THE DIVERSITY OF MATERIAL LIVING CONDITIONS FOR RESIDENTS FROM EASTERN AND WESTERN REGIONS OF POLAND

The article assesses the material living conditions of the population in the eastern and western regions of Poland against the background of the country and its changes in 2010– –2018. The spatial scope of the research covers the entire country, including the eastern and western regions of Poland, i.e., territorial government units (voivodships) where the administrative border is also the state border. The temporal scope of the research covers the years 2010 and 2018. The empirical material of the article consists of data from the Central Statistical Office in Warsaw, especially the Household Budget Survey. The empirical material was developed in a graphic form using the method of comparative analysis and a scoring method for all diagnostic features illustrating the material living conditions of residents in the studied regions of Poland against the background of the country in 2010–2018. The conducted analysis showed that there are regional disproportions in terms of the material living conditions of the inhabitants. Even though most of the studied regions improved in this regard over the period studied, the eastern regions of Poland are still falling short in comparison to the western regions. In addition, there are also discrepancies in this respect between individual eastern and western regions. The material living conditions of the inhabitants in most of the analyzed Polish regions should be treated, among other things, as the result of the implementation of the European Union cohesion policy, especially in the eastern regions, which are classified as the least economically developed in the EU.

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