Sustainable development in Poland in comparison to the European Union

Sustainable development has been the subject of scientific research for almost half a century. Despite the fact that the term “regional development” was first used in 1972, it still has not been clearly defined. Therefore, various researchers differently perceive the issue of sustainable development, which is still the subject of multiple research articles. On the basis of the Web of Science only, it can be indicated that in 2015, 909 articles were published, which had “sustainable development” in their title, in 2016 there were 1080 of such articles, and in 2017–1039. The subject of this article is to evaluate the importance of sustainable development in Polish regional policy as well as the analysis of its level in comparison with other EU countries in 2016.