The living conditions of the Poles are average for the area. The average gross wages are about 400 euros net per month, but this average is distorted by the very high wages, in particular in Warsaw where they are higher twice than in the remainder of the country.

The standard of living getting better since 1992, just as the domestic consumption. There are however strong inequalities between the west of the country, industrialized and thrive, and East, poor and little developed. A similar fracture exists between the urbans, the rurals, the young and old people, though less clear than in the other central and eastern european countries.

More then the tieres of the Poles live in the countryside, where the life is organize around the seasonal agricultural activities, mass of Sunday and meetings of family such as the marriages and their great festivities, the burials or the baptisms.

True national plague, Poland counts more than three million unemployed, of which the three quarter are not compensated and half are without employment since more than one year. The young people are also strongly touched by the unemployment.

Although the GDP per capita of Poland is appreciably lower than that of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, the indicator of human development of these three countries is comparable. Poland compensates the relatively low level of income by a social system still presentl. Approximately 30 % of the total income of the Polish households come directly or indirectly from the assistances of State.

However, the budgetary restrictions and the rises of the prices make the life difficult for the most underprivileged categories of the population. State ensures less and less services in the fields of health, the retirement, teaching, the culture and the leisures.

The life expectancy is lower of more than five years than that of the European Union. More than abusive alcohol consumption and the richness of the food, it is the pollution of the country which is in the principal cause. The geography of the country and the disastrous socialist heritage do from the Poland one of the most polluted countries in Europe.