About 1.5 million Poles have been living abroad for at least a year, the latest population census data show. These people are unlikely to move back to Poland, demography expert Professor Krystyna Iglicka told Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. 

Ms Iglicka estimates that about 100,000 Poles left the country in 2012 and another 500,000-800,000 will leave over the next five years. This migration is mostly for economic reasons and it’s the poorest regions that lose the highest number of people.

Between 2000-2012, nearly 300,000 Poles left the country, a number equivalent to the population of a medium-sized city. The age group that most often leaves the country is 20-40 year-olds, many of whom get married and have children abroad. This reduces the size of Poland’s population of those who are economically active.

The last wave of emigration with a similar magnitude occurred after the imposition of martial law in Poland in 1981. In the 1980s, 1.2 million Poles left to live abroad, but most of them eventually came back after communism collapsed.

According to new Eurostat methodology, people living outside their home country for at least a year are no longer counted as its citizens. Therefore, when the report is released next year, Poland’s population will show a fall from 38.5 million to some 37 million.

AS, JC

Source Central Statistical Office