EN
The paper is devoted to the socio-economic problems of Polish rural and agricultural space. Discussed here - against the background of a short characterisation of rural areas in Poland - are the most important social problems such as: unemployment, poverty, level of education, level of medical services and state of health of the rural population, as well as growth in that part of the population that is in old age. In the years 1990-2000, the rate of unemployment in Poland rose to 17,5%, while the figure for rural areas was of nearly 20%. The highest rates of all are to be noted in areas once dominated by the State Farms (the north and west of the country). The aforementioned period brought the greatest disparity between rural and urban incomes to be noted at any time since World War II. Agricultural income is at only around 40% of parity (Orłowski 2001), while 1997 saw 62,5% of the people from rural parts of Poland living below the social minimum, with 8,7% enduring conditions below the existential minimum. Where particular agricultural problems are concerned, the one with the longest tra-dition in Poland is probably agrarian overpopulation. A. Woś (2001) has estimated the number of people permanently dispensable in agriculture at some 1 600 000. Furthermore, at the beginning of the 1990s the efficiency of the factors of produc-tion in agriculture fell in comparison with those in other economic sectors, thereby exerting a major impact in reducing output and farm incomes.