The National Census 2002 and the Development of Social Policy (with a special focus on housing)

Our paper has two major aims. First of all, we would like to emphasize the role of the National Census in developing social policy both as an academic discipline and as practice. Despite unquestionable value and usefulness of the data provided by the National Census we would also like to point out the traps and obstacles in reading and understanding some data. Secondly, we will analyze data obtained from the National Census 2002 regarding housing issues. Therefore, we will illustrate and compare the recent data with data taken from other studies in the past, trying to draw conclusions which will demonstrate housing problems in a time perspective in modern Poland.