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Small Towns Ageing—Searching for Linkages Between Population Processes

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The City in an Era of Cascading Risks

Part of the book series: City Development: Issues and Best Practices ((CDIBP))

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Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to identify the changes in relations between the natural increase and the migration balance in the small towns of Poland at the beginning of the twenty-first century and to assess their influence on the contemporary processes of population ageing. The study reportedly encompassed 670 towns, having up to 20 000 inhabitants each. Eight categories of towns were identified, differing as to the magnitudes and directions of the natural demographic processes and migrations. For these categories the changes are specified concerning the respective processes in the years 2008/2010–2015/2017. The rate of population ageing in small towns is represented with the demographic old age indicator, based on the percentage point differences between the shares of the young and old population. The analyses performed concerned four groups of towns: (1) with rejuvenating demographic structure; (2) with a slow rate of population ageing; (3) with a moderate rate of ageing; and (4) with a high rate of ageing. The results from the study confirmed the observation that the population ageing process has been intensive in almost all of the small towns in Poland. The primary factor, shaping the population potential at the beginning of the twenty-first century, was constituted by the migration outflow.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The division into four groups was adopted on the basis of the mean value of the DOA indicator (5.59) and its standard deviation (2.40).

  2. 2.

    The state-wide program, implemented since April 1st, 2016, of social character, having the purpose of assisting the families in children upbringing through the monthly allotment, disbursed per child in a family of 500 PLN.

  3. 3.

    The state-wide program, meant to assist the school-going children – constituted by the payment of 300 PLN per pupil at the start of the scholarly year.

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Acknowledgements

Publication prepared under the research projects of the National Science Centre, nb. UMO-2019/35/B/HS4/00114, Diagnosis of the contemporary socio-economic structure and functional classification of small towns in Poland - in search of model solutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Jerzy Bański

  2. Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Kielce, Poland

    Wioletta Kamińska & Mirosław Mularczyk

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  1. Jerzy Bański
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  2. Wioletta Kamińska
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Correspondence to Jerzy Bański .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Land Resources Management, China University of GeoSciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Liqin Zhang

  2. Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya

    Elizabeth Kanini Wamuchiru

  3. Regional Representation for Africa, UN-Habitat, Nairobi, Kenya

    Claude A. Meutchehe Ngomsi

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Bański, J., Kamińska, W., Mularczyk, M. (2023). Small Towns Ageing—Searching for Linkages Between Population Processes. In: Zhang, L., Kanini Wamuchiru, E., Meutchehe Ngomsi, C.A. (eds) The City in an Era of Cascading Risks. City Development: Issues and Best Practices. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2050-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2050-1_9

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