REGIONAL DIVERSITY OF HOUSING CONDITIONS OF THE POPULATION LIVING IN RURAL AREAS IN POLAND

The aim of the study is to assess the regional differentiation of housing conditions of the population living in rural areas and their changes in Poland between 2004 and 2016. Research was conducted on the basis of secondary data from the Local Data Bank of the CSO. Due to the complex nature of the studied phenomenon, the Ward method was used to identify typological classes of the housing condition level of the population in rural areas in a system of voivodships. A total of two typological classifications of voivodships were performed – the first in view of the level of housing conditions of the population living in rural areas in 2016, and the second in view of the level of changes in the housing conditions of the surveyed population that occurred in 2016, in relation to 2004. As a result of the research, it was found that in 2016, rural areas in the Dolnośląskie, Śląskie, Opolskie and Zachodniopomorskie voivodships were characterized by the highest level of housing conditions of the population. The lowest level of housing conditions of the population living in rural areas was observed in the Podlaskie voivodship. Dynamic, favourable changes were observed in the housing conditions of the population living in rural areas in the conditions of European integration, both in terms of accessibility and quality of housing resources. The highest increase in the percentage of dwellings equipped with central heating and network gas was observed in rural areas in the following voivodships: Dolnośląskie, Pomorskie, Wielkopolskie and Zachodniopomorskie. On the other hand, the largest increase in the percentage of dwellings equipped with a toilet and network water supply occurred in rural areas in the Lubelskie, Łódzkie, Mazowieckie, Podlaskie and Świętokrzyskie voivodships