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DEPOPULATION IN PERIPHERAL REGIONS OF EASTERN POLAND – DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES

The study examines demographic processes and the resulting challenges for the development of areas at risk of depopulation. The research covered regions defined as NUTS 2 in European Union nomenclature and classified as the Eastern Poland Macroregion in Polish regional policy. This macroregion is counted among the peripheral regions of Poland. The demographic processes taking place within these regions, and especially in many local administrative units (LAU 2), point to a threat of depopulation. The scope of the detailed study is from 2010 to 2020. Descriptive, tabular and graphical methods, as well as demographic projections until 2040 were used to analyse and present the materials for the analysed provinces. It was found that unfavourable demographic processes are intensifying and pose a threat to socio-economic development, especially for the peripheral rural communes of these regions. Progressing decline in fertility, increasing life expectancy, as well as intensified migration processes lead to unfavourable changes in the population structure, and, in the long run, to depopulation, which will undoubtedly multiply economic and social problems in these regions.

