On 28 March 2008 Polish Prime Minister and Ukrainian Prime Minister signed in Kiev the agreement on rules on local border traffic, which was initialled on 4 March 2008 by the Polish and Ukrainian Ministers of Foreign Affairs. As a result, Official Statistics has developed a characterisation of border areas.

The Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of the Republic of Belarus on rules on local border traffic was signed on 12 February 2010. The law on ratification of the Agreement was signed on 22 June 2010.

The agreement between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Russian Federation on the principles of local border traffic entered into force on 27 July 2012, however, from 4 July 2016 it remains suspended.

In the context of the new conditions, it became necessary to develop methods that would allow obtaining data on border traffic on all types of Polish borders and searching for additional sources of information about the trips of Poles and foreigners.

In 2008, in order to meet these challenges, Polish public statistics resumed the survey of turnover of goods and services in border traffic, which had been conducted by Statistics Poland in the years 1994–2002. The survey was adjusted to new conditions and needs, and the existing methodology was verified and modified. Initially, the survey was conducted on the Polish-Ukrainian border, and in 2010–2013 it covered the entire external land border of the European Union in Poland.

Starting from 2014, the so-called „integrated” surveys – “Trips made by non-residents to Poland. The movement of vehicles and persons at the Polish border with the countries of the European Union” and “Participation of Polish citizens (residents) in trips” have been permanently included in the Programme for Surveys in Public Statistics. They replaced four surveys on trips, which until 2014 had been conducted by different institutions: Tourism abroad, Tourist activity of Poles, Tourism and leisure in households, Survey of turnover of goods and services in border traffic on the external border of the European Union in Poland.

Starting with data for 2016, monitoring of socio-economic phenomena (e.g. national economy entities) covered border areas, both at the external and internal borders of the European Union on the territory of Poland.

For the purpose of characterising border areas in Poland, the Statistical Office delimits the border area (border zone). According to delimitation adopted in 2022, the border area (border zone) was defined using the following criteria:

• the initial delimitation was based on the criterion of the distance of the place of purchase from the border crossing point by foreigners and the distance from the border crossing point of the place of residence of Poles returning from abroad coplemented by data from accommodation establishments. The results of studies were used for this purpose: "Trips made by non-residents to Poland. The movement of vehicles and persons at the Polish border with the countries of the European Union" and "Participation of residents of Poland in trips", as well as  "Tourist accommodation establishments and their occupancy”;
• all cities located in the area delimited by a 30 or 50 km radius from border crossings have been classified as border area;
• border powiats were delimited based on the criterion of area or population living in the delimited area. If more than 50% of the area of the powiat (the sum of the areas of the delimited municipalities) is located in the delimited border zone, the powiat belongs to the border zone. If more than 50% of the population of the powiat (sum of population in delimited municipalities) is located in the delimited border zone, the powiat belongs to the border zone. If one of the above conditions is fulfilled, the powiat is considered as belonging to the border zone.