Wyludnianie tradycyjnych regionów górniczych Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej

Abstract

The phenomenon of depopulation was observed in the last two decades in regions of East-Central Europe where the economy had previously relied upon natural resource extraction throughout the socialist period. The restructuring of traditional branches of industry, such as mining and metallurgy, has had a negative impact on the demographic potential of industrial agglomerations as well as the surrounding areas. This article focuses on an analysis of population change after the year 1990 in the following affected regions: Silesian Voivodeship in Poland, Moravian-Silesian in the Czech Republic, and Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine. It also defines the types of demographic change and explains causal factors of observed processes. The population of regions mentioned above decreased from 14,4 to 12,6 million people in the period under consideration. The largest population decline was observed in Luhansk Oblast (-20,0%) and Donetsk Oblast (-16,9%). A considerably lower decline took place in Silesian Voivodeship (-5,7%) and in Moravian-Silesian (-3,3 %). We find that differences in the rates of population decline are derived mainly from heterogeneity in the vital statistics of those regions while migration plays a more minor role in the depopulation process.