Drugie przejście demograficzne w dużych miastach w Polsce i jego implikacje
The Second Demographic Transition in Large Cities in Poland and Its Implications

Summary/Abstract: The transformations of contemporary societies, including the broadly understood modernisation, have an impact on the sociological, psychological, and demographic image of the family. The concepts explaining the transformations of matrimonial and procreation phenomena emphasise the individuality of people, their emotions, feelings, specific needs, as well as the understanding of families in terms of institutions and interests. The theory explaining contemporary changes in the areas of marriage and reproduction is the concept of the second demographic transition, formulated by Dirk van de Kaa and Ron Lesthaeghe at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. In explaining the importance of factors favouring the postponement of marriage and reproduction, reference was also made to the economic and sociological concepts of civil partnership and marriage, and the increase in preferences to limit the number of children. The article presents the changes in the forms of marriage and family life in cities, using the available statistical data in the period of 1990–2019. The aim of the study was to identify and assess changes in the area of the matrimonial and reproductive behaviour in cities in Poland, especially in large urban centres. The analysis of statistical data shows that the transformations of matrimonial and procreation phenomena vary in time and space. The results obtained from the analysis of matrimonial and reproductive phenomena in large cities confirmed the conclusions of other studies, but also provided new insights into changes in demographic behaviour. The clear disproportions in the dynamics of demographic changes in cities of various sizes, occurring at the beginning of the transformation period, are weakening. In many areas of matrimonial and reproductive changes, the pace of change is currently higher in medium-sized cities. The division of the country into the east, the south-east, the west, the and north which have been different in terms of demographic behaviour – has been confirmed for years. Nevertheless, it is the inhabitants of large urban agglomerations that assimilate new patterns of behaviour the fastest, which is why the spatial differentiation of the forms of marital and family life does not fully correspond to the above-mentioned spatial arrangement. Depopulation processes and the transformations of the demographic structure are a direct implication of contemporary population transformations related to the second demographic transition, especially in terms of unfavourable trends in the ageing of the society and low birth rate. The deepening demographic decline in most urban centres and the ageing of the society forces us to pursue an urban policy which would be focused on the challenges related to this situation. Demographic challenges are of a structural and countrywide dimension, hence they should primarily be of interest to the demographic and social policy of the state. This does not mean, however, that they cannot also be taken into account in the case of urban policy – understood as the territorial dimension of both state policies regarding urban development and development policies conducted by individual cities.

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