The income inequality and poverty in Poland in the new demographic context

Income inequality in Poland increased significantly in the period of transformation from a centrally planned to a market economy. Pronounced economic growth was not shared equally and economic crisis even widened a gap between the wealthiest and the poorest sectors. Major economic reforms, including reforms of the tax, health and pension systems significantly reduced the level of redistribution. High income inequality has become a source of serious  socio-economic problems, such as increasing poverty, social stratification and  polarization. Poverty usually affects various social groups differently but for the households with many children in Poland the poverty is disproportionately high, when the poverty rate is  measured as the percentage of population whose incomes are lower than  60% of the equivalised median income. The situation seems even more dangerous in the context of declines in fertility rates and mortality rates along with substantial improvements in health care, which have resulted in the rapid growth of the elderly population. The main objective of the paper was focused on the analysis of income distribution in Poland, in particular its inequality and poverty characteristics for different subpopulations of households. The calculations were conducted on the basis of the data coming from the Household Budgets Survey, the basic source of information on the revenues and expenditure of households in Poland. The overall sample was divided by family type, defined by the number of children,  and  by economic region units NUTS1, according to the Eurostat classification. To assess the inequality and poverty levels, the Gini concentration index and the poverty characteristics belonging to the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke class of decomposable poverty measures were applied.