Stolice byłych 49 województw w Polsce – wybrane zagadnienia rozwoju miast

Date of release of the digital version under CC-BY-SA licence: August 2024

Capital cities of the 49 former voivodships in Poland: selected problems of urban development

The 1st of January 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of Poland’s administrative reform coming into effect. The reform reduced the number of voivodships from 49 to 16, the number of voivodship centres being reduced to 18.

The studies described in this volume were aimed at assessing selected aspects of urban development in the cities which – in 1975–1998 – enjoyed the voivodship capital status. The analysis involved a total of 49 cities which were examined in terms of changes in their demography (including changes in the number of residents, balance of migration, growth rate, and age structure); administration and public service bodies; and transport connectivity and accessibility.

The Introduction (Chapter 1) describes changes in administrative boundaries and rank status of the cities in question during two periods: 1945–1989 and 1989–2019. Attention is drawn to the classification of the cities, as presented in the Country’s Spatial Planning Concept. Research on the former voivodship capitals, carried out past 1998 is reviewed, a particular reference being made to those studies that deal with all the cities of interest for this volume.

In Chapter 2, changes in demography of the cities studied are assessed. The assessment is based on the assumption that trends and dynamics of demographic changes greatly depend on whether a city has a voivodship centre status or not. Changes in the number of residents and change components (births and deaths, immigration and emigration) as well as the population’s age and gender structure are addressed. The trends observed in 1975–2018 in the former and current voivodship capitals turned out to be completely different. In 1975–1989, the populations of the cities were increasing, the growth dynamics being faster in those cities that received their voivodship capital status in 1975. After systemic transformations in 1989, the populations were still increasing, albeit at a clearly slower rate. Past 1998, populations of most of the former voivodship centres have experienced a considerable decline, accentuated by the large-scale economic emigration abroad, begun in 2004. On the other hand, populations of the current voivodship centres were initially declining slightly, but the trend switched over to growth at the end of the period considered. In 1975–1998, the increase of the population size in the then voivodship centres was caused by a considerable natural growth rate and a positive balance of migration. Past 1998, the population size in most of the current and all the former (31) voivodship capitals has been declining due to natural causes (deaths) and a negative balance of migration brought about by suburbanisation processes.

Chapter 3 deals with voivodship centre institutions and discusses the current state of the public administration and higher-order services sector. Attention is drawn to supra-local institutions and bodies (state, self-government, justice, trade self-governance). When functioning as voivodship capitals, the cities examined hosted numerous supra-local and subregional institutions, and were very attractive for business. Centralisation operated in virtually every aspect of public life (public institutions, trade self-governance, businesses). It was distinctly visible at two levels: the national capital and the voivodship capital. Important was also the location of a city: for example, Skierniewice and Piotrków Trybunalski remained in the shadow of two large cities, Warszawa and Łódź, for which reason the two smaller towns hosted fewer institutions and administrative bodies. In addition to hosting all the central administrative bodies and institutions, the national capital groups 10% of all the public entities examined. The number of institutions is distinctly higher in the 17 cities which had been voivodship capitals prior to 1975. Among the former voivodship capitals, distinct in this respect are Radom, Koszalin, Bielsko-Biała and Częstochowa. The analysis shows also that the state administration bodies and justice institutions used to be more evenly distributed spatially (with the exception of the national capital). On the other hand, the voivodship selfgovernment and trade self-governance institutions are concentrated primarily in the current voivodship centres.

Chapter 3 analyses changes in businesses and unemployment. Reports on the state of economy lack sufficiently detailed and complete data on the performance of businesses in 1975–2018. Therefore, an in-depth and reliable analysis of those businesses over the period of time in question is challenging. For this reason, the analysis focused on the period following the introduction, in 2008, of the Polish Classification of Business Activities (Polska Klasyfikacja Działalności or PKD 2007). In 2009–2018, the number of formally registered businesses was much (about 4-fold) higher in the current voivodship centres than in the former voivodship capitals. Although there are much fewer voivodship centres at present, they have always been more attractive economically for businesses than the former centres owing to the population size and the administrative status. In the current voivodship centres, the number of businesses was increasing, virtually throughout the period analysed, from 1,141 thou. in 2009 to 1,385 thou. in 2018, i.e., a 16.8% increase. The situation was different in the former voivodship centres. All the cities in that group showed fluctuations, seen as alternating increases and decreases in the number of registered businesses. As a result, over the time span of 9 years, the number of businesses increased only slightly (from 321.9 thou. in 2009 to 325.8 thou. in 2018, i.e., an increase as little as 1.22%). The highest number of businesses in 2018 (433.8 thou, i.e., more than 21% of all enterprises registered in the 49 cities examined) was registered in Warszawa. The domination of Warszawa is the function of its being the national capital, a site ideal for business activities. It should be borne in mind, however, that the number of registered businesses is an overestimate; some of the enterprises went out of business, which was not officially recorded.

As of 1989, Poland was experiencing unemployment, the unemployment rate differing between the current and the former voivodship centres. On account of a larger and more flexible labour market in large cities, the unemployment rate in the current voivodship centres was, on average, by 1–2% lower than that in the former voivodship capitals. The highest unemployment rate in 2018 was typical primarily of the former voivodship centre, e.g., Radom (12.1%), Ciechanów (11.2%), Przemyśl (11.2%), Biała Podlaska (10.5%) and Włocławek (10.4%), Białystok showing the highest unemployment rate (6.2%) among the current voivodship capitals. The lowest unemployment rate in 2018 was typical mainly of the current voivodship centres: Poznań (1.2%), Warszawa (1.5%), Katowice (1.6%), Wrocław (1.8%) and Kraków (2.4%), Bielsko-Biała (1.9%) being distinct in this respect among the former voivodship centres.

Chapter 5 deals with problems of transport connectivity between the voivodship centres examined and with selected problems of their transport-related accessibility. The voivodship centres’ role as transport nodes in Poland in 1975–1998 is analysed. In addition, the analysis covers also changes in the transport infrastructure in Poland which influenced the accessibility of the cities. Separate analyses address a city’s development level in relations to its access to the transport infrastructure, to the national capital, to the voivodship capital, and to the closest metropolitan centre (in the latter case, Warszawa is excluded from the analysis). Warszawa and Wrocław, followed by Poznań, turned to fare best in terms of the level of development and access to the transport infrastructure, Łomża being the worst-off town in this respect. In terms of the access to the national capital and the closest metropolitan centre, the highest scores were assigned to Piotrków Trybunalski, Konin, Częstochowa, Siedlce, Sieradz, Kielce, Łódź, and Radom, whereas Koszalin, Krosno, Przemyśl, Suwałki, and Zamość scored the lowest. Of the former voivodship centres, the transport node function was best fulfilled by Piotrków Trybunalski, while Kraków, Katowice, Łódź, Poznań, Toruń and Bydgoszcz are fulfilling this role best as the current voivodship capitals. This is the effect of a city’s location at a cross-section of important transport routes and good transport connections. Because of their peripheral location on transport routes of a lesser importance, Krosno and Zamość performed the poorest. Łomża is a town which lost the most in terms of transport situation, mostly on account of its loss of railway connections. Other former voivodship centres with a peripheral location included Zamość and Krosno, the towns worst-hit by the reduction in the number of connections.

In summary, the cities that became the voivodship capitals have enjoyed dynamic growth. It should be mentioned, however, that a city’s location at major international or national roads and railroad routes are of a key importance for accessibility and transport connectivity.

The studies gathered in this volume show the former voivodship capitals to have suffered a stronger reduction in the population size, the number of state institutions and selfgovernment bodies and businesses, compared to the current voivodship centres; frequently, the transport accessibility of the former voivodship capitals was impaired as well.

Translated by Teresa Radziejewska