HOUSING CONDITIONS OF HOUSEHOLDS OF FARMERS IN 2005-2020

Abstract

The aim of the study was to evaluate the housing conditions of farmers’ households against the background of all households in Poland and their changes after Poland’s accession to the European Union. The assessment was based on one-dimensional objective indicators of the standard of housing use, equipment with technical and sanitary facilities and basic consumer goods, as well as a multidimensional synthetic assessment using the TOPSIS method. Individual unidentifiable data from the Household Budget Survey of the Central Statistical Office from 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020 served as a data source. It turned out that, at the beginning of the study period, the housing situation of farmer households was favourable only in terms of such indicators of the standard of housing used as housing area per person and burden on household budgets from the cost of housing maintenance and energy sources. On the other hand, the saturation with selected durable goods and the equipment of dwellings with technical and sanitary facilities was relatively low. This contributed to the low synthetic rating of housing conditions in 2005. However, during 2005-2020, a rapid improvement in the scores of these indicators was observed the fastest among all socioeconomic groups. These dynamic changes resulted in a high score for the housing conditions of agricultural households in 2020.