Changes in the Standard of Living in Rural Population of Poland in the Period of the Eu Membership

Polish rural areas face various social, economic and ecological problems. These processes greatly affect diversification of the standard of living in rural areas. The goal of the study was to assess spatial diversification of the standard of living in rural areas in Poland. It focused on all rural gminas as well as rural parts of rural-urban gminas. In the analysis, the standard of living was evaluated with Perkal’s synthetic index, with 12 variables concerning demographic and economic issues. The time span for the analysis was the period of 2003-2013. The highest standard of living was reported for rural areas located in the vicinity of urban agglomerations. The lowest standards of living were in typical rural gminas with poorly developed service functions. These were mainly depopulated areas from the outskirts of voivodeships. The Vistula River marked the dividing line in the standards of living in rural areas of Poland.