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Quality of housing conditions in rural areas in Poland at voivodeship level
he aim of the research was to conduct a multidimensional assessment of the quality of housing conditions in rural households of different voivodeships (provinces) in comparison to households in Poland overall. The research involved separate evaluations of the quality of internal and external housing conditions. Internal housing conditions pertained to the dwellings themselves and included the standards of their use and the presence of sanitary and technical installations. External housing conditions characterized the housing environment, including nuisances related to noise, crime, and deficiencies in technical and service infrastructure. The overall assessment of the quality of housing conditions encompassed both internal and external indicators. These assessments were based on the values of synthetic indicators determined using the TOPSIS method. The analyses were conducted using individual non-identifiable data from the Household Budget Survey carried out by the Central Statistical Office in 2021. For half of the voivodeships, the quality of internal housing conditions in rural households was assessed as average, while in the dzkie Voivodeship, it was assessed as low. A very high rating was obtained for seven voivodeships: lskie, Opolskie, Podkarpackie, Maopolskie, Lubuskie, Wielkopolskie, and Pomorskie. On the other hand, the quality of external conditions was assessed as high only in the Maopolskie and Podkarpackie Voivodeships, while in the dzkie Voivodeship, it was also assessed as low.
Consumer expenditure of rural households in Poland
The main target of the research was to diagnose the level and structure of consumption expenditures of rural households in Poland in 2015-2021. Among consumption expenditures, special attention was paid to fixed expenditures, i.e. on food and non-alcoholic beverages, as well as on housing and energy carriers. Expenditures of rural households were compared to expenditures of urban households and analyzed against the background of all households in Poland. The data source was individual, unidentifiable data from the “Household Budget Survey” conducted by the Central Statistical Office in 2015-2021. It was noticed that in the years 2015-2021, relatively large disproportions in the level of consumption expenditure between rural and urban households were observed. In 2015, consumption expenditures per capita in households living in rural areas accounted for less than 3/4 of expenditures of households living in urban areas. However, in the analyzed period, the increase in the level of this occurrence was more than twice as high for rural households, which proves a pronounced convergence process. The greatest burden on rural household budgets was expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages, which in rural households amounted to about 30%, and in 2020, i.e. the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, it exceeded 32%. It was noticed that the structure of consumption expenditures between rural and urban households were very similar in 2015 and 2021.
Income inequality of rural households in Poland - analysis by source of income
Rural households live on income much lower than the national average and experience income inequality much higher than the general population. This excess inequality is primarily due to the internal heterogeneity caused by the different nature of household income sources. The purpose of the study was then to assess the level of rural household income inequality and to decompose the inequality index by the main sources of income. The chosen inequality index was Theil-T. The research drew on unidentifiable microdata from the Household Budget Survey conducted by the CSO in 2019-2021.The study found that rural household inequality was slightly higher than that of all Polish households over the analyzed period. Among the various income-source groups, the highest inequality affected farmer households. This group also contributed most to the overall level of inequality in rural areas (44% in 2019 and over 46% in 2021). The pandemic saw an increase in inequality for all identified groups of rural households (the largest – for farmer households) and a decrease in between-group inequality.