Rural–urban divide in human capital in Poland after 1988

Research background: The subject of the study is the disproportionate development of rural and urban areas in terms of human capital in the context of the convergence process. Purpose of the article: The main goal of the study is to assess the rural–urban disparities on the educational attainment of the population (adopted as a human capital proxy), based on the example of Poland. Methods: The Bray-Curtis measure of structures diversity, the Kruskal-Wallis test and regression analysis were applied to investigate the scale and dynamic of the rural–urban educational divide in Poland in the period 1988–2018. Findings & Value added: The paper emphasizes the aspect of rural–urban differences in the Polish economy and their dynamic nature. Studies have revealed that in 1988–2018, in Poland, the disparity in educational attainment between rural and urban populations was gradually reduced. This process, however, was not accompanied by the reduction of internal educational disparities in the rural space. The study results are helpful in verifying the effectiveness of public funds, allocated in recent years in order to accelerate the multi-functional development of rural areas in Poland and other CEE countries.