Page last modified 16 August 2023

Poland

Community

Area 312,685 square kilometres (land area 304,255 square kilometres)

Historical area, 127,322 square kilometres pre-1918; 388,600 square kilometres 1918-1945. In 1945 Poland lost 179,700 square kilometres in the east and gained 102,800 square kilometres in the west.

Population,

4,500,000 (1840)

5,000,000 (1863)

6,100,000 (1870)

9,455,943 (1897)

27,200,000 (1921)

32,107,000 (1931)

34,849,000 (1938)

23,911,172 (1946)*

24,800,000 (1950)

29,640,000 (1960) +19.5%

32,665,000 (1970) +10.2%

35,575,000 (1980) +8.9%

38,110,000 (1990) +7.1%

38,260,000 (2000) +0.4%

38,043,000 (2010) -0.6%

37,951,000 (2020) -0.2%

*6 to 7 million Poles died during World War Two. Post War Poland was also smaller than it had been pre-War.

Ethnicity, %.

	German	Polish	Silesian	Ukrainian
1921		69.2
1939		69.0
1946	9.6	85.8
1963				0.6
1976		97.0
2002	0.4	96.7		0.1
2011	0.2	96.9	1.1	0.1

Religion, %;

	Christian Orthodox	Christian R C	Jewish	Muslim	No religion
1931	11.8	64.8	9.8
1937			10.5
1947			0.4
1963	1.3		0.1
1976		80.0
1990	2.0	93.0
2000		95.0
2010	0.7	87.5		>0.1	2.4

Birth and death rates Below replacement rate = 2.1

	Fertility Rate	Birth Rate	Infant Mortality	Death Rate	% Aged Under 15	% Aged Over 65	% Urban
1930			143.0
1935			137.0				27.0
1950		30.0 (+21.0)	95.0	11.0	29.4	5.2	39.0
1960	3.0	24.9 (+16.3)	71.0	8.6	33.6	5.7	47.9
1970	2.2	16.8 (+8.6)	32.0	8.2	27.2	8.2	52.1
1980	2.3	19.5 (+9.7)	21.0	9.8	24.0	10.2	58.1
1990	2.1	14.0 (+3.8)	15.0	10.2	25.1	10.0	61.3
2000	1.4	10.0 (+0.4)	8.0	9.6	19.6	12.0	61.7
2010	1.4	11.0 (+1.1)	5.2	9.9	15.2	13.5	60.9
2015	1.3	9.7 (-0.7)	4.2	10.4	14.9	15.6	60.5
2017	1.4	10.6 (0.0)	3.9	10.6
2018			3.8		15.1	17.5	60.1

Life expectancy,

49.8 (1931); 48.2 (M), 51.4 (F)

61.3 (1952); 59.0 (M), 64.0 (F)

67.7 (1960); 64.9 (M), 70.6 (F)

69.9 (1970); 66.6 (M), 73.3 (F)

70.1 (1980); 66.0 (M), 74.4 (F)

70.9 (1990); 66.5 (M), 75.5 (F)

73.7 (2000); 69.7 (M), 78.0 (F)

76.2 (2010); 72.1 (M), 80.6 (F)

78.8 (2020); 74.9 (M), 82.6 (F)

Population of principal cities, 1,000s MA = Metropolitan Area

	Cracow	MA	Gdansk (Danzig)	MA	Lodz	MA	Poznan	MA
1550	80
1800	10
1850	38		67
1870	50				39
1880	75		109		50
1890			120
1900	91		141		315
1939	259		250		672		272
1946	300		118		497		268
1950	344		195				321
1960	479		275		698		408
1966	525		324		740		450
1976	693		427		800		510
1986	720		465		850		565
1996	738		463		812		585
2001	759		461		789		579
2011	756		461
2017	767	1,726	464	1,081	694	1,100	552	1,100
	Cracow	MA	Gdansk (Danzig)	MA	Lodz	MA	Poznan	MA

Population of principal cities, 1,000s MA = Metropolitan Area

	Szczecin (Stettin)	MA	WARSAW^1	MA	Wroclaw (Breslau)	MA
1700			30
1720	6
1750	14				52
1792			115
1800	18		64*
1850	45		163		130
1870	76		270		208
1890	116		533		335
1900	210		715		423
1910	236		770
1925			1,000
1939	383		1,301
1946			477**		168
1950	179		803		309
1960	269		1,095		429
1966	320		1,250		500
1976	370		1,300		580
1986	400		1,600		640
1996	415		1,650		640
2001	415		1,672		640
2011			1,710
2017	406	777	1,758	3,101	638	1,165
	Szczecin (Stettin)	MA	WARSAW^1	MA	Wroclaw (Breslau)	MA

*An anti-Prussian uprising in Warsaw was crushed in 1794, with many casualties.

**Major population losses from World War Two. Warsaw�s pre-War Jewish population of ca. 400,000 was annihilated.

¹The Warsaw area was first settled in the 11^th century, and Warsaw was founded as a city in around 1300. The name may derive from the Polish word for �castle�, var.

Wealth; Gross Domestic Product (nominal values)

	GDP, US$ million	Total GDP, % of USA	GDP per capita, US$	GDP per capita % of USA
1948	4,504	2.01	190	12.46
1965	20,000	2.69	710	18.55
1970	25,650	2.47	820	15.63
1975	37,100	2.27	1,134	14.50
1980	53,870	1.93	1,572	12.48
1985	67,230	1.60	1,872	10.25
1990	66,000	1.14	1,606	6.70
1995	127,050	1.72	3,419	11.37
2000	160,860	1.61	4,232	11.61
2005	299,200	2.29	7,800	17.60
2010	468,500	3.13	12,600	26.05
2015	477,340	2.65	12,566	22.36
2016	469,500	2.53	12,370	21.53

GDP by primary sector

	Agriculture % GDP	Agriculture % employed	Industry % GDP	Industry % employed	Services % GDP	Services % employed
1921		63.8		15.4		20.8
1950	36.9	53.5	26.5	25.6
1960		48.0		29.0		23.0
1967	24.2	39.9	42.4	39.9
1980	20.0	31.0		39.0		30.0
1990	13.0	28.5	60.7	38.9	26.3	32.6
2000	3.0	28.0	30.5	22.0	61.0	50.0
2010	4.0	17.4	32.0	29.2	64.0	53.4
2016	2.4	11.5	40.2	30.4	64.2	57.6

Communications

Language Official; Polish.� German, Ukrainian, also spoken

Polish,

69.8% (1931)

99.0% (1990)

97.8% (2002)

98.7% (2011)

Literacy

30.5% (1897); 34.2% (M), 26.8% (F)

96.0% (1960)

98.0% (1980)

99.7% (2000); 99.7% (M), 99.7% (F)

99.8% (2015); 99.9% (M), 99.7% (F)

Physical communications � roads

	Roads (km)	Surfaced (km)	Motor vehicles	Cars	Commercial Vehicles
1939				26,000
1946		94,583		23,036	36,914
1948				24,240
1955		98,679			88,000
1960		110,000		110,000	120,000
1962				157,000	143,200
1964			388,500
1970		130,000		1,050,000	250,000
1977	299,725			1,547,300	509,500
1980		147,680		2,269,900	612,100
1986	360,629
1990		218,000	5,600,000	5,260,000	1,050,000
2000	364,656	250,000		9,991,260	1,783,000
2006			15,964,000	13,384,000	2,393,000
2010	385,356		20,459,000
2012			24,876,000
2013			25,700,000
2014	417,026	287,650	26,500,000	20,000,000

Railways; First steam railway opened 1845

	Length (km) standard gauge	% Electrified	Narrow gauge lines (km)	Warsaw Metro (km) (opened 1995)
1864	635
1885	1,941
1911	3,394
1945	23,170		3,930
1958	23,437		3,774
1968	23,218	13.8	3,422
1977	23,953	26.3
1980		30.0
1985		35.0
1992	22,740		1,855
1995				11.0
2000	20,300	50.0	511
2007	20,107	59.2	0*	18.0
2010	19,700			23.1
2015	19,231 (all)	61.7		29.0

*Some narrow gauge lines remained in private ownership as tourist lines

Electronic communications, TV broadcasting began 1937. There was no TV broadcasting� in Poland between 1939 and 1952. Colour TV broadcasting from 1971.

	Telephones 1000s	Mobile Telephones 1000s	Radios 1000s	Televisions 1000s	PCs	Internet Users
1937	272
1938			861
1945	83
1946			425
1947	118		974
1950	225		1,464
1958	446		4,500
1959				1,883
1960			5,268
1962	636		5,620
1975	1,386		7,500	6,000
1977			8,348	7,170
1980	1,943		9,000	7,500
1988					150,000
1990	3,293		16,500	11,640	300,000
1992		2.2
1995		75	17,500	12,000	1,100,000
1997			20,200			700,000
2000	10,946	6,747		15,000	2,670,000
2002						8,800,000
2004					7,362,000
2005		29,165		15,500		10,000,000
2009	9,556	44,553				22,452,000
2016	9,345	55,879				28,240,000
2017						28,267,000

Tourism: Visitors to Poland,

9,131,000 (1979)

2,997,000 (1984)

4,776,000 (1987)

18,211,000 (1990)

19,215,000 (1995)

17,400,000 (2000)

15,200,000 (2005)

12,470,000 (2010)

16,722,000 (2015)