The statistical picture of population aging in towns of Wielkopolskie Province: TERYT and DEGURBA perspectives

Aim/purpose – The aim of the paper is to compare the statistical picture of aging of the urban population of the Wielkopolskie Province in terms of two typologies: TERYT and DEGURBA. Design/methodology/approach – Selected demographic aging measures for years 2010 and 2016 were calculated for 112 towns according to TERYT typology and for 53 urban areas according to DEGURBA classification. The demographic aging measures were the following: median age, parent support ratio, aging index, elderly dependency ratio, proportion of population aged 65 and over and total dependency ratio. Findings – TERYT classification using the formal and legal status of the city gives a slightly different picture in relation to urban areas defined based on the DEGURBA classification. The results obtained showed that the population aging process was slightly less intense in urban areas in 2016 according to the DEGURBA typology, compared with the indicators for the city group separated on the basis of the TERYT register identifier. Research implications/limitations – The results obtained are promising. The implications of the approach presented are at least twofold. At the methodological level, the paper presents an alternative possibility of distinguishing urban areas based on the DEGURBA classification in relation to the TERYT classification. However, in the cognitive layer, it shows differences in the aging of urban areas distinguished on the basis of these two classifications. These implications are limited only to the so-called traditional demographic aging measures and to urban population in the Wielkopolskie Province. To overcome these limitations further analysis should include, first of all, extending the research to the whole country. Originality/value/contribution – This paper is one of the first publications in Poland which looks at the urban aging problem from two perspectives DEGURBA and TERYT. This approach in regional analysis should be applied more often to avoid possible distortions caused by using only TERYT classification.