Living conditions in Poland:

Population in Poland – 38 million people in 2004year

Population

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

Population at age

pre-working post-working

per 100 persons at working age

Migration of population

-250

-200

-150

-100

-50

0

50

100

150

200

250

1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

in t

ho

us

an

ds

urban areas

rural areas

net internal migration

net international migration

urban areasrural areas

Migration of population (for permanent residence) in 1950-2003

Population by sex and age:

2003Grand total Urban areas Rural areasGrandtotal

Males

females

total Of whichfemales

Total Of whichfemales

In percent (%)

Age

30-34 6.7 7.0 6.4 6.7 6.3 6.6 6.4

35-39 6.3 6.6 6.0 6.2 6.0 6.5 6.240-44 7.2 7.5 7.0 7.3 7.2 7.1 6.645-49 8.2 8.3 8.0 8.8 8.8 7.2 6.750-54 7.5 7.5 7.5 8.2 8.3 6.3 6.255-59 5.1 5.0 5.3 5.6 5.8 4.4 4.560-64 4.1 3.8 4.4 4.3 4.6 3.8 4.065-69 4.1 3.6 4.6 4.2 4.6 4.1 4.570-74 3.7 3.1 4.3 3.6 4.2 3.9 4.675-79 2.7 1.9 3.4 2.5 3.2 3.0 3.880-84 1.5 0.9 2.0 1.3 1.8 1.7 2.385&more

0.8 0.5 1.2 0.8 1.1 0.9 1.2

(Statistical Year-Book, 2004)

The statistical Polish citizen is 35 years old. The half of population is in the age to 35 and theanother half is after this age. What`s more, women are older than men. Older persons' number isincreasing systematically in the general population in Poland. Is being estimated, that 11% of thecommunity in Poland these are persons over 65 of year of the life, and so Poland has already exceededthe 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 livesmainly in case of women. The number of live births is smaller and smaller from 10 years. In 2004year there were 350 live births (in thousands). And the number of deaths was 365, of whichinfants: 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

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

live

bir

ths

per

100

0 w

om

en

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 years

Fertility

1983 1988 1993 1998 2003

Live births

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

in thous.

1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002

Live births by birth order in 1970-2003

fifth and over

fourth

third

second

first

Marriages contracted and dissolved (in thous.)

Marriages contracted : 195.4 Marriages dissolved : 210.7 By death : 162.1 By divorce: 48.6Difference between contracted anddissolved marriages:-17.2(Statistical Year-Book, 2004).

Marriages contracted in 1946-2003

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

200

in thous.

1946 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Marriages contracted in 1946-2003

urban areas rural areas

Contracted and dissolved marriages

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

in thous.

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Excess of contracted marriages above dissolved in 1970-2003

urban areas rural areas

Divorces in 1946-2003

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

in thous.

1946 1951 1956 1961 1966 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Divorces in 1946-2003

urban areas rural areas

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 peoplechoose living in concubinages and they don`t want to get married. Amount of divorces alsoincreased. In addition, newlyweds are older than a few years ago and what`s more, couplesdecide on their first child in older age than their parents. Polish young couples don`t want to havemany children nowadays. They decide on one or two children.

Population by educational level Educational levelTotalTertiary Post-

secondarySecondary Basic

vacationalprimary Incompleted

primary

Unknowneducationallevel

In percent100 9.9 3.2 28.3 23.2 29.8 3.6 2.0100 9.3 1.6 26.0 30.1 28.0 3.0 2.0100 10.4 4.6 30.4 16.9 31.4 4.3 2.0100 13.2 3.9 33.5 20.4 23.9 2.3 2.8

Specification

TotalMales

emalesUrban areasRural 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. AfterPolish social and political transformation in 1989 year there are more schools including privateschools. Young people also more often realize how important education is and they try to get thebest education they can and often they graduate with master degree. What`s more, I notice that inPoland the educational possibilities are for people at every age. Adults could improve theirqualifications on different kinds of courses and also elderly people could take part in classes forexample 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 sexTotal (in thous.) –2970,9men- 1387,1women- 1583,8Unemployment: in % of economically activepopulation- 19.4 (Statistical Year-Book, 2004).

Age of unemployed:15-17 0.1% unemployed18-24 34.5% unemployed25-34 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 aretalking 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.): 37812,7Of 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 homelessnessIt 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).

AgeIn this population prevail people at the age of ability of livingindependence, being at stage of the greatest occupational activity. It isobserved that homeless people are getting younger.Poland 2000To 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 statusThe research of marital status and child- bearing prove that the homeless had either difficultieswith 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/spinstersand divorced men/women.Research in 2000Bachelor/spinster 45,5%Married men/women 10,2%Divorced men/women 35,6%Widower/widow 4,5%Others 4,2% (Stankiewicz, 2002).

EducationThe opinion of the public that the homeless are lower educated doesn’t confirm. According toHenryk Gąsior’s research among the studied group: 44% of the homeless have primaryeducation, 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 vocationaltraining education (Stankiewicz, 2002).

Source of incomeHomelessness and having no place to live doesn’t mean having no sources of income. 74.8% ofthe 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