Since the end of the XX century Polish population started to shrink. The prognosis show that this process will continue in the next 25 years.
The major cause of the population decline is close to 0 or negative natural increase. The second problem is the negative net international immigration rate.
Poland is characterized by significant regional differences in the natural increase and net immigration rate. The Central-South voivodships and the East Poland are the regions that are especially threatened by population decline.
One of the local areas that are shrinking quickly is Upper Silesian Conurbation – highly urbanized area that experienced intensive deindustrialization during the transformation period.
As the depopulation is regionally highly correlated with slower economic growth and social problems, the Polish policy at the central, regional and local level is concentrated on solving socio-economic problems and not directly on depopulation processes. The regional policy follows the ideal of diffusion-polarization model.
The important policy actions are: enforcing regional growth centers (provincial cities), investing in local and interregional transport, supporting entrepreneurship and investing in technology/science and education/cultural centers.