Socio-economic determinants of development in reference to the change in population size in Central and Eastern Europe between 2008 and 2019

For most regions of Central and Eastern Europe there has been a noticeable decline in population in recent years. The purpose of this article is to analyse the level of economic and social indicators as well as changes in population size between 2008 and 2019 in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe. In particular, the article attempts to answer the question of how the change in selected economic and social indicators impacts the change in population size. The answer to the above question will be provided with the use of the ratio analysis and thesoft model. The research results show that the two causes of changes in population size (natural causes and migrations) are significantly affected by a group of social indicators, even though—with regard to migration—the significance of economic indicators is increasing and the difference between the former and the latter is not substantial. Consequently, in response to the depopulation process, more attention should be paid to the social dimension of development. In other words, creating proper conditions for personal and professional activity may be more important than using financial instruments.