'The uniqueness of this publication is demonstrated by several points. - says Marcin Wojdat, director of the Centre for Research and Analysis of the Union of Polish Metropolises and one of the authors of this report. - Firstly, the uniqueness of the data reviewed - no one has ever before managed to collect information with such accuracy on the number and location of people staying in Poland in connection with the war in Ukraine. Secondly, the novelty of the technology and methodology used in the study described - the data presented shows us the change in population in the twelve metropolitan areas of the UMP between January and March 2022. The data was taken from locations on mobile devices. Thirdly, the most important conclusion from the analysis presented - Polish cities, and in particular the twelve cities that make up the UMP, are growing at a rapid pace, which will raise new challenges for local government policies and building a cohesive, integrated society."
The report we have compiled also answers a key question that today we may all be asking ourselves - who has really taken in refugees from Ukraine in Poland?
"UMP commissioned a state-of-the-art spatial study based on so-called Geotrapping®*. - explains Dr Paweł Cywiński, co-author of the report. - This is a very interesting and extremely precise method, so far used mainly by the advertising world. Suddenly it helped us to better understand the behaviour of refugees from Ukraine. It also allowed us to find out where Ukrainians are in Poland."
* In January 2022, we did a trial analysis of data from Selectivv, according to which there were 1.5 million Ukrainian citizens aged 15+ in Poland. We compared this with an estimate by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) based on various registers, which showed that there were 1.4 million Ukrainians in Poland at the end of February'20. Given that the stay of some Ukrainians is not documented in any register, by comparing our data with the CSO we confirmed the reliability of Selectivv's estimate. Therefore, we adopted this method to further monitor the number of Ukrainians aged 15+. In a further step, in March 2022, when the proportion of children among Ukrainians increased significantly compared to the pre-war situation, we used the proportions from the PESEL register to estimate children up to the age of 14.