SMALL-TOWN DEPOPULATION IN THE WIELKOPOLSKIE VOIVODESHIP, POLAND
SMALL-TOWN DEPOPULATION IN THE WIELKOPOLSKIE VOIVODESHIP, POLAND

Summary/Abstract: Driven by labour resources, entrepreneurship and labour market aspects, demographic conditions form an important factor of socio-economic development. The evolving potential of the population results in changes affecting not only the demographic structure itself but also the whole economic system of a territory. The demographic processes in small towns differ in regard to both the demographic condition components and dynamic processes (changes over time), just like in the case of other territorial units. This paper shows the demographic changes taking place in the small towns of Wielkopolskie voivodeship, Poland (2003-2005 and 2016-2018), with a focus on analysing the actual population growth using the Webb method. This leads to identifying eight types of small towns, differing in their paĴern of relationships between the natural increase and the net migration rate. The analysis finds that most small towns in the Wielkopolskie voivodeship are affected by depopulation, and a negative net migration rate had an impact on this process. Due to the emigration of the working-age people, the permanent depopulation processes distorted the population pyramids of small towns. The predominance of small, depopulating cities in Wielkopolskie is a characteristic phenomenon and similar processes occur in other Polish voivodeships.

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