Standard of living diversification in urban areas in Poland

Maria Mazur

Abstract

In Poland there is a large diversity of society’s wealth resulting from differences in the development of regions, differences between urban and rural areas. The rate of development differed for the all size classes of cities, but the fastest growth rate was observed in large urban. Large cities had a better social and technical infrastructure, greater resources of the skilled labour, advanced urban functions, which contributed to their more efficient development. The goal of the studies is to examine how the economic development of urban areas affects the standard of living of their residents, because as it is known, the economic development is not always a guarantee of the social development. In the empirical studies were used the results of the research of European union statistics on Income and Living condition (Eu-sILc) concerned the years 2006–2009, conducted by the central statistical Office in Poland. There were compared, on the one hand, the main determinants of households’ living standard, i.e. the education and income level in different size classes of cities, on the other hand the level of meeting the essential material needs.