Mr. Stefan sleeps in an armchair in a former broom closet, and Mrs. Barbara raises her two-year-old son in a crisis center because she was unable to support her family on PLN 800. Their stories are not exceptions, but part of the growing “poverty agglomeration” described in the latest “Poverty Report” by Szlachetna Paczka. Nearly 2 million people live in extreme poverty in Poland.
Although every year Polish cities look forward to new rankings and lists that allow them to feel prestige and stand out from the competition, in 2024 Biedańsk was once again the undisputed leader (a metaphorical city gathering people living in extreme poverty). This concept is used by the authors of the “Poverty Report” reportto better illustrate scale of poverty in Poland.
Nearly 5 million people living just above the threshold of extreme poverty
If Biedańsk really existed, it would have 1.9 million inhabitants, which is more than Warsaw. Despite a decrease of nearly 600 thousand people compared to the previous year, the problem did not disappear, but grew to the size of an agglomeration. Today, Biedańsk is surrounded by a vast “obwarzanek” towns inhabited by people living in relative poverty. That's over 13 percent. society, nearly 5 million people living just above the threshold of extreme poverty. On this scale, the “poor” agglomeration could compete with metropolises such as Madrid or Toronto.
“What is relative poverty? It's a scientific term for those who are a little better off. They can afford to buy e.g. 20 dag of yellow cheese every daybecause its equivalent is the same as the difference in their portfolios, thanks to which they are no longer extremely poor, but “only” relatively poor. PLN 300 a month – or perhaps more precisely PLN 10 a day – decides about their lives above the line. – we read in the Szlachetna Paczka report.
The use of the relative poverty risk line (defined as 50% of the average monthly expenditure of households in Poland) allows us to distinguish those families whose consumption level is clearly below the standard typical for society. According to the Central Statistical Office, the relative poverty risk line for a single-person household in the fourth quarter of last year was: average PLN 1,266. However, for four-person households in the “2+2” model, the threshold was PLN 3,417 per month for the entire family.
He lives in a broom closet
Mr. Stefan doesn't have an apartment. He has a storage room, or rather a former broom closet, in which today there is only an old armchair that serves as a bed.
At least it's warmbecause there is a heating riser next to it,” he emphasizes.
This is his only comfort. In exchange for the right to sleep in this room, he cleans the yard, rakes leaves and shovels snow. “I got my own key,” he adds with some pride, as if this symbolic piece of metal was a substitute for a normal life that has been gone for a long time.
Until recently, he tried to ask for small jobs for a few zlotys. Unsuccessfully. Today he says openly that he will do something for food. Paradoxically, it works. More people decide to ask him for help. Most often, Mrs. Zosia from the third floor. She is over 80 years old, she can barely make ends meet, and yet she always tries to return the favor: with a plate of soup or a sandwich, “if she can afford it.”
“I'm trapped. I'm afraid they will take my baby away.”
In the Szlachetna Paczka report we will also learn the story of Mrs. Barbara. The 38-year-old is a midwife and has completed her studies, but spine problems and paralyzing pain made her unable to work. When she stopped contributing to the rent, her family told her to leave. She was left with PLN 800 in benefits for her son and limited opportunities to earn extra money. The woman cannot come to terms with the thought that her two-year-old son Ignaś is growing up in the Crisis Intervention Center.
It's not a bad place, they welcomed us warmly, but I don't want his first memories to be life in a shelter and playing with borrowed teddy bears,” he says.
In the best months she has PLN 1,640, in the worst months only what good people give her. He saves for the surgery he needs, but he cannot undergo it because he has no one to entrust with the care of Ignaś. “I'm trapped, I'm afraid that I will lose what little mobility I have and that my child will be taken away from me,” he confesses.\
The economy of scarcity
Let's return to the metaphor of the report's authors. The road to Biedańsk begins in its “suburbs”, i.e. in the sphere of poverty below the social minimumwhich marks the boundary between a modest but sufficient standard of living and a situation in which it is increasingly difficult to meet basic needs. The social minimum defines a basket of expenses that allows you to cover the costs of living, work, education, maintaining social relationships and participating in culture. According to the latest data, as many as 41.3 percent Polish households operate below this threshold.
It is easy to go from poverty to relative poverty, i.e. a situation in which the standard of living is increasingly different from the average level in the country. People in relative poverty usually have a job and a roof over their heads, but they gradually fall out of the economic peloton, unable to keep up with the pace of rising costs of living, while the rest of society is moving away faster and faster. In 2024, the relative poverty rate in Poland was approximately 13 percent, which means nearly 5 million people living just above the border of financial security.
Extreme poverty affects nearly 2 million Poles
The next stage is the center of the “Poverty City”, i.e. extreme poverty. This is a situation where household expenses drop to a level that threatens health and life. In 2024 this was the case 5.2 percent Poles, i.e. almost 2 million people.
There is a slight improvement among the youngest, the authors of the report note. But still 364 thousand children live in conditions that threaten their development, and over 400,000 seniors remain within the limits of extreme poverty. Last year, the extreme poverty line for a single person was PLN 972 per month. This is an amount that theoretically should be enough to meet basic needs, although in practice many people live on much less.
What is also disturbing is the fact that For the second time in history, extreme poverty has overtaken legal povertywarn the authors of the “Poverty Report”. This means that the number of people living in financially difficult situations is greater than the number of those who qualify for social assistance support. As a result, a “gray zone of poverty” is created, in which over a million Poles live – too wealthy to get help, but too poor to live at a level that allows them to function with dignity.
