POLAND
Population
Population
Cities in POLAND
| Krakow | Lodz | Warsaw |
Population
In 2017 Poland had 38,476,269 inhabitants.
The Polish population is aging rapidly and it is expected that 2 million retirees will join in the next 10 years and will increase by 2030. the four Poles will be retired. There are approximately 123 people per km2.
96.9% of the population consists of Poland (before the Second World War 65%) and there are also Belarusian, Ukrainian (5 million before the war!), Russian, Lithuanian, Czech, Slovak, Greek and German (1 million before the war!) minorities, as well as Gypsies. This means that since the Second World War Poland has almost no large groups of minorities. After the end of the Second World War, the remaining Ukrainians and Germans were expelled. Their place was taken by millions of Poles from areas in Russia.
A large part of the population was Jewish before World War II. At that time, the Jews generally lived in the major cities and in specific villages in the southeast. Most of the Polish Jews were killed by the Germans. In total, 6 million Poles were killed as a result of the war or died in concentration and labor camps.
Many Poles have settled abroad over time, in search of a better life or on the run for the political repression in their country. The largest group, about 7 million, settled in the United States, especially in Chicago and the surrounding area. Other migration countries were Canada, Brazil, France and Germany. In the latter country they form the largest minority.
About 60% of the population lives in the cities; the largest cities are: Warsaw (Polish: Warszawa 1.77 million inhabitants), Lódz, Krakow Wroclaw (= Breslau), Poznan, Gdansk, Katowice, Bialystok and Czestochowa.
More than a quarter of the population lives in cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. The most densely populated part of Poland is formed by the converging mining towns around Katowice. More than 3 million inhabitants live here on less than 2% of the Polish territory. The least populated are the lake plateaus in the north and the land between Vistula and the eastern border;large cities are almost non-existent here.
In the period 1985- 1995 the average population growth was 0.4%. In the 21st century the population shrank slightly. (2017-0.13%)
Births per 1000 inhabitants: 9.5 (2017)
Deaths per 1000 inhabitants: 10.4 (2017)
Life expectancy for women 81.8 years and for men 73.9 years. (2017)
Sources
Dydynski, K. / Poland
Lonely Planet
Hus, M. / Polen
ANWB media,
Wijnands, S. / Polen
Gottmer,
CIA - World Factbook
BBC - Country Profiles
Last updated March 2024Copyright: Team The World of Info