Regional socio-economic disparities in Poland

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to survey and discuss regional socio-economic disparities in Poland in the context of Poland's accession to the European Union. The paper examines development trends and changes in the scale of diversity of Polish voivodships (NTS-2) in the basic areas of economy. The analysis of statistical data from the period of 1999-2009 shows that the process of integration of Poland with the European Union and connected with it opportunities for realization of new investments, aiming at increasing the competitiveness of Poland on the international arena, did not result in the decrease of socio-economic development disparities of the voivodships (the internal convergence).