Poland’s population continued to decline last year as the country maintained a negative net migration rate and recorded the lowest number of births since 1945, the country’s statistical office (GUS) announced on Monday.
The country’s population fell last year by about 141,000 compared to the previous year, continuing a downward trend visible for the past decade.
“The decrease has been continuous since 2012, and the increase in mortality caused by the pandemic has clearly intensified the negative demographic trends,” said Dominik Rozkrut, head of GUS. “The population decrease was smaller than in 2021 but larger compared to the pre-pandemic period,” he added.
Birth rates continue to drop at an alarming rate, hitting a record low of 308,000 last year. Meanwhile, 448,000 deaths were recorded last year, and this negative net rate, in addition to the country’s negative net migration rate, is resulting in a dwindling population.
“It is estimated that for every 10,000 Polish citizens, 37 passed away in 2022. For comparison, it was 47 in 2021, which was during the pandemic, and in 2019, for every 10,000 citizens, 7 died,” said Rozkrut.
He added that population change is influenced by natural increase, above all, which has remained negative since 2012.
“In 2022, we recorded the fewest births in the post-war period. We estimate that the number of births was 305,000, 27,000 less than in the previous year. The number of deaths was 448,000, which was also lower than in the previous year by 72,000,” said the head of GUS.
According to GUS, the number of births was lower than the number of deaths by 143,000. The rate of natural increase was thus -3.8, compared to -4.9 in 2021, and 0.9 in 2019.
