Analiza porównawcza struktur i procesów ludnościowych w wybranych krajach UE wykorzystaniem metod taksonomicznych

The purpose of the article is to compare the changes in the population structure by age, and changes in fundamental demographic processes (fertility, number of children born per woman, mortality) in selected countries of the European Union. The study included countries situated in the Baltic Sea region, that is, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden that were a part of the so-called “old” Union, and also Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland – the new member states of the Community. In the course of the demographic processes, a special attention has been drawn to the problem of excess mortality among men and changes in the patterns of mortality and fertility. Taxonomic methods have been applied to study the similarity between the structures of population and similarities between the countries with respect to analysed demographic processes.