Depopulation of Cities and Housing Decisions of University Graduates

Predicting the population size of a city is one of the key tasks preceding the creation of city development plans, seeing as how urban space management should be adequate to current and forecasted economic and social trends, including demographic ones. In many cities of the world, apart from capitals and metropolises, the phenomenon of depopulation and shrinking has been observed, which is due to a decrease in the fertility rate and a negative migration balance. Apart from the inhabitants registered in the city for permanent residence, there are also people living there temporary, including students. Some graduates will decide to stay in the city, thus increasing the population of the city’s residents.

The purpose of the study described in this article was to attempt to determine the extent to which new-coming students are able to alleviate the effects of the adverse phenomenon of city depopulation. The city chosen as the research area - Olsztyn - has been experiencing the loss of residents for 10 years and is also the largest university center in the province. Understanding settlement / migration plans required a broad survey. As a result, it was concluded that the impact of graduates on inhibiting depopulation is relatively small as most of them planned to move out to a larger urban center, and only every fifth one declared a willingness to live in Olsztyn. Retaining graduates would require the development of the labor market towards new, well-paid jobs.