‘Great escape of the young’

More than 70 per cent of the 2 million Polish emigrees are aged 39 or younger, writes Rzeczpospolita quoting recent data released by the Central Statistics Office (GUS).

“These figures are appalling. We’re bleeding people,” laments professor Krystyna Iglicka, a demographer and head of Lazarski University, noting that this “unprecedented exodus” of young Poles is occurring at a time when the number of newborn children is alarmingly low.

Other experts point out that a lack of young and creative people who “did not know socialism and were to be our hope” has actually resulted in “lower economic growth, less consumption, reduced development potential as well as higher social spending.”