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:
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.
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 |