Demographics of Poland

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Historical demographics of Poland
2 Nationalities
3 Biggest cities
4 Statistical indicators
5 Urban demographics
6 External links

[edit] Historical demographics of Poland

Historical demographics of Poland differ in many important respects from the present ones. For details, see historical demographics of Poland.

[edit] Nationalities

96.7% of the people of Poland claim Polish nationality and 97.8% declare that they speak Polish at home (Census 2002). The population of Poland became one of the most ethnically homogeneous in the world as a result of the radically altered borders after World War II and the subsequent migrations. This was done by Soviet authorities after 1945 who wanted to ethnically cleanse the Polish minorities from Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.

Other than the Poles, Poland is also inhabited by:

Ukrainians the largest minority, are scattered in various eastern and northern districts. After Action Wistula many Ukrainians and Lemkos where spread to northern and western Poland after some sporadic fighting erupted after WW2 in south-east Poland. There a is new wave of Ukrainian immigration, now temporary with tendency to settle down in larger cities.
Lesser numbers of Belarusians and Lithuanians live in areas adjoining Belarus and Lithuania.
The Jewish community once numbering 3,474,000, has been almost entirely eradicated due to the Holocaust German Nazis exterminated Jewish population during WW2 and subsequent emigration. If not for these factors, Jews would be Poland's largest minority (would probably number over 5 million today), rather than the tiny minority they are. (See History of Jews in Poland)
In Silesia a significant segment of the population of mixed Polish and German ancestry, tends to declare itself as Polish or German according to political circumstances. There is also a minority of people who describe themselves as Silesians, an historical, related West Slavic ethnic group.
Minorities of Germans remain in Pomerania, Silesia, East Prussia and Lubusz Land.
Small populations of Polish Tatars still exist and still practice Islam. Some Polish towns, mainly in northeastern Poland have mosques. Tartars arrived as mercenary soldiers beginning in the late 1300s. The Tatar population reached approximately 100,000 in 1630 but was less than 5,000 in 2000.
Armenian population is estimated at around 8,000, with tradition since 14th century. The remains of pre-war Armenian church organizations serve for the community. The Armenian-orthodox community in commonwealth converted to Catholic church in 1700 century. There is still Armenian church in Lwow that still preach in Armenian language.
Russians are scattered around the territory of Poland but mostly reside in eastern Poland.
Czechs live in town of Zelów and near the Czech border.
Slovaks live in some areas in southern Poland.
some Greeks live in southeast Poland.

[edit] Information from Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights

According to Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (the Polish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights) there are numerous autochthonous ethnic groups in Poland. Specifically they estimate the presence of:

450,000 to 1,100,000 Germans living mainly in the region of Opole, Katowice and Częstochowa (south-west part of Poland).

250,000 to 500,000 Ukrainians At present, their most numerous concentrations are in the north-eastern part of Poland (Olsztyn and Elbląg), north-west (Słupsk and Koszalin) and south-west of Poland (Legnica and Wrocław).
- Including: 50,000 to 60,000 Lemko-Rusyns.

200,000-250,000 Belarusians. They live in close concentrations on south and east area of Białystok.

50,000-60,000 Roma. They are dispersed and live on the area of the whole country although their more numerous concentrations are in the south of Poland.

15,000 - 25,000 Lithuanians in close concentrations, Suwałki in the north-east of Poland. They prevail on the territory of Puńsk commune where they constitute 80% of inhabitants.

15,000 - 25,000 Slovaks. They inhabit two small frontier regions in the Spisz and Orawa (south of Poland, near Polish-Slovak border). Larger concentrations of Slovaks are in Kraków and Silesia region.

13,000-15,000 Russians. This society includes also Old Believers who are members of the Eastern Old Believers' Church and account for 2,000–3,000 persons living in the south-east of Poland.

8,000-15,000 Armenians.

7,000-15,000 Jews. Its representatives live mainly in large cities like Warsaw, Wrocław and Kraków. They avoid often to consider themselves as "national minority", since they are a religious and cultural minority, not an ethnic one. The pre-Holocaust Jewish population was about 3,474,000.

4,000-5,000 Polish-Tatars(Lipka Tatars) Bohoniki, Kruszyniany, Sokołka, Białystok, Gdańsk, Suwałki, Lipsk, Warszawa. Counting all Lipka Tatars in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Belarus 10.000-15.000.

Also some tatars settled in east Latvia, today's situation unknown. Note this is all Muslim Lipka tatars not counting the Christianised Tatars.

(In Belarus, Słonim, Rohotna, Zdzieciol, Dowbuciszki, Zasule, Mysz, Iwie, Kleck, Nieswiez, Grodno, Nowogrodek, Niekraszuńce, Niemież, Łowczyce, Łida, Brest, Pinsk and Minsk. In Lithuania Sorok Tatary, Wilno, Waka, Kowno and Troki. In Ukraine, Dubno, Wlodzimierz, Ostrog, Bar, Bracław, Kamienec Podolski. Many of the lipka-tatars inhabiting these former Polish areas resettled with other Poles in today's Poland. Most Lipka Tatars assimilated into Polish nobility and became Catholics while the poorer tatars assimilated to Belarusian, Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian peasants and general townspeople.)

4,000-5,000 Greeks Mostly in central and south Poland.

4,000-5,000 Macedonians. Mostly in central and South Poland

2,000 Czech. Their representatives inhabit south of Poland (region of Opole and Wałbrzych) and town of Zelów (central part of Poland)

There are also groups of Americans, Hungarians, French, Italians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Georgians, Africans, Palestinians, Kurds and Vietnamese, who constitute small ethnic communities within major cities such as Warsaw, Kraków, and Gdańsk.

[edit] Interreg and Eurominority estimates

Estimates by INTEREG and Eurominority, present a similar demographics picture of Poland but they provide estimates only for the most numerous of the autochthonous ethnic groups.

According to INTEREG (1994), in Poland there are:

900,000 Germans,
400,000 Ukrainians,
500,000 Kashubians.

Eurominority estimates:

400,000 - 5,720,000 Ukrainians,
900,000 - 1,560,000 Germans,
500,000 - 1,500,000 Kashubians,
20,000 Lithuanians,
19,000 Russians,
17,000 Slovaks.

Eurominority estimates are of questionable reliability because they place Poland's population at over 43,500,000 which is unrealistic and supported by no other data.

[edit] Declared nationality (Census 2002)

36,983,720 Polish
774,885 Not specified
471,475 Non-Polish, or multi-racial, including:
173,153 Silesian
152,897 German
48,700 Belarusian
31,000 Ukrainian
12,900 Roma
6,103 Russian
5,863 Lemko
5,846 Lithuanian
5,062 Kashubian
4,500 Other (including Africans)
2,000 Slovak
1,808 Vietnamese
1,633 French
1,541 American
1,404 Greek
1,367 Italian
1,112 Bulgarian
1,100 Israeli Jews
1,082 Armenian
831 Czech
800 English
500 Tatar
45 Karaite

[edit] Biggest cities

Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area : population(1999): 2,930,800 including
- Katowice (345,934)
Warsaw metropolitan area: population(1999): 2,100,000 including
- Warsaw (1,618,468)
Kraków metropolitan area: population(1999): 1,239,000 including
- Kraków (740,666)
Tricity metropolitan area: population(2001): 1,035,400; including
- Gdańsk (458,988) (1905 - 159,685)
- Gdynia (253,521)
- Sopot (46,000)
Łódź (806,728)
Wrocław (650,000)
Poznań (578,000)
Bydgoszcz-Toruń metropolitan area: population(2001): 593,000;
- Bydgoszcz (386,855)
- Toruń (206,158)
Szczecin (416,988)
Opole (128,800)
Gorzów Wielkopolski (124,445)
Włocławek (123,373)
Koszalin (112,375)
Słupsk (102,370)

[edit] Statistical indicators

Image:Poland-demography.png

Population: 38,635,144 (July 2005 est.)

Population growth rate: -0.05% (2005 est.)

Birth rate: 10.78 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Death rate: 10.01 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.)

Total immigration: 7,000 migrants (2004)

Total emigration: -20,800 migrants (2004)

Total net migration: -13,800 migrants (2004)

Net migration rate: -0.49 migrants/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Total asylum seekers admitted: 4,500 (2004)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 16.7%
15-64 years: 70.3%
65 years and over: 13.0% (2005 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.99 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.62 male(s)/female
total population: 0.94 male(s)/female (2005 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 8.51 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
male: 70.3 years
female: 78.8 years (2004 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.39 children born/woman (2004 est.)

Ethnic groups: Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Byelorussian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other 0.7%, not declared 2.0% (Census 2002)

Religions: Roman Catholic 95% (baptized), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.4%, Jehovah's Witnesses 0.3%, Greek Catholic 0.2% (2006)

Catholic Church in Poland

Languages: Polish 97.8% (Census 2002)

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.8%
male: 99.8%
female: 99.7% (2004 est.)

[edit] Urban demographics

	Agglomeration or conurbation	Voivodeship	Inhabitants (Estimated, 2005)
1	Katowice / MK (USIA)	Silesia	3,487,000
2	Warsaw (Warszawa)	Masovia	2,679,000
3	Kraków	Lesser Poland	1,400,000
4	Łódź	Łódź	1,300,000
5	Tricity	Pomerania	1,100,000
5	Poznań	Greater Poland	1,000,000

	City	Voivodeship	Inhabitants May 20 2002	Inhabitants December 31 2004
1	Warsaw (Warszawa)	Masovia	1,671,670	1,692,854
2	Łódź	Łódź	789,318	774,004
3	Kraków	Lesser Poland	758,544	757,430
4	Wrocław	Lower Silesia	640,367	636,268
5	Poznań	Greater Poland	578,886	570,778
6	Gdańsk	Pomerania	461,334	459,072
7	Szczecin	Western Pomerania	415,399	411,900
8	Bydgoszcz	Kuyavia-Pomerania	373,804	368,235
9	Lublin	Lublin	357,110	355,998
10	Katowice	Silesia	327,222	319,904
11	Białystok	Podlasie	291,383	292,150
12	Gdynia	Pomerania	253,458	253,324
13	Częstochowa	Silesia	251,436	248,032
14	Sosnowiec	Silesia	232,622	228,192
15	Radom	Masovia	229,699	227,613
16	Kielce	Świętokrzyskie	212,429	209,455
17	Toruń	Kuyavia-Pomerania	211,243	208,278
18	Gliwice	Silesia	203,814	200,361
19	Zabrze	Silesia	195,293	192,546
20	Bytom	Silesia	193,546	189,535
21	Bielsko-Biała	Silesia	178,028	176,987
22	Olsztyn	Warmia-Masuria	173,102	174,550
23	Rzeszów	Subcarpathia	160,376	159,020
24	Ruda Śląska	Silesia	150,595	147,403
25	Rybnik	Silesia	142,731	141,755
26	Tychy	Silesia	132,816	131,547
27	Dąbrowa Górnicza	Silesia	132,236	130,789
28	Opole	Opole	129,946	128,864
29	Płock	Masovia	128,361	127,841
30	Elbląg	Warmia-Masuria	128,134	127,655
31	Wałbrzych	Lower Silesia	130,268	127,566
32	Gorzów Wielkopolski	Lubusz	125,914	125,578
33	Włocławek	Kuyavia-Pomerania	121,229	120,369
34	Tarnów	Lesser Poland	119,913	118,267
35	Zielona Góra	Lubusz	118,293	118,516
36	Chorzów	Silesia	117,430	115,241
37	Kalisz	Greater Poland	109,498	108,792
38	Koszalin	Western Pomerania	108,709	107,773
39	Legnica	Lower Silesia	107,100	106,143
40	Słupsk	Pomerania	100,376	99,827
41	Grudziądz	Kuyavia-Pomerania	99,943	98,757