms of its reproduction. The analysis was based on statistical data from Statistics Poland (GUS) and Eurostat, as well as on the results of field studies and diagnostic reports conducted at the Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A research approach combining income-based measures with a multidimensional perspective on material, social, and service-related deprivation is applied. The findings indicated that contemporary rural poverty increasingly takes on a structural and territorial character, and that its intensity is closely linked to limited access to public services, transport, and energy, particularly in peripheral communes. The prognostic section demonstrated that by 2050 demographic processes may lead to a further concentration of poverty in ageing and depopulating areas. The conclusions pointed to the need to redefine anti-poverty policy in rural areas by more strongly integrating social policy with demographic, transport, energy, and local public service development policies.

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