Foreigners working in Poland and the country’s demographic situation
The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) has published a report on foreigners registered with Poland’s social insurance system in 2023.
The report states that 1,127,744 foreigners were registered with the social security system in 2023, which is nearly 513% more than in 2015.
The growth is therefore noticeable and has been almost exponential, so far.
Nevertheless, specialists say that this increase is still insufficient to offset the effects of the demographic trough affecting Poland. To maintain the demographic dependency ratio at last year’s level, in 10 years’ time 2,648,900 foreigners of working age should be registered with ZUS in Poland. However, economists believe that this will be impossible to achieve.
In order to improve this situation, it is essential that, among other things, the procedures for legalising the work and stay of foreigners are continuously streamlined, particularly through changes to the law, as well as by speeding up proceedings at province governors’ offices and the Office for Foreigners.