Is a demographic collapse coming?

According to the Central Statistical Office, at the end of the first quarter of 2025, the population of Poland was 37 million 437 thousand people, which is almost 158 ​​thousand less than a year ago and over 52 thousand less than at the end of 2024. These data leave no illusions. Every year, we are decreasing, and compared to individual voivodeships, Podkarpacie is no exception in this respect. At the end of 2024, the population of our voivodeship amounted to 2.1 million people. In this respect, we were in 8th place among all voivodeships. The shrinking population, especially of working-age residents, is not a good omen for the future, but the facts are what they are. They are presented in detail in the May report of the Statistical Office in Rzeszów. In 2024 - compared to 2023 - not only did the population of Podkarpacie decrease. There were also fewer marriages, fewer children were born, and the statistics on the number of deaths went up. As for the natural increase, it also had a negative value. Going into details, it is clear that the demographics are not in our favor.

[middle1] We wear wedding rings less often

According to the Statistical Office in Rzeszów, at the end of 2024, the population of the Podkarpackie province was 2.1 million people. There were 6.8 thousand marriages, 13.9 thousand births and 20.3 thousand deaths. Since there were more deaths than births, the natural increase had to be negative and per 1 thousand inhabitants amounted to minus 3.1. The permanent migration balance (i.e. the difference between the number of people who came permanently to Podkarpacie in a given period and the number of those who permanently left it) was unfortunately also negative and amounted to minus 2.5 thousand. Of the inhabitants of Podkarpacie, slightly over half (51.1%) were women. Returning to the number of inhabitants of our province, at the end of 2024 - compared to the end of 2023 - it decreased by 8.7 thousand people. We are clearly deciding to get married less often. There were 825 fewer marriages. The number of births decreased by 1,000 and the number of deaths increased by 589.

Following the statistical study on the population of Podkarpacie, we also asked for data for Przemyśl and Jarosław, as well as Przeworsk and Lubaczów, to compare them with the statistics for the capital of the province.

At the end of last year, Rzeszów had 198.3 thousand residents. During the year, 809 marriages were concluded there and 1.9 thousand children were born, which constituted 13.8 percent of all live births in Podkarpacie. 1.6 thousand deaths were recorded. Interestingly, Rzeszów was the only provincial city with a positive natural increase, which amounted to 1.4 per 1 thousand residents. Moreover, the permanent migration balance was positive and amounted to 468, which shows that there is no shortage of those who, after arriving in the capital of Podkarpacie, settle there permanently. The number of residents of Rzeszów in 2024, compared to 2023, increased by 1 thousand. There were 59 fewer marriages, but the number of births increased by 196. There were also 107 fewer deaths...