Population Aging and Economic Competitiveness in Polish Small Towns

The aim of this study is to identify relationships between population aging in small towns and the level of their economic competitiveness. These analyses are a continuation of research on the economic competitiveness of small town in Poland. The territorial scope comprised 110 small towns, while the timeframe covered the years 2004–2006, 2011–2013, 2017–2019, and 2020–2021. In this paper, the Perkal method was applied to construct a synthetic measure for the progression of the population aging process in the case of residents of small towns. In turn, the typology method was used to identify types of dependencies between the level of economic competitiveness and the degree of population aging for residents of small towns. In view of the advanced aging of inhabitants in the analyzed towns within the framework of the distinguished types, in the most recent investigated periods, most small towns were assigned to two types. They were the types comprising economically competitive towns, but with aging populations, and economically uncompetitive and aging towns, respectively.