Ageing of the Working-Age Population in Poland: A Theoretical Perspective and Practical Implications

The ageing of the working-age population is one of the most challenging issues facing the economies of highly developed countries today. The aim of the article is to provide an overview of this process: to outline its past course and future prospects, to describe its spatial differentiation (at different levels of administrative division: voivodeships and counties) and to identify the challenges it poses to enterprises (employers). The analytical part of the study was based on the population projection (from 2022 to 2060) carried out by Statistics Poland. It was found that the ageing of the working-age population in Poland is already well advanced and will become more pronounced in the future. The situation is highly diversified spatially, with the relatively youngest productive population in large cities and their suburbs, and the oldest in peripheral areas. The shrinking and ageing of the productive population represents a new type of risk for entrepreneurs (the so-called demographic risk). The efficient functioning of businesses now requires the development and implementation of tools to manage this risk.