Ludnosc niechlopska w strukturze spoleczno-ekonomicznej wsi

The paper deals with that part of the countryside population that lives in families not owning farms. It is referred to as the non-peasant population. The distinguishing of this group in the social structure of the countryside is described in the context of the effect of macroeconomic processes on the transformation of rural areas. It bas been empbasized that the growth of the non-peasant population in the countryside observed throughout the post-war period is above all the outcome of a change in the professional status of people coming from non-agricultural families. The population earning outside agriculture had limited possibilities of migrating out of the countryside since urbanization lagged behind industrialization. Due to demograpbic, economic and political conditions the observed professional mobility of the rural population did not contribute to significant changes in agriculture. At the same time the same factors tbat for many years bad shaped the image of the non-peasant population caused that during the period of change of social and economic system the group felt the consequences of pro-effective transformations in branches of the economy outside agriculture with particular severity. At present it is characterized by relatively highest rate of unemployment and significant economic divergence. Not only because of this, but also because of the role in the differentiation of the settlement network and rural infrastructure, the non-peasant rural population occupies a distinct place in the multifunctional development of the countryside.