The report published by the Polish Social Security Institution (ZUS) showed that the country needs about 2 million migrant labor within 10 years to maintain the ratio of the working-age population to retirees.
According to the report of the Polish Social Security Institution (ZUS), there has been a significant increase in the number of foreign national immigrants registered in the insurance system in recent years.
According to the report, while the number of registered foreigners in the system increased by 59 thousand 300 in 2009-2014, this increase was 938 thousand 900 in 2015-2022.
The report stated that 1.8 million immigrants are needed to increase the productive population, but that even this number may not be enough in the future as Poland is one of the countries with the lowest birth rate in Europe.
In addition, while the ratio of the “economically unproductive population to the total population” was 39 percent in 2022, it was recorded that this ratio will increase to 44.1 percent in 2032.
In the report, it was stated that the number of foreign labor force entering the country should be between 200 thousand and 400 thousand annually in order to maintain the rate of 39 percent, and it was accepted that this target was “not realistic” in practice.
The number of registered foreign labor force in the country is increasing every year.
Having received an unprecedented level of immigration since 2015, Poland is among the countries with the highest immigration in the European Union (EU).
In the report, it was noted that the number of workers registered in the social insurance system was 74 thousand in 2020, 150 thousand in 2021 and 188 thousand in 2022, and has increased at a record level in recent years.
In the country, which has more than 1 million foreigners registered in the insurance system as of December 2022, three-quarters of the immigrants with 745 thousand 980 people are Ukrainians, the rest are from non-EU countries with 277 thousand 942 and from EU member countries with 39 thousand 339 people.