At the moment, Polish society is young, but - similarly to other European countries - in the next few decades it will grow old. Already in the coming years the post-war generation will leave productive age. The number of new births is not high enough to ensure substitution of old generations with new ones. According to the experts, in the coming years a further decrease in the birth factor is to be expected, from today's 1.25 child per woman to around 1.1 in 2010.*

The Government headed by the PM Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz has been the first to take up the struggle to create an integrated policy of supporting family development. As the reasons for decision not to have children are mainly of economic and job-related character, on of the instruments to encourage women to become mothers, as planned by the government, is the prolongation of maternity leaves and legal changes facilitating the return of mothers to their original workplace, and securing their relation with the employer.

Another important instrument implemented since the beginning of 2006 are child benefits. The current buzz word for this benefit is "becikowe", which is derived from a word "becik", meaning child short clothes. These activities are of course just a part of a wide range of instruments to support family development in the coming years. However, these are just indirect measures to bring down barriers for people who want to have children, in order to increase their feeling of social security.

*source: Central Statistical Office. The forecast of changes in Poland's population until 2030 - a report prepared by the experts of the Central Statistical Office, the Governmental Demographic Council