Within the last thirty years, the cities of Central Europe have met with critical change and transformation. The aim of this presentation is to express how Krakow, the second-largest city in Poland, has evolved within the last three decades on the level of demography, urban development, and economy. The presentation will focus on three major problems of the city’s development: the socio-demographic, spatial and economic transformation of Krakow. The research methodology will use a combination of qualitative (evaluating data from the literature, city reports and other available sources) and quantitative methods (evaluating data from the National Census for the years1988, 2022, 2011, 2022; the Strategy of the City of Krakow; The Yearly Reports on the State of the City (since 1991) and other available sources.