GUS publishes 2002 Census results

The Main Statistical Office (GUS) yesterday published the results of the 2002 national census. It showed that out of the total of 38.23 million citizens, almost 3.6 million are unemployed which gives an unemployment rate of 21.2%, which is far higher than the official rate of around 18%. Men make up 48.4% of the population, which is a fall by 0.3 percentage points since 1988 when the previous census was taken. The number of children below the age of 15 fell by 2.7 million, while the number of people of productive age increased by 1.8 million. Perhaps one of the most revealing figures was that the number of handicapped skyrocketed by 46%, a fact perhaps related to social benefits rather than a plague of real disabilities suddenly appearing. Some 1.2% of the population have two passports, mainly German, American or Canadian, while the number of official immigrants was 34,000, with most of them coming from Germany and Ukraine. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 4; Parkiet, p. 7) A.K.