Poland
Name
| Official name | Republic of Poland — Rzeczpospolita Polska |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Polish People's Republic — Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa (1952–89); the Second Polish Republic (1918–39) and the Polish government-in-exile of London (1939–90); the Congress Kingdom of the Russian tsars (1815–1915) and the Duchy of Warsaw of Napoleon (1807–15); the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth of the Two Nations (1569–1795), the "Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów"; the Kingdom of Poland of the Piasts and Jagiellons; the Civitas Schinesghe of 991 |
| Demonym | Polish; Pole; Polak, Polka |
| Meaning of the name | From the Polanie, "the people of the fields" — pole, a field — the West Slavic tribe of the Warta plain of Gniezno and Poznań whose dukes made the state; Polska the land of the fields; "Rzeczpospolita" the Polish rendering of the Latin res publica since the 1500s; "Lechia" of the poets and the Lechites |
| Motto | None official — "Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna," God, honor, fatherland, on the standards of the army since the Second Republic; "Za wolność naszą i waszą," for our freedom and yours, of the uprisings |
Quick facts
| Capital | Warsaw — Warszawa — the capital since 1596 in place of Kraków, of the People's Republic and the Third Republic; about 1.9 million in the city and 3 million in the metropolis |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Warsaw; Kraków, about 800,000, the royal capital and the university of 1364; Łódź, about 650,000, the textile city of the Promised Land; Wrocław, the Breslau of the Germans and the Oder's islands; Poznań of the trade fairs; Gdańsk of the Hanse, the shipyard and Solidarity; Szczecin of the Oder's mouth; Bydgoszcz; Lublin; Białystok; Katowice of the Silesian conurbation of 2 million; Gdynia of the modernist port of the World Heritage of 2026; Częstochowa of the Black Madonna; Radom; Toruń of Copernicus; Rzeszów of the Ukrainian border |
| Official language | Polish — the West Slavic language of the Latin alphabet with its ogonek, its kreska and its "sz-cz," the language of Kochanowski, Mickiewicz, Sienkiewicz, Miłosz, Szymborska and Tokarczuk, the four Nobels; the spelling reform of 3 January 2026, the largest in ninety years; Kashubian the regional language of the coast by the law of 2005; German, Belarusian and Lithuanian in the communes of the minorities; Silesian spoken by 460,000 and refused the status by the veto of 2024; English by the young and the business, German and Russian by the old; Ukrainian by the two million |
| Currency | Złoty — PLN, zł; 100 groszy; since 1924, redenominated 1 January 1995; about 3.7 to the U.S. dollar and 4.3 to the euro; the euro obligation of 2004 unfulfilled |
| Time zone | Central European Time, UTC+1; summer time UTC+2 |
| Calling code | +48 |
| Internet domain | .pl |
| ISO 3166 codes | PL · POL · 616 |
| Vehicle registration code | PL |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 230 V, 50 Hz; plug types C and E |
| Independence | 11 November 1918, the independence regained after 123 years of the partitions, the day Józef Piłsudski took command in Warsaw as the Germans withdrew and the armistice was signed in France, the Second Republic; the Third Republic of the elections of 4 June 1989 and the Constitution of 1997; the baptism of Mieszko of 966 the state's birth by the tradition |
| National days | 11 November, Independence Day, the march of Warsaw; 3 May, Constitution Day, for the Constitution of 1791, the first of Europe; 1 May; 2 May, Flag Day; 15 August, the Assumption and the Day of the Polish Army, for the Miracle on the Vistula of 1920; 1 August, the Warsaw Uprising at 5 p.m., the sirens; 1 November, All Saints' and the candles of the cemeteries; 6 January, Epiphany; Easter Monday and Corpus Christi; 24 December, the Wigilia; 25 and 26 December; 1 January; 13 December, the martial law remembered; 4 June, the freedom of 1989; 1 September, the war |
| Constitution | 2 April 1997 — the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, adopted by the National Assembly of the two houses, approved by the referendum of 25 May 1997 with 53% and in force on 17 October 1997: a parliamentary republic with a president elected by the people for five years and two terms, the head of state with the veto the Sejm overrides only by three-fifths, the prime minister and the Council of Ministers responsible to the Sejm, the Sejm of 460 and the Senate of 100, the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary, the ombudsman; the amendments of 2006 and 2009; the Constitution of 3 May 1791 the ancestor, the first written constitution of Europe and the second of the world after the American; the "Small Constitution" of 1992, the Stalinist of 1952, the April of 1935, the March of 1921; the rule-of-law fight of 2015–26 over the tribunal, the council and the "neo-judges" |
| Population | 38,036,118 at the census of 2021; about 37.4 million (GUS, 2026 est.) — falling, the Ukrainians of the war beside it |
| Area | 312,685 km² (120,728 sq mi) — land 304,255 km², water 8,430 km²; the ninth-largest of Europe, the sixth of the European Union |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | Two horizontal bands of white over red — the colors of the coat of arms, the white eagle on the red field of the Piasts, declared the national colors by the Sejm of the November Uprising on 7 February 1831 and the flag of the reborn state by the law of 1 August 1919, the shades fixed by the law of 1980 and the amendment of 2004; the white for the eagle and the red for the field, the "Polish red" a crimson; the state flag with the arms on the white flown abroad and at sea; the Flag Day of 2 May since 2004 between the May Day of the old regime and the Constitution Day of the new; the same colors as Indonesia and Monaco reversed.Flag of Poland |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | A crowned white eagle with golden beak and talons on a red shield — the eagle of the Piast dukes on the seals of the 1200s and the coronation of Przemysł II of 1295, the bird that Lech saw on the nest by the legend and founded Gniezno beneath, "the nest"; the crown removed by the communists in 1945 and restored by the law of 29 December 1989 in force 1990, the present form of the sculptor Andrzej Heidrich; the eagle on the flag of state, the coins, the passports and the presidential standard |
| National anthem | "Mazurek Dąbrowskiego" ("Dąbrowski's Mazurka") — "Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła," "Poland has not yet perished, so long as we still live," the song Józef Wybicki wrote in July 1797 at Reggio Emilia for the Polish Legions of General Dąbrowski marching with Napoleon two years after the state was erased, the anthem by the decision of 1926 and the law of 1927; "March, march, Dąbrowski, from the Italian land to Poland"; the "Bogurodzica" of the knights of Grunwald the first, "Boże, coś Polskę" the hymn of the churches, "Rota" of the schools |
| National motto | None official — "Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna" on the army's banners |
| National colors | White and red |
| National animal | The white-tailed eagle, the bielik, the eagle of the arms by the ornithologists' reading, the largest bird of prey of the country; the European bison, the żubr of Białowieża, saved from extinction by the Polish herd of the 1920s, on the Żubrówka vodka; the white stork, the bocian of the chimneys, a quarter of the world's storks nesting in Poland; the Polish Arabian horses of Janów Podlaski; the Tatra chamois; widely cited |
| National flower | The red poppy of the fields and of "Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino," the song of the battle of 1944; the cornflower, the chaber, of the rye fields; the oak the national tree, the Bartek oak of 700 years; the white and red the flowers of the bouquets; widely cited |
| National dish | Pierogi — the dumplings of the potato and cheese, the cabbage and mushroom, the meat and the sweet cherries, the ruskie of the east; bigos, the hunter's stew of sauerkraut, cabbage and meats simmered for days; żurek, the sour rye soup with the egg and the sausage; kotlet schabowy, the pork cutlet of the Sunday; the gołąbki, the barszcz, the kiełbasa, the oscypek cheese of the Tatras, the pączki of Fat Thursday, the sernik; the vodka of the wódka, the Żubrówka of the bison grass and the Wyborowa; the Wigilia of the twelve dishes and the carp; widely cited |
| National sport | Football, the national sport by the passion, the Poland of Lato and Boniek of the third places of 1974 and 1982, Robert Lewandowski of the 600 goals, the Euro 2012 hosted with Ukraine; volleyball, the men's world champions of 2014 and 2018, the Olympic silver of Paris 2024, the Nations League of 2023, 2025 and the record third of 2 August 2026 at Ningbo over the Americans, the PlusLiga the best league of the world; ski jumping of Małysz and Stoch, the three Olympic golds, the Zakopane winters; speedway, the world's best league and the World Cup of Warsaw of 29 August 2026; tennis of Iga Świątek of the six Grand Slams and the Wimbledon of 2025, Hurkacz and Maja Chwalińska's French Open final of June 2026 as a qualifier; the handball of Kielce, the athletics of the World Indoors of Toruń of March 2026, Aleksandra Mirosław's climbing gold of 2024; widely cited |
| Symbol status | The flag, the arms and the anthem by the law of 31 January 1980 on the state emblem, the colors and the anthem, amended 2004; the animals, plants, dishes and sports widely cited |
Geography
| Location | Central Europe on the Baltic Sea — Germany to the west, Czechia and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave to the northeast; the plain of the North European Plain between the Baltic and the Carpathians; the eastern frontier of NATO and the European Union; the Suwałki Gap of 65 km between Kaliningrad and Belarus |
|---|---|
| Land borders | 3,071 km (1,908 mi) with seven neighbors — Czechia 796 along the Sudetes; Slovakia 541 along the Tatras and the Beskids; Ukraine 535 on the Bug and the San, the Medyka and Dorohusk crossings of the refugees of 2022 and the grain trucks of the blockades; Germany 467 on the Oder and the Neisse, the Oder–Neisse line of 1945 recognized in 1970 and 1990, the controls reinstated 7 July 2025; Belarus 418, the forest border of the migrants Lukashenko pushed since 2021, the wall of 186 km of 2022, the East Shield fortifications of €2.5 billion of 2024–28, closed during the Zapad exercise of September 2025; Russia 210 with Kaliningrad, the fence of 2022 and the mines of the Ottawa withdrawal; Lithuania 104 of the Suwałki Gap; the Vistula Spit canal of 2022 that ended the Russian gate |
| Coastline | 440 km (273 mi) on the Baltic — the Szczecin lagoon and Świnoujście of the LNG terminal, the dunes of the Słowiński park at Łeba, the Hel peninsula of 35 km, the Bay of Gdańsk of the Tricity of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia, the Vistula Lagoon shared with Kaliningrad and the canal of 2022 across the spit, the cliffs of Wolin; the amber of the beaches; the shipyards of Gdańsk and Gdynia; the offshore wind of the Baltic Power farm of 2026; the sabotage of the cables the navy watches |
| Highest point | Rysy, 2,499 m (8,199 ft), on the Slovak border in the High Tatras |
| Lowest point | Raczki Elbląskie in the Vistula delta, −1.8 m (−6 ft) |
| Mean elevation | 173 m (568 ft) — a plain |
| Rivers | The Vistula — Wisła — 1,047 km from the Barania Góra in the Beskids through Kraków, Sandomierz, Warsaw, Płock and Toruń to the Baltic at Gdańsk, the "queen of Polish rivers," the whole of it in Poland, the longest river of the Baltic basin, the floods of 1997 and 2010 and the record lows of 2015 and 2024; the Oder — Odra — 854 km of which 742 in Poland, from the Czech Silesia through Opole and Wrocław to the Szczecin lagoon, the German border for 187 km, the fish kill of the algae of August 2022 and the floods of September 2024 of the storm Boris that drowned Kłodzko, Nysa and Lewin Brzeski with nine dead; the Warta, 808 km, of Poznań, the longest tributary; the Bug of the Belarusian and Ukrainian border, the Narew, the San, the Noteć, the Dunajec of the Pieniny rafts, the Pilica; the Augustów canal |
| Lakes | About 9,300 lakes larger than a hectare, the most of any country of Europe but Finland — the Masurian Lake District of the northeast of 2,000 lakes, Śniardwy, 114 km², the largest, and Mamry, the Great Masurian Lakes of the sailors and the Wolf's Lair; Hańcza in the Suwałki hills, 108 m deep, the deepest of the Central European plain; the Pomeranian lakes of Drawsko and Łebsko of the dunes; Morskie Oko, the "eye of the sea," in the Tatras under Rysy; the Solina reservoir of the Bieszczady, the Włocławek of the Vistula, the Goczałkowice of Silesia's water; the Wigry of the national park |
| Terrain | The plain — the Baltic coast of the dunes and the lagoons, the lake districts of Pomerania and Masuria of the last ice age's moraines, the central lowlands of the Vistula and the Warta of the rye and the potatoes, the uplands of Lesser Poland and Lublin of the loess and the Świętokrzyskie mountains of the oldest rock, the Silesian coal basin; the Sudetes of the southwest with Śnieżka at 1,603 m of the Karkonosze; the Carpathians of the south, the Beskids of the wooded ridges, the Pieniny of the Dunajec gorge, the Bieszczady of the polonina meadows and the Tatras of the granite, the only alpine range, with Rysy and the Giewont above Zakopane; the Białowieża forest of the east, the last primeval lowland forest of the continent, and the Biebrza marshes |
| Climate | Temperate between the oceanic west and the continental east — the winters cold with snow, −3°C in January in Warsaw and −20 in the cold spells of the east, the summers warm at 18 to 20°C in July and the heat waves of the 2020s, the record of 40.5°C at Słubice on 28 June 2026 that beat the 40.2 of 1921; 500 to 700 mm of rain on the plain and 1,500 in the Tatras; the smog of Kraków and Silesia of the coal stoves, the worst air of the Union in the winter; the droughts of 2015, 2018 and 2024 that lowered the Vistula to the wrecks; the golden Polish autumn |
| Natural hazards | Floods — the "flood of the millennium" of July 1997 on the Oder with 56 dead and Wrocław under water, the Vistula floods of May 2010 with 25 dead, the floods of September 2024 of the storm Boris in Lower Silesia and Opole with nine dead, Kłodzko and Nysa flooded and the dam of Stronie Śląskie burst; the droughts of the summers; the storms of the Bory Tucholskie of August 2017 that felled the forest and killed six scouts; the mine tremors of Silesia and the Lubin copper of the earthquakes of 2026, the 4.9 of 11 July, the miner killed at Bytom on 17 June 2026; the smog; the heat of 2026; the Marywilska shopping-center fire of Warsaw of 12 May 2024 the prosecutors laid to Russian sabotage, the railway line to Lublin blown up on 15–16 November 2025 by two Ukrainians working for Russian intelligence; the drones of September 2025 and the missile of July 2026 |
| Natural resources | Coal — the hard coal of Upper Silesia, the largest of the European Union, and the lignite of Bełchatów, the largest lignite mine and the largest coal plant of Europe, the phase-out by 2049 of the agreement of 2020; copper and silver of the KGHM mines of Lubin, Polkowice and Rudna, the largest copper of Europe and the second silver producer of the world; zinc and lead of Silesia, sulfur of Tarnobrzeg, rock salt of Wieliczka and Kłodawa, potash, the amber of the Baltic; natural gas of the Podkarpacie small and the shale gas of the hopes that failed; the farmland of a half of the country; the forests of the timber and the furniture; the Baltic wind; the Union's money |
| Land use | Agricultural land about 47%, the arable of 35% of the country on the loess and the plain; forest about 30%, the pines of the state forests, growing from the 21% of 1945; the built and the water the rest |
| National parks | 23 national parks on about 1% of the land and the landscape parks on 8% — Białowieża of 1932, the primeval forest of the oaks and the bison, the World Heritage shared with Belarus; Tatra of 1954 of Rysy, Morskie Oko and the Giewont, the most visited; Biebrza of 1993, the largest at 590 km², the marshes of the elk and the birds; Kampinos at the gates of Warsaw; Słowiński of the moving dunes of Łeba; Bieszczady of the poloninas and the wolves; Karkonosze of Śnieżka; Pieniny of the Dunajec gorge; Ojców of the caves near Kraków; Wigry; Wolin of the cliffs; the Bory Tucholskie; the Stołowe mountains of the rock labyrinths; the Roztocze; the Warta Mouth of the birds; the Świętokrzyski of the fir |
| UNESCO World Heritage | 18 — the Historic Centre of Kraków (1978), the Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines (1978), the oldest working salt mine until 1996, Auschwitz Birkenau, the German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1979), Białowieża Forest (1979, extended 2014), the Historic Centre of Warsaw (1980), the Old City of Zamość (1992), the Medieval Town of Toruń (1997), the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork (1997), the largest brick castle in the world, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (1999), the Churches of Peace in Jawor and Świdnica (2001), the Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland (2003), Muskauer Park (2004, shared with Germany), the Centennial Hall in Wrocław (2006), the Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region (2013, shared with Ukraine), the Tarnowskie Góry Lead-Silver-Zinc Mine (2017), the Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region (2019), the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians (2021 extension, shared) and the Modernist Centre of Gdynia (27 July 2026), the newest; the Kraków nativity scenes (2018), the tree beekeeping (2020), the flower carpets of Corpus Christi (2021), the Polonaise (2023) and the falconry (shared) on the intangible list |
| Administrative divisions | 16 voivodeships — województwa — since the reform of 1 January 1999 that replaced the 49 of 1975, Masovian of Warsaw, Lesser Poland of Kraków, Silesian of Katowice, Greater Poland of Poznań, Lower Silesian of Wrocław, Łódź, Pomeranian of Gdańsk, West Pomeranian of Szczecin, Lublin, Podlaskie of Białystok, Subcarpathian of Rzeszów, Kuyavian-Pomeranian of Bydgoszcz and Toruń, Warmian-Masurian of Olsztyn, Lubusz of Gorzów and Zielona Góra, Opole and Świętokrzyskie of Kielce, each with an elected sejmik and marshal and a governor of the prime minister's; 380 counties, 314 powiats and 66 city-counties; 2,477 communes, the gminas of the mayors elected 7 April 2024 for five years, the next in 2029; the six new towns of 1 January 2026 |
People
| Population | 38,036,118 (census of 2021); about 37.4 million (2026 est.), the residents of the count; the two million Ukrainians beside them by the estimates |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 120 per km² (311 per sq mi) — Silesia at 370, Podlaskie at 58 |
| Population growth | About −0.4% a year — 130,000 more deaths than births in 2024, the fertility the lowest of the country's history, the emigration of two million to Britain, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands since 2004 and the return of some; the demographers' 30 million of 2060 |
| Median age | About 42 years |
| Life expectancy | About 78 years — 74 for men, 82 for women |
| Fertility rate | About 1.1 births per woman — 1.10 in 2024, among the three lowest of the world with South Korea and Taiwan, from 2.4 in 1980 and the "500+" child benefit of 2016 raised to "800+" in 2024 that did not lift it |
| Urban population | About 60% |
| Adult literacy | About 99.8% |
| Ethnic groups | Polish 97% by the census of 2021, the most homogeneous large nation of Europe since the war and the borders of 1945 moved the Germans out and the Ukrainians east and the Holocaust and the flight took the Jews; Silesian 1.5%, the 585,000 of Upper Silesia who declared the identity, the "hidden option" of Kaczyński's word, their language refused by the veto of May 2024; German 0.4% of Opole and the Silesian villages, the 150,000 of the minority's seat in the Sejm; Kashubian of the coast; Ukrainian and Lemko of the Operation Vistula deportees of 1947 and the two million of the migrants and the refugees since 2014 and 2022, a million and more still, the largest minority by far and uncounted; Belarusian of Podlaskie, Lithuanian of Puńsk, Roma, Tatar of the mosques of Kruszyniany, Jewish of the 10,000 of the 3.3 million of 1939, Vietnamese of Warsaw, Armenian, Czech and Slovak; the "Poles" of the census 97% of a country that was a third minority in 1931 |
| Languages | Polish by 98% as the mother tongue, the language of 45 million in the world; Silesian by 460,000 in the census and the debate over whether it is a language, the bill of 2024 vetoed by President Duda and refiled; Kashubian by 90,000 with the regional status of 2005 and the schools; German by 60,000, Belarusian by 20,000, Ukrainian by the millions of the newcomers; Lemko, Lithuanian, Romani, Tatar, Yiddish and Hebrew of the minorities' law of 2005; English by 40%, the young's second language, German by 15% of the west, Russian by the old; the Polish Sign Language of 2011 |
| Religion | Roman Catholic 71.3% by the census of 2021, down from 87.6% in 2011, the 20% who did not answer the difference, the Mass attendance of 29% of the Catholics by the church's count of 2023, the fall of the young after the abuse scandals and the abortion ruling, the bishop of Tarnów on trial since 18 February 2026 for the concealment of the priests' abuse, the first; the church of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa and the pilgrimage of August, of the Wigilia and the Corpus Christi processions, of John Paul II, the pope of 1978–2005 who "began the fall of communism," of Cardinal Wyszyński and Father Popiełuszko murdered in 1984; none 6.9% and rising, the "apostasy" of the young; Orthodox 0.4% of Podlaskie; the Jehovah's Witnesses 0.3%; Protestant 0.3%, the Lutherans of Cieszyn; the Greek Catholics of the Ukrainians; the Old Believers, the Tatars' mosques, the Jews of the Nożyk synagogue; the concordat of 1993; the abortion ruling of 22 October 2020 that banned nearly all of it and the marches of the women; Warsaw's first same-sex marriage registered on 14 May 2026 under the European court's rulings and the "civilizational minimum" of the partnership law |
| Human Development Index | 0.881 (2023 data, 2025 report) — very high; about 34th of 193 |
| The Ukrainians and the border | The two million Ukrainians of the country, the million migrant workers of the 2010s and the million refugees of the war of 2022 who stayed of the 3 million who crossed at Medyka and Przemyśl in the first weeks, the PESEL numbers, the schools, the "800+" for their children ended by the president's condition and the special support law he signed on 19 February 2026 that moved them to the general foreigners' rules; the grain of 2023 that the farmers blocked at the border and the embargo; the Volhynia massacres of 1943–44 of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the "genocide" of the Sejm's resolution of 2016 and the exhumations that Warsaw demanded and Kyiv allowed in 2025, the day of remembrance of 11 July, and the Order of the White Eagle that President Nawrocki stripped from Zelenskyy on 19 June 2026 after Kyiv named a unit for the UPA's "heroes"; the Belarusian border of the migrants of 2021 pushed by Lukashenko, the wall of 2022, the pushbacks and the dead of the forest, the soldier killed at the border in June 2024, the "East Shield"; the Poles of the "for your freedom and ours" and the fatigue of the fourth year |
| Sport | Football — Lewandowski of Barcelona and the 85 goals for Poland, the World Cups of 2018 and 2022 out in the group and the round of 16 and the qualifying of 2026 through the playoffs, Zieliński, Szczęsny, the Ekstraklasa won by Lech Poznań on 16 May 2026 for the tenth title; volleyball, the three Nations Leagues, the two world titles of 2014 and 2018, the Paris silver, Warta Zawiercie's first PlusLiga title of 10 May 2026; the tennis of Świątek, the world number one of 2022–24 and the Wimbledon champion of 2025, Hurkacz, Chwalińska's Roland Garros final of 6 June 2026; ski jumping of the Olympians of Milan-Cortina 2026; speedway of the Ekstraliga and the World Cup of Warsaw; handball of Kielce's 21 titles and the Vive; the athletics of the World Indoor Championships of Toruń of 20–22 March 2026; the boxing of the president's youth; the Paris Olympics of 2024 with 10 medals and Mirosław's gold; the U-20 Women's World Cup hosted 5–27 September 2026; Kubkowski's swim across the Baltic of 160 km in 56 hours of 2 August 2026, the first |
| Diaspora | About 20 million of Polish descent abroad, the "Polonia" — the United States of 9 million of Chicago, the second Polish city, Detroit and New Jersey; Brazil of 2 million of Paraná; Germany of 2 million; France of a million of the miners of the Nord; Canada, Britain of the 700,000 who came after 2004, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, Argentina; the Poles of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine of the old eastern lands, 300,000 in Lithuania; the Karta Polaka of 2007; the votes of the diaspora that leaned to Trzaskowski in 2025; the remittances of the Union years |
Government
| Form of government | Unitary parliamentary republic under the Constitution of 1997 — the president elected by the people for five years as head of state with the veto, the referral to the tribunal, the command of the forces and the foreign policy shared, the "cohabitation" of a president and a government of opposite camps the country's condition of 2007–10, 2015 and since 2025; the prime minister of the Sejm's majority the head of government; the Sejm of 460 and the Senate of 100; the Constitutional Tribunal captured by Law and Justice in 2015–16 and unrecognized by the government since, the "neo-judges" of the disputed council; the 16 voivodeships; "free" by Freedom House, the "flawed democracy" of the index in the rule-of-law years and the recovery; the Union's Article 7 procedure of 2017 closed in 2024 |
|---|---|
| President | Karol Nawrocki (independent, backed by Law and Justice), since 6 August 2025 — the seventh president of the Third Republic; born 3 March 1983 at Gdańsk, the historian of the University of Gdańsk, the amateur boxer of the ring and the "hooligan" fights of the 2000s his opponents dug up, the director of the Museum of the Second World War of 2017–21 and the president of the Institute of National Remembrance of 2021–25, the prosecutor of the communist crimes and the remover of the Soviet monuments, the "Nawrocki 2025" of the citizens' candidacy the party of Kaczyński ran, the Oval Office visit of May 2025 and Trump's "he will win," the Kristi Noem rally; the first round of 18 May 2025 at 29.5% behind Trzaskowski's 31.4% and the runoff of 1 June 2025 won by 50.89% to 49.11%, 10,606,877 votes to 10,237,286, a margin of 369,591, the votes of the Confederation's Mentzen and Braun that carried him; sworn 6 August 2025 before the National Assembly; the president of the more than forty vetoes by the middle of 2026 — the judicial reforms, the refugee aid, the taxes, the SAFE loans of 12 March 2026 "for the sovereignty," the wind farms — "the presidency an active center of opposition," Notes from Poland; the stripping of Zelenskyy's Order of the White Eagle of 19 June 2026, the refugee law of 19 February, the Jurata summit of the eastern flank's presidents of 27 June 2026, the Poznań ceremony of the 70th anniversary of 1956, the "highest-rated politician" of the end of 2025 and the "MAGA wing" of the analysts' word; "the leader of a future right-wing majority" of 2027 by his ambition; Marta Nawrocka the first lady; his term to August 2030 |
| Prime Minister | Donald Tusk (Civic Coalition — Koalicja Obywatelska, the Civic Platform), since 13 December 2023 — the prime minister for the second time after 2007–14, the longest-serving of the Third Republic; born 22 April 1957 at Gdańsk of a Kashubian family, the historian of the Solidarity underground, the founder of the Civic Platform of 2001, the prime minister of the "warm water in the taps" of 2007–14 and the Smolensk crash of 2010, the president of the European Council of 2014–19 and of the European People's Party of 2019–22; the winner of 15 October 2023 with the coalition of 248 seats on a turnout of 74.4%, the highest since 1989, that ended eight years of Law and Justice, sworn 13 December 2023 with the Third Way of Kosiniak-Kamysz and Hołownia and the Left; the unblocker of the €60 billion of EU funds of February 2024, the East Shield, the defense at 4.8%, the migration rules, the "eight stars" dropped; the loser of the presidential year of 2025, the vote of confidence of 11 June 2025 won 243 to 210, the reshuffle of July 2025 with Radosław Sikorski as deputy prime minister and foreign minister; the leader of the government the vetoes bind, "governing an exercise in endurance," the "civilizational minimum" of the partnership law, the same-sex marriage of Warsaw of May 2026 by the courts; the deputy prime ministers Sikorski, Kosiniak-Kamysz of defense and Gawkowski of digital; his term to the election of autumn 2027 |
| The 2023 and 2025 elections | The parliamentary election of 15 October 2023: Law and Justice 35.4% and 194 seats, the first party and without a majority for the first time since 2015; the Civic Coalition of Tusk 30.7% and 157; the Third Way of the Polish People's Party and Poland 2050 14.4% and 65; the Left 8.6% and 26; the Confederation 7.2% and 18; the turnout of 74.4%, the record, the queues of the young at midnight; the Senate of 100 with the "Senate pact" of the opposition's 66; the Morawiecki government of two weeks of December 2023 and the Tusk government of 13 December by 248 to 201; the presidential election of 18 May and 1 June 2025 — Trzaskowski of the Civic Coalition 31.4% and Nawrocki 29.5% in the first round of thirteen, Sławomir Mentzen of the Confederation 14.8% and Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation of the Polish Crown 6.3%, the far right's 21% that decided the runoff, Szymon Hołownia 5%, Adrian Zandberg 4.9%, Magdalena Biejat 4.2%; the runoff of Nawrocki by 369,591 votes on a turnout of 71.6%, the second-highest of a presidential vote; the recount petitions rejected by the Supreme Court's chamber the government does not recognize |
| Parliament | The National Assembly — the Sejm of 460 deputies elected for four years by proportional lists in 41 districts with the 5% threshold and 8% for the coalitions, the "Marshal" of the Sejm the second in the state, Szymon Hołownia of Poland 2050 from November 2023 and Włodzimierz Czarzasty of the Left from 13 November 2025 by the coalition's rotation, the "uncompromising enforcer" whom the United States cut off on 5 February 2026 for his words on Trump, the ambassador's "insults"; the Senate of 100 elected in single-member districts, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska of the Civic Coalition the Marshal; the Sejm of the Civic Coalition 157, Law and Justice 194 and shrinking by the schism, the Third Way 65 split into the Peasants' 32 and Poland 2050's 33 and its fragments, the Left 26, the Confederation 18, the Polish Crown, Kukiz; the three-fifths of 276 the coalition lacks; the building of Wiejska street of 1928 |
| The next election | The parliamentary election of autumn 2027, by October or November by the four years from the Sejm's first sitting of 13 November 2023; the presidential of May 2030; the local elections of 2029; the European Parliament of June 2029 |
| Law and Justice and the right | Law and Justice — Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS — the party of the twins Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński of 2001, in power 2005–07 and 2015–23 under Prime Ministers Szydło and Morawiecki and President Duda, the "500+" and the pensions, the courts captured, the public television of the propaganda, the Union's funds frozen, the abortion ruling of 2020, the Smolensk of 10 April 2010 that killed President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others and made the myth; Jarosław Kaczyński the chairman since 2003 at 77; Zbigniew Ziobro, the justice minister of the reforms and the Pegasus spyware of the Justice Fund, charged, granted asylum by Hungary on 12 January 2026 and fled to the United States on 10 May 2026; the schism of 2026 — Przemysław Czarnek, the former education minister, named the party's candidate for prime minister at the Kraków convention of 7 March 2026, "a tank, not a bumper," and Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of 2017–23, expelled with his Development Plus association on 24 July 2026 for refusing the loyalty oath, thirty and more deputies gone with him; the Confederation of Mentzen and Bosak at 15 to 20% of the polls, the libertarian and nationalist party the next majority needs; Braun's Confederation of the Polish Crown of the antisemitic stunts and the Hanukkah candles; the president the right's "unifier" or its rival |
| The cohabitation | The government that cannot legislate and the president who cannot govern — the vetoes of the first year: the judicial "neo-judges" repair, the Constitutional Tribunal reform, the "windmill" law, the tax rises, the health contribution, the refugee support until the president's terms were met, the SAFE loans of the Union's €150 billion defense program of which Poland was the largest beneficiary at €44 billion, vetoed on 12 March 2026 "for the sovereignty" and the "dependence on Brussels," "Warsaw reeling," France 24; the three-fifths of the Sejm the coalition lacks; the referrals to the Constitutional Tribunal the government does not recognize; the ambassadors unappointed; the "two foreign policies" of the president's Washington and the prime minister's Brussels, "the United States administration preferring contacts with President Nawrocki over the government," the China-CEE briefing; the president who "ended 2025 as Poland's highest-rated politician"; "whether 2026 marks a consolidation or the beginning of a reckoning," Balkan Insight |
| Russia, the drones and the war | The eastern flank's frontline state — the Russian drones of the night of 9–10 September 2025, 19 crossings of the airspace during an attack on Ukraine, shot down by the Polish and Dutch F-35s and F-16s, the first NATO engagement of Russian aircraft since 2022, "an act of aggression," the Article 4 consultations invoked on 10 September, the Security Council called, the Eastern Sentry mission of the Alliance; the drone neutralized over the government buildings of Warsaw on 15 September 2025; the missile of Przewodów of 15 November 2022 that killed two farmers, Ukrainian by the finding; the suspected Russian cruise missile that left a crater at Tarnawa-Kolonia near Lublin on 30 July 2026, "probably Russian," the prime minister; the Il-20 reconnaissance plane intercepted off Koszalin on 4 August 2026; the sabotage — the Marywilska fire of 2024, the railway to Lublin blown on 15–16 November 2025, the spy of Hrubieszów jailed on 3 February 2026 for the plot on Zelenskyy, the Russian dissident artist shot dead at Biała Podlaska on 15 June 2026; the Kaliningrad missiles and the Suwałki Gap; the Ottawa Treaty left on 20 February 2026 for the mines of the border; the Belarusian border closed in the Zapad exercise of September 2025; the three Poles freed by Belarus on 28 April 2026 in the American swap |
| Legal system | Civil law of the Napoleonic and German codes — the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Tribunal of 15, the National Council of the Judiciary, the administrative courts; the rule-of-law dispute of 2015–26, the tribunal packed by the "doubles" of 2015, the council remade by the Sejm in 2018, the disciplinary chamber the European Court of Justice ordered dissolved and the fines of a million euros a day, the "neo-judges" of 2,500 appointments the government calls invalid and the president defends, the repair laws vetoed, the "legal dualism" of two courts systems; the death penalty abolished 1997; the abortion of the ruling of 22 October 2020 that struck the fetal-defect ground, the deaths of the women refused, the government's bill of 2024 failed by three votes, the "decriminalization" of the help; the Pegasus commission; the Ziobro prosecutions; the same-sex marriage recognized by the registration of 14 May 2026 after the European rulings of 2025 and the partnership law of the "civilizational minimum"; the Institute of National Remembrance the president ran |
| Local government | 16 voivodeships with the sejmiks and the marshals elected 7 April 2024 for five years, the Civic Coalition in most, and the voivodes of the government; 380 counties and 2,477 gminas with the mayors and councils of the same election, Rafał Trzaskowski the mayor of Warsaw since 2018 and the presidential loser twice, Aleksander Miszalski of Kraków, the Union's money of the local investments; the six new towns of 2026; the "self-government" of the reform of 1990 the pride of the Third Republic |
| Defense | The Polish Armed Forces of about 210,000, the third-largest of NATO after the United States and Turkey and toward the 300,000 of the plan, the Territorial Defense of 40,000; the defense spending of 4.8% of GDP in 2026, 200 billion złoty, the highest share of the Alliance, the escape clause of the Union of July 2025; the buying — the 250 Abrams and the 1,000 K2 tanks of Korea, the K9 howitzers, the HIMARS and the Korean Chunmoo, the 32 F-35s from 2026, the FA-50s, the Patriot and the Wisła and Narew air defense, the Apaches, the Orka submarines; the East Shield of the border of €2.5 billion; the Ottawa withdrawal of 2026 and the mines; the SAFE loans vetoed; the American troops of 10,000 and the V Corps of Poznań, the Fort Trump that was not, the Aegis Ashore of Redzikowo of 2024; the German defense agreement of 17 June 2026; the Iraq contingent withdrawn on 20 March 2026 for the Iranian threat; the Chinese vehicles barred from the barracks on 18 February 2026; NATO since 12 March 1999; the conscription suspended 2009 and the training of 100,000 a year of the plan; the Warsaw Uprising, Monte Cassino and the Battle of Britain's 303 Squadron the pride |
| Foreign policy | The Union and the Alliance — the European Union of 1 May 2004, the largest recipient of its funds at €245 billion net, the Article 7 of 2017 lifted in 2024, the presidency of the Council of the first half of 2025, the euro refused; NATO of 1999 and the frontline; the United States of the alliance and the two channels, the president's Trump and the government's Congress, the tariffs, the visa waiver of 2019, the speaker cut off in 2026; Germany of the reparations demand of €1.3 trillion of 2022 the new government softened and the defense pact of 2026, the border controls; Ukraine of the "for your freedom" of 2022, the weapons and the two million, the grain, Volhynia and the Order stripped; Belarus of the border war; Russia of the enemy; the Weimar Triangle with France and Germany, the Nordic-Baltic Eight the government joins, the Three Seas Initiative of the president, the Visegrád Four cooled by Orbán, who shelters Ziobro; the Jurata of the eastern presidents; Israel and the Auschwitz of every January; the Iran war of 2026 and the troops brought home from Iraq |
| United Nations | A founding member of 24 October 1945, the signature of the Charter delayed to 16 October by the government dispute; the Security Council seats of 1946–47, 1960, 1970–71, 1982–83, 1996–97 and 2018–19; the peacekeepers of the Golan, Lebanon and the Balkans, 90,000 in all; the drone incursion of September 2025 taken to the Council; the UNESCO of the eighteen; the climate summits of Poznań 2008, Warsaw 2013 and Katowice 2018 |
| Other memberships | NATO (1999); the European Union (2004), the Schengen Area (2007) and the eurozone obligation; the OECD (1996); the Council of Europe (1991); the WTO (1995); the Visegrád Group (1991); the Weimar Triangle (1991); the Three Seas Initiative (2016); the Bucharest Nine; the Lublin Triangle with Lithuania and Ukraine (2020); the International Energy Agency; the Ottawa Treaty left 20 February 2026; the OSCE |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$980 billion (2025, IMF) and the first trillion expected in 2026 — the twentieth economy of the world and the sixth of the European Union |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$26,000 (2025) — from US$1,700 in 1990, the fastest climb of the Union |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$55,000 (2025) — 80% of the Union's average, from 40% in 2004 |
| GDP growth | About 2.9% in 2024, about 3.5% in 2025 and about 3.5% expected in 2026, "only Malta will overtake Poland" in the Commission's forecast, the consumption, the EU funds and the defense the engines, the "gliding economy" of the year of the "grinding politics"; inflation about 3% after the 18% of February 2023; the złoty stable; unemployment about 3%, the lowest of the Union with Czechia; the deficit of 6.5% of GDP and the debt rising toward 60%, Fitch's outlook cut to negative on 9 June 2025 for "the lack of a credible fiscal consolidation plan"; the thirty years without a recession broken only by 2020; the "Polish miracle" of the transformation |
| Economy by sector | Services about 65%; industry about 29%, the cars and their parts, the batteries, the furniture, the appliances, the food and the coal; agriculture about 3% and a tenth of the workers of the small farms |
| Currency | Złoty (PLN) |
| Industry and the exports | The manufacturing of the Union's workshop — the car parts and the Volkswagen, Stellantis and Toyota plants, the buses of Solaris of Poznań, the largest bus maker of Europe, the batteries of the LG Energy plant of Wrocław, the largest of Europe; the furniture of the IKEA suppliers, the second-largest exporter of furniture in the world; the appliances of the Whirlpool and Samsung plants, the largest maker of washing machines of Europe; the aviation of the Rzeszów valley of Pratt and Whitney; the shipyards of the Gdańsk of the ferries; the games of CD Projekt of "The Witcher" and "Cyberpunk"; the cosmetics, the windows of Fakro, the vodka; exports of about US$400 billion, to Germany at 27%, Czechia, France, Britain, Italy and the Netherlands; the "nearshoring" of the 2020s; the Orlen refiner the largest company, the KGHM copper, the PKO bank, the CD Projekt, the Dino stores, the Allegro of the shopping, the InPost lockers; the Warsaw Stock Exchange the largest of the region |
| Farming | The largest producer of apples of the Union and the third of the world, the orchards of Grójec, the juice the Russian embargo of 2014 stranded; the largest poultry producer of the Union, the eggs and the chicken; the potatoes, the rye, the wheat and the rapeseed of the plain, the sugar beet, the milk of the fourth herd of the Union, the pork; the 1.3 million farms of the average 11 hectares, the smallholders of the Peasants' Party the coalition's partner and the Ukrainian grain's enemies, the blockades of 2023–24 and the tractors of Warsaw; the Common Agricultural Policy's money; the mushrooms, the carp, the honey |
| Energy and the coal | Electricity from coal at about 55% in 2025, from 90% in 2005, the hard coal of Silesia and the lignite of Bełchatów, the largest coal plant of Europe and its largest single emitter, the phase-out of the mines by 2049 of the agreement with the unions; the wind of the land and the Baltic Power offshore farm of 2026 of Orlen and Equinor, the solar of the roofs of the boom, the renewables at 30%; the nuclear — the first plant of three Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Lubiatowo-Kopalino on the coast with Bechtel, the construction from 2028 and the first unit of 2036, the state aid the Commission approved in 2025, the small modular reactors of the plans; the gas of the Baltic Pipe from Norway of 2022 and the LNG terminal of Świnoujście of 2015 that ended the Russian gas in 2022; the smog of the "Clean Air" program |
| The European money and the state | The Union's funds — €245 billion net since 2004, the cohesion of €76 billion of 2021–27, the recovery plan of €60 billion frozen over the rule of law and unblocked in February 2024 by the Tusk government, the "yachts and saunas" of the misuse allegations of 2025, the SAFE loans of €44 billion vetoed in 2026; the state's companies of the Treasury, the Orlen, the PGE and the KGHM the parties fill; the "800+" child benefit of 2024, the pensions of the 60 and 65, the "Polish Deal" of the taxes undone; the health service of the queues; the housing of the "Safe Credit"; the record budget of 2026 of the deficit of 6.5% |
| Public finances | Public debt about 58% of GDP and rising toward the constitutional limit of 60%, the deficit of 6.5% of 2025 and about 6% of 2026 of the defense and the pensions, the excessive deficit procedure of the Union since 2024; the budget of about 900 billion złoty; the defense of 200 billion; Fitch's negative outlook of June 2025; the taxes of 35% of GDP; the tax rises the president vows to veto; the "fiscal consolidation, spending reform and strengthening the public finance system" the analysts prescribe |
| Income classification | High income (World Bank) since 2009 |
Transport & infrastructure
| Main airports | Warsaw Chopin Airport at Okęcie, about 21 million passengers, the hub of LOT; Kraków John Paul II at Balice, about 11 million, the tourists'; Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa, Katowice Pyrzowice, Wrocław Copernicus, Poznań, Warsaw Modlin of the low-cost, Rzeszów of the Ukraine weapons' hub of 2022; the Solidarity Transport Hub, the CPK, at Baranów between Warsaw and Łódź, the megaairport of 40 million and the high-speed rail junction building for 2032 after the new government cut and kept it |
|---|---|
| Airline | LOT Polish Airlines of 1 January 1929, one of the oldest airlines in the world under its name, the state carrier of the 787 Dreamliners to New York, Chicago, Toronto, Seoul, Tokyo and Delhi and the 84 planes, the profits of the 2020s and the losses of the pandemic; Wizz Air and Ryanair of the two-thirds of the passengers; Enter Air of the charters |
| Main ports | Gdańsk, the largest port of the Baltic by tonnage and the Baltic Hub container terminal of 2 million containers, the oil terminal of Naftoport, the coal and the grain, the Westerplatte of 1939; Gdynia of the modernist city of 1926 and the container terminal; Szczecin and Świnoujście of the Oder's mouth, the LNG terminal of 2015 and the floating one of 2028, the ferries to Sweden; the naval base of Gdynia and the Orka submarines; the Vistula Spit canal of 17 September 2022 that opened Elbląg to the sea without Russia |
| Railways | About 19,000 km (11,800 mi), two-thirds electrified — the PKP of the Central Rail Line of 1977 of 200 km/h and the Pendolino of December 2014 from Warsaw to Kraków, Katowice, Wrocław and Gdańsk, the intercity of the record 70 million passengers; the "Y" high-speed line of the CPK from Warsaw to Łódź, Poznań and Wrocław at 320 km/h for the 2030s; the regional lines revived; the Warsaw Metro of 7 April 1995, the two lines and the third building, the trams of the fifteen cities; the Piła collision of two trains at Białośliwie of 25 June 2026 with eleven injured; the sabotage of the Lublin line of November 2025; the Rail Baltica of the north; the freight of the coal and the containers of the China trains at Małaszewicze |
| Roads | About 430,000 km (267,000 mi), the motorways and expressways of 5,000 km built with the Union's money since 2004 — the A1 from Gdańsk to the Czech border, the A2 from Berlin to Warsaw and on to the east, the A4 from Germany through Wrocław and Kraków to Ukraine, the S7 to the Tatras, the S8, the S19 of the Via Carpatia along the eastern border, the S61 of the Via Baltica to Lithuania; the national roads of the "Chinese" bridges; the driving on the right; the speed limit of 140 on the motorways; the 1,900 road deaths of 2024 halved since 2010; the electric cars of the Izera that never came; the traffic of Warsaw |
| The Vistula and the mountains | The Vistula of the boats of Kraków and the barges of the plans; the Masurian lakes of the sailing of the summer, the Great Masurian route; the rafts of the Dunajec gorge; the Tatra cable car of Kasprowy Wierch of 1936 and the funicular of Gubałówka; the Zakopane of the winter; the Augustów canal of 1839; the Elbląg canal of the inclined planes of 1860; the pilgrim roads to Częstochowa |
History in dates
| 966 | The baptism of Mieszko I — the state |
|---|---|
| 1025 | Bolesław the Brave crowned king |
| 1241 | The Mongols at Legnica |
| 1364 | The University of Kraków |
| 1385 | The Union of Krewo — the Jagiellons |
| 1410 | Grunwald, 15 July — the Teutonic Order beaten |
| 1543 | Copernicus publishes |
| 1569 | The Union of Lublin, 1 July — the Commonwealth |
| 1573 | The Warsaw Confederation — religious freedom; the elected kings |
| 1596 | The capital to Warsaw |
| 1683 | Sobieski at Vienna, 12 September |
| 1772 | The first partition; the second, 1793 |
| 1791 | The Constitution of 3 May — the first of Europe |
| 1795 | The third partition — Poland erased |
| 1797 | The Mazurka written |
| 1830 | The November Uprising; the January Uprising, 1863 |
| 1918 | Independence, 11 November — Piłsudski |
| 1920 | The Miracle on the Vistula, 15 August |
| 1939 | Germany invades, 1 September; the Soviets, 17 September |
| 1940 | Katyń |
| 1943 | The Ghetto Uprising, 19 April |
| 1944 | The Warsaw Uprising, 1 August – 2 October |
| 1945 | Yalta; the borders moved west; the People's Republic |
| 1956 | Poznań, 28 June; Gomułka |
| 1978 | John Paul II, 16 October |
| 1980 | Solidarity at Gdańsk, 31 August |
| 1981 | Martial law, 13 December |
| 1989 | The Round Table, 6 February – 5 April; the election, 4 June; Mazowiecki, 24 August |
| 1990 | Wałęsa president, December |
| 1997 | The Constitution, 2 April |
| 1999 | NATO, 12 March |
| 2004 | The European Union, 1 May |
| 2010 | Smolensk, 10 April |
| 2015 | Law and Justice takes the state, October |
| 2022 | The Ukrainians, February; Przewodów, 15 November |
| 2023 | The election, 15 October; Tusk, 13 December |
| 2024 | The EU funds unblocked, February; the floods, September |
| 2025 | Nawrocki elected, 1 June; the confidence vote, 11 June; the border controls, 7 July; Nawrocki sworn, 6 August; the drones, 9–10 September; the railway sabotage, 15–16 November; Czarzasty Marshal, 13 November |
| 2026 | The spelling reform, 3 January; Ziobro's asylum, 12 January; Washington cuts off the Marshal, 5 February; the refugee law, 19 February; the Ottawa exit, 20 February; Czarnek, 7 March; the SAFE veto, 12 March; the same-sex marriage, 14 May; the German pact, 17 June; Zelenskyy's Eagle, 19 June; Jurata, 27 June; 40.5°C, 28 June; Morawiecki expelled, 24 July; Gdynia listed, 27 July; the missile, 30 July; the Nations League, 2 August |
Records & firsts
| The first written constitution of Europe | 3 May 1791 |
|---|---|
| The first religious freedom act | The Warsaw Confederation, 1573 |
| The last primeval lowland forest | Białowieża |
| The oldest salt mine | Wieliczka, since the 1200s |
| The largest brick castle | Malbork |
| The largest medieval square | Kraków |
| A quarter of the world's storks | The chimneys |
| The largest producer of apples in the EU | Grójec |
| The largest coal producer of the EU | Silesia |
| The highest defense share of NATO | 4.8% of GDP |
| The lowest unemployment of the EU | About 3% |
| Among the three lowest fertility rates | 1.1 |
| The record heat | 40.5°C, 28 June 2026 |
| The first swim across the Baltic | 2 August 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Poland?
The Republic of Poland — Rzeczpospolita Polska, the "Rzeczpospolita" of the Latin res publica that the country has called itself since the Commonwealth of the nobles of 1569, the Third Republic since the fall of communism in 1989 after the Second of 1918–39 and the People's Republic of 1952–89 — the state of the Piast dukes baptized in 966, partitioned out of existence by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795, reborn on 11 November 1918 under Piłsudski, destroyed again in September 1939 and remade in 1945 two hundred kilometers to the west. The name is the tribe's: the Polanie, "the people of the fields," of the Warta plain around Poznań and Gniezno whose duke Mieszko made the state; "Polska" the land of the fields.
What is the capital of Poland?
Warsaw — Warszawa — the town on the Vistula that Sigismund III made the capital in 1596 in place of Kraków, the city that Hitler ordered erased after the Uprising of 1944 and that lost 85 percent of its buildings and 700,000 of its people in the war, rebuilt from the paintings of Canaletto so exactly that its Old Town is on the World Heritage list as a reconstruction — about 1.9 million people in the city and 3 million in the metropolis, the Palace of Culture Stalin gave it, the skyscrapers of the Varso Tower, the tallest of the European Union, the Royal Castle, the Łazienki park of the Chopin concerts, the Sejm on Wiejska street and the Presidential Palace on the Krakowskie Przedmieście where the two halves of the state now glare at each other. Kraków, the royal capital of 1038–1596 and the city the war spared, Łódź of the mills, Wrocław of the Oder, Poznań, Gdańsk of Solidarity, Szczecin, Lublin and Katowice of the coal follow.
How big is Poland, and how many people live there?
About 312,685 km² (120,728 sq mi) — the size of New Mexico, the ninth-largest country of Europe and the sixth of the European Union — the plain between the Baltic and the Carpathians that its name describes, Germany to the west across the Oder, Czechia and Slovakia to the south along the Sudetes and the Tatras, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, Lithuania and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad to the northeast, the eastern frontier of NATO and the Union on the Bug. The census of 2021 counted 38,036,118 people and the statistics office estimates about 37.4 million in 2026 and falling, on the lowest fertility of the country's history at 1.1 children a woman and the emigration of two million since the Union opened in 2004 — with a million Ukrainians of the war added to them, the most ethnically uniform large country of Europe at 97 percent Polish, Catholic still by seven in ten and by fewer each year.
What are the highest and lowest points of Poland?
Rysy, 2,499 m (8,199 ft), on the Slovak border in the High Tatras above Zakopane, the northwestern peak of the three that the border crosses, with the Morskie Oko lake below it; and Raczki Elbląskie in the Vistula delta near Elbląg, 1.8 m (6 ft) below sea level, the lowest land of the country in the polders of the Żuławy. Poland is the plain of its name — the Vistula, 1,047 km, runs the length of it from the Beskids through Kraków and Warsaw to the Baltic at Gdańsk, the Oder marks the German border, the Masurian lake district of the northeast holds 2,000 lakes with Śniardwy the largest and Hańcza the deepest of the country, the Białowieża forest on the Belarusian border is the last primeval lowland forest of Europe with its bison, and the Baltic coast of 440 km runs from the Szczecin lagoon to the Hel spit and the dunes of Łeba.
What currency does Poland use?
The złoty (ISO code PLN, zł), "the golden one," of 100 groszy, the currency of the Second Republic of 1924 and of the People's Republic that inflation reduced to millions until the redenomination of 1 January 1995 cut four zeros from it, issued by the National Bank of Poland, about 3.7 to the U.S. dollar and 4.3 to the euro, floating and stable; the euro that the accession treaty of 2004 obliges the country to adopt one day is put off by every government and opposed by two Poles in three, the złoty the pride of the economy that never had a recession from 1992 to 2020. Clocks keep Central European Time, UTC+1, with summer time; Poland drives on the right, on the 5,000 km of motorways and expressways the Union's money built.
Who governs Poland?
Two men who agree on almost nothing: President Karol Nawrocki, the historian, former boxer and head of the Institute of National Remembrance whom Law and Justice ran and Donald Trump endorsed, the winner of the runoff of 1 June 2025 by 369,000 votes over the mayor of Warsaw, in office since 6 August 2025 with a veto the government cannot override; and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the head of government since 13 December 2023 at the head of a coalition of his Civic Coalition, the Third Way of the Peasants and Poland 2050 and the Left, 248 of the 460 seats, the former president of the European Council who ended eight years of Law and Justice rule at the election of October 2023 and cannot pass his program past the presidential palace — more than forty vetoes by the middle of 2026, the judicial reforms, the €44 billion of EU defense loans, the refugee measures, "the presidency turned into an active center of opposition." The parliamentary election of autumn 2027 will settle it, with Law and Justice split in two and the far-right Confederation waiting to make the next majority.
Explore all general-knowledge topics and the A-to-Z lists.
We Value Your Opinion Comments