Population to shrink by 4.5 mln by 2050

Poland’s population will contract by 4.5 million within the next 36 years, according to a forecast from the Central Statistical Office (GUS). The current population figure is 38.5 million. The forecast takes into account such factors as demographic and family-oriented policies, though there is no certainty on what they will look like in the next years, GUS President Janusz Witkowski told Polish Radio. He stressed that the population will not only be smaller. It will also have a different age structure. “In 2050 there will some 10 million people older than working age in Poland. This is 3 million more than in 2013,” Witkowski said. “In 2050 every third Pole will be older than working age.”