Direction and pace of changes in rural areas of highly and less urbanized region – a case study

The purpose of this study was to characterize the scope, direction and pace of the evolution taking place in the rural part of highly and less urbanized regions, including without limitation changes to the territorial distribution and percentage of the rural population in the voivodeships covered by this study; the levels of the technical and social infrastructure; the condition of agricultural productive inputs and the level of the farms’ commercial production; the development level of non-agricultural activities in rural areas. The source of information were books, magazines and publications of the Central Statistical Office (GUS). Once collected, the information was processed and interpreted with the use of a vertical and horizontal comparison method, the statistical method and the relative valuation method. It was found that: a) the rural population grows (and so does its share in the country’ population) though rural areas become smaller in size, b) more and more rural areas are transformed into residential areas, improving the level of technical and social infrastructure, c) the Śląsk region is characterized by a slower evolution of the general and rural infrastructure compared to Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, d) the regions covered by this study demonstrate a high decrease rate of agricultural land resources, accompanied by the growth of other productive inputs and of agricultural commercial production, e) rural areas are increasingly engaged in economic activities covered by the REGON register. The characteristics and consequences of entrepreneurship are diversified across the rural areas under consideration. The most positive effects can be noted in Śląsk region.