Poland's birth rate in decline shows study

The number of newborn Polish children dropped from 300,000 in 2021 to 290,000 in 2022, according to a new report published in the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna (DGP) newspaper on Thursday.

But the daily also reported that the number of children born to foreigners in Poland during the same period had more than doubled.

The newspaper added that both of these results were a surprise to demographers.

"The data, which shows a low number of total births but a high number of births to citizens of another country, are surprising," wrote the newspaper, which cited data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) from Monday that said a total of 305,000 children were born in Poland in 2022.

DGP also reported that this demographic profile was worse than assumed a few years ago in a worst-case scenario.

The newspaper also added that according to GUS data, there were a total of 8,900 births to non-Polish parents in 2021 and that the number grew to about 15,000 in 2022. 

"During that year (2022 - PAP), the number of those births increased by more than 60 percent," wrote the newspaper. "This was mainly due to births to Ukrainian refugees."