Delimitation of Rural Areas

The Delimitation of Rural Areas for statistical purposes was developed by the Statistics Poland. Its purpose is to ensure a consistent presentation of the results of statistical surveys of official statistics concerning rural areas. The use of Delimitation enables detailed presentation of data on rural areas, emphasising their diversity

The Delimination is developed using the typology of Functional Urban Areas (FUA). The FUA include cities and their commuting zones. The delimitation of rural gminas (rural gminas and rural areas in urban-rural gminas – symbol of the type unit TERYT, 2 and 5 respectively) have been taking into account the impact of large cities.

The delimitation includes two levels: level 1. which refers to the location of the area in relation to the FUA of cities of at least 150 thousand persons or the FUA of seats of voivodships; level 2. which refers to the value of the population density of rural areas.

Level 1 Level 2
Agglomeration high density
low density
Non-agglomeration high density
low density

The delimitation distinguishes the following groups of areas:

  1. 1. agglomeration – rural areas located within the FUA of seats of voivodships or within the FUA of other cities with at least 150 thousand persons:
    • agglomeration high density – meet both criteria: they are in agglomeration areas and has population density equal to or higher than the average population density for Poland,
    • agglomeration low density – they are in agglomeration areas and has population density lower than the average population density for Poland;
  1. 2. non-agglomeration – rural areas located outside the FUA of voivodship cities or outside the FUA of other cities with at least 150 thousand persons:
    • non-agglomeration high density – they are located outside of the FUA, and have population density equal to or higher than 1/3 of the population density for Poland,
    • non-agglomeration low density – they are located outside of the FUA, and have population density lower than 1/3 of the population density for Poland.

The group of cities with more than 150 thousand persons includes 25 cities (26 centres by 2021). Average population density in 2023 was 119.9 persons/km2, and the 1/3 threshold of the average population density was 40.0 persons/km2 (in 2022, it was 120.8 persons/km2 and 40.3 persons/km2).

DELIMITATION OF RURAL AREAS IN 2023

As of 1 January

TYPES Number of units Percentage of units Number of population Percentage of population Area in km2 Percentage of area
TOTAL 279 100,0 1948257 100,0 33245 100,0
1 – agglomeration high density 35 12,5 570197 29,3 2697 8,1
2 – agglomeration low density 56 20,1 383985 19,7 6474 19,5
3 – non-agglomeration high density 86 30,8 581738 29,9 10507 31,6
4 – non-agglomeration low density 102 36,6 412337 21,2 13567 40,8