Relative population change in Poland on the community level 2004-2014

According to data collected by Polish Central Statistical Office, share of people inhabiting villages grew in Poland between the year 2004 and the year 2014 by 1.2 percentage point. It might be seen as surprising, since it opposes a global trend toward urban growth.

The map shows data about relative population change (%) for every community in Poland, matching the difference between urban communities and the rest.

CSV data about population change were downloaded from Local Data Bank:

http://stat.gov.pl/bdlen/app/strona.html?p_name=indeks

Map shows that rural and mixed ones surrounding cities grows fastest. Dark green circle, representing fast growing rural or mixed communities, surrounding light orange urban area repeats on the map multiple times, marking 12 Polish agglomerations, which face urban sprawl. In the same time, one can easily spot on the map, that rural and mixed communities which are distanced from this agglomeration, especially in eastern regions, face population decline. So growth of rural population in Poland is very likely to be the result of suburbanization, and development of extensive agglomerations.

Colours taken from Color Brewer website:

http://colorbrewer2.org/#

More: http://kienc.pl/what-does-the-rural-population-growth-in-poland-mean-visualizing-data-on-map-with-processing/