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 will enable 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 areas low density
high density
Non-agglomeration areas low density
high density

The delimitation distinguishes the following groups of areas:

  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. 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 26 cities. Average population density in 2021 (Statistics Poland Local Data Bank; BDL) was 121 persons/km2. The ½ threshold was assumed at 61 persons/km2 and the 1/3 threshold of the average population density at 41 persons/km2.

The current edition of the publication presents only selected issues according to the Delimitation of Rural Areas.

DELIMITATION OF RURAL AREAS IN 2021

As of 1 January

TYPES Number of units Share of number of units Number of population Share of population Area in km2 Share of area
TOTAL 279 100,0 1950388 100,0 33324 100,0
1 – agglomeration high density 32 11,5 523625 26,8 2444 7,3
2 – agglomeration low density 48 17,2 327228 16,8 5498 16,5
3 – non-agglomeration high density 98 35,1 680758 34,9 11864 35,6
4 – non-agglomeration low density 101 36,2 418777 21,5 13518 40,6