Poland
| Rzeczpospolita Polska Republic of Poland |
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| Motto: See: unofficial mottos of Poland | ||||||
| Anthem: Mazurek Dąbrowskiego (Polish) Dąbrowski's Mazurek |
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| Location of Poland (orange) – on the European continent (camel white) – in the European Union (camel) [Legend] |
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| Capital (and largest city) | Warsaw 52°13′N 21°02′E | |||||
| Official languages | Polish² | |||||
| Demonym | Pole | |||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | |||||
| - | President | Lech Kaczyński | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Donald Tusk | ||||
| Formation | ||||||
| - | Christianisation4 | 14 April 966 | ||||
| - | Redeclared | 11 November 1918 | ||||
| EU accession | 01 May 2004 | |||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 312,679 km² (6Template:9th³) 120,728 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 3.07 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2007 estimate | 38,518,241 (33rd) | ||||
| - | 2002 census | 38,530,080 | ||||
| - | Density | 122/km² (83rd) 319.9/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2007 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $631.8 billion (IMF) (24) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $16,599 (IMF) (52) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2007 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $413.3 billion (IMF) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $10,858 (IMF) | ||||
| Currency | Złoty (PLN) |
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| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .pl5 | |||||
| Calling code | +48 | |||||
| 1 See, however, Unofficial mottos of Poland. ² Although not official languages, Kashubian, Lithuanian and German are used in 19 communal offices. ³ The area of Poland according to the administrative division, as given by the Central Statistical Office,[1] amounts to 312,679 km²: land area (311 888 km²) and part of internal waters (791 km²) cut by the coast line. The area of Poland's territory, including all internal waters and the territorial sea, is 322 575 km². 4 The adoption of Christianity in Poland is seen by many Poles, regardless of their religious affiliation, as one of the most significant national historical events; the new religion was used to unify the tribes in the region. 5 Also .eu, as Poland is a member of the European Union. |
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Poland (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe on the boundary between Eastern and Western European continental masses, and is considered at times a part of Eastern Europe.
The first Polish state was baptized in 966, within territory similar to the present boundaries of Poland. Poland became a kingdom in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a long association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by uniting to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth collapsed in 1795. Poland regained its independence in 1918 after World War I but lost it again in World War II, occupied by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, emerging several years later as a communist country within the Eastern Bloc under the control of the Soviet Union.
In 1989, communist rule was overthrown and Poland became what is informally known as the "Third Polish Republic".
Poland is the 33rd most populous country in the world. Poland is a unitary state made up of sixteen voivodeships (Polish: województwo). Poland is also a member of the European Union, NATO and OECD.
Geography
Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine and Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 120,728 square miles (312,679 square kilometers) making it the 69th largest country in the world and seventh in Europe — or slightly smaller than New Mexico in the United States.
The geological structure of Poland has been shaped by the continental collision of Europe and Africa over the past 60 million years, on the one hand, and the Quaternary glaciations of northern Europe, on the other. Both processes shaped the Sudetes and the Carpathians. The moraine landscape of northern Poland contains soils made up mostly of sand or loam, while the ice-age river valleys of the south often contain loess. The Cracow-Częstochowa Upland, the Pieniny, and the Western Tatras consist of limestone, while the High Tatras, the Beskids, and the Karkonosze are made up mainly of granite and basalts. The Kraków-Częstochowa Upland is one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth.
Poland’s territory extends across five geographical regions. In the northwest is the Baltic seacoast, marked by several spits, coastal lakes (former bays that have been cut off from the sea), and dunes. The centre and parts of the north lie within the Northern European Lowlands. Rising gently above these lowlands is a geographical region comprising the four hilly districts of moraines and moraine-dammed lakes formed during and after the Pleistocene ice age.
The Masurian Lake District is the largest of the four and covers much of northeastern Poland. The lake districts form part of the Baltic Ridge, a series of moraine belts along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea. South of the Northern European Lowlands lie the regions of Silesia and Masovia, which are marked by broad ice-age river valleys. Farther south lies the Polish mountain region, including the Sudetes, the Cracow-Częstochowa Upland, the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, and the Carpathian Mountains, including the Beskids. The highest part of the Carpathians is the Tatra Mountains, along Poland’s southern border.
Poland has 21 mountains over 6561 feet (2000 meters) in elevation, all in the High Tatras. In the High Tatras lies Poland’s highest point, the northwestern peak of Rysy, at 8198 feet(2499 meters) in elevation. At its foot lies the mountain lake, the Morskie Oko. Among the most beautiful mountains of Poland are the Bieszczady Mountains in the far southeast of Poland, whose highest point in Poland is Tarnica, with an elevation of 4416 feet (1346 meters). Tourists also frequent the Gorce Mountains in Gorce National Park. The lowest point in Poland -— at (7 feet (two meters) below sea level -— is at Raczki Elbląskie, near Elbląg in the Vistula Delta.
The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental as one moves south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 68°F (20°C) and 80.6°F (27°C. Winters are cold, with average temperatures around 37.4°F (3°C) in the northwest and 17.6°F (–8°C) in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east; winter is drier than summer. The warmest region in Poland is Lesser Poland located in Southern Poland where temperatures in the summer average between 73.4°F (23°C) and (86°F (30°C). The coldest region is in the northeast in the Podlachian Voivodeship near the border of Belarus. Cold fronts which come from Scandinavia and Siberia bring temperatures in the winter in Podlachian ranging from 5°F (-15°C) to 24.8°F (-4°C).
The longest rivers are the Vistula, 678 miles (1047km) long; the Oder—which forms part of Poland’s western border— 531 miles (854km) long; its tributary, the Warta, 502 miles (808km) long; and the Bug —a tributary of the Vistula—480 miles (772km) long. The Vistula and the Oder flow into the Baltic Sea, as do numerous smaller rivers in Pomerania. The Łyna and the Angrapa flow by way of the Pregolya to the Baltic, and the Czarna Hańcza flows into the Baltic through the Neman.
Poland’s rivers have been used since early times for navigation. The Vikings, for example, traveled up the Vistula and the Oder in their longships. In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, when Poland-Lithuania was the breadbasket of Europe, the shipment of grain and other agricultural products down the Vistula toward Gdańsk and onward to western Europe took on great importance. For an overview of the most important rivers in Poland, see Category:Rivers of Poland.
With almost ten thousand closed bodies of water covering more than one hectare (2.47 acres) each, Poland has one of the highest numbers of lakes in the world. The largest lakes, covering more than 38.6 square miles (100 square kilometers) are Lake Śniardwy and Lake Mamry in Masuria, as well as Lake Łebsko and Lake Drawsko in Pomerania.
Among the first lakes whose shores were settled are those in the Greater Polish Lake District. The stilt house settlement of Biskupin, occupied by more than one thousand residents, was founded before the seventh century B.C.E. by people of the Lusatian culture. The ancestors of today’s Poles, the Polanie, built their first fortresses on islands in these lakes. The legendary Prince Popiel is supposed to have ruled from Kruszwica on Lake Gopło. The first historically documented ruler of Poland, Duke Mieszko I, had his palace on an island in the Warta River in Poznań.
Błędów Desert is a desert located in Southern Poland in the Lesser Poland region it also stretches over the Zagłębie Dąbrowskie region. It has a total area of 32km². It is the only desert located in Poland, and is one of five natural deserts in Europe. It was created thousands of years ago by a melting glacier. The specific geological structure has been of big importance - the average thickness of the sand layer is about 40 meters (maximum 70 meters), which made the fast and deep drainage very easy. In recent years the desert has started to shrink. The phenomenon of mirages has been known to exist there.
More than one percent of Poland’s area -— 1214 square miles (3145 square kilometers) —is protected within 23 national parks. In this respect, Poland ranks first in Europe. Forests cover 28 of Poland’s land area. More than half of the land is devoted to agriculture. While the total area under cultivation is declining, the remaining farmland is more intensively cultivated.
Many animals that have since died out in other parts of Europe survive in Poland, such as the wisent in the ancient woodland of the Białowieża Forest and in Podlachia. Other such species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, and in the Beskids, the gray wolf and the Eurasian lynx in various forests, the moose in northern Poland, and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlachia. In the forests, one also encounters game animals, such as red deer, roe deer, and boars. In eastern Poland there are a number of ancient woodlands, like Białowieża, that have never been cleared by people. There are also large forested areas in the mountains, Masuria, Pomerania, and Lower Silesia.
Poland is the most important breeding ground for European migratory birds. Out of all of the migratory birds who come to Europe for the summer, one quarter breed in Poland, particularly in the lake districts and the wetlands along the Biebrza, the Narew, and the Warta, which are part of nature reserves or national parks. In Masuria, there are villages in which storks outnumber people.
Flooding is a natural hazard. Environmental issues relate to air pollution, which remained serious in 2007 because of sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, and the resulting acid rain which damages forest. Water pollution from industrial and municipal sources is also a problem, as is disposal of hazardous wastes. Pollution levels were expected to decrease as industrial establishments bring their facilities up to the European Union code, but at substantial cost to business and the government.
Warsaw is the capital of Poland and is its largest city. Located on the Vistula River between the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains, its population in 2006 was estimated at 1,700,536, with a metropolitan area of approximately 2,600,000. The largest metropolitan areas in Poland are the Upper Silesian Coal Basin centred on Katowice (3.5 million inhabitants); Łódź (1.3 million); Kraków (1.3 million); the “Tricity” of Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia in the Vistula delta (1.1 million); Poznań (0.9 million); Wrocław (0.9 million); and Szczecin (0.9 million). For an overview of Polish cities, see List of cities in Poland.
History
Template:History of Poland
Prehistory
It was postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now known as Poland. The exact ethnicity and linguistic affiliation of these groups was hotly debated. Many Slavic, Celtic, Baltic and Germanic tribes were among the prominent groups. The politically charged discussion on the origins of the Slavs; historically two partially opposing views are held: allochtonic or autochtonic. The purely allochtonic view is historic and has no scholar defending it, many scholars now tend toward an autochtonic view, the most radical of which is the theory of Paleolithic continuity.[2]
The most famous archeological find from the Poland's prehistory is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, around 700 B.C.E.
Piast dynasty
Poland began to form into a recognizable unitary and territorial entity around the middle of the tenth century under the Piast dynasty. Poland's first historically documented ruler, Mieszko I, was baptized in 966, adopting Catholic Christianity as the nation's new official religion, to which the bulk of the population converted in the course of the next centuries. In the twelfth century, Poland fragmented into several smaller states. In 1320, Władysław I became the King of a reunified Poland. His son, Kazimierz III, is remembered as one of the greatest Polish kings.
Poland was also a centre of migration of peoples and the Jewish community began to settle and flourish in Poland during this era (see History of the Jews in Poland). The Black Death which affected most parts of Europe from 1347 to 1351 did not reach Poland.[3]
Jagiellon dynasty
Under the Jagiellon dynasty, Poland forged an alliance with its neighbour, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1410 a polish-Lithuanian army inflicted decisive defeat to the armies of Teutonic Knights, both countries' main adversary, in the battle of Grunwald. After Thirteen Years War the Knights state has been reduced to polish vassal. Polish culture and economy flourished under Jagiellons, and the country produced such figures as astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and poet Jan Kochanowski. Compared to other European nations, Poland was exceptional in its tolerance for religious dissent, allowing the country to avoid religious turmoil that spread over Western Europe in that time.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
A golden age ensued during the sixteenth century after the Union of Lublin which gave birth to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The szlachta (nobility) of Poland, far more numerous than in Western European countries, took pride in their freedoms and parliamentary system. During the Golden Age period, Poland expanded its borders to become the largest country in Europe.
In the mid-seventeenth century, a Swedish invasion ("The Deluge") and Cossack's Chmielnicki Uprising which ravaged the country marked the end of the golden age. Numerous wars against Russia coupled with government inefficiency caused by the Liberum Veto, a right which had allowed any member of the parliament to dissolve it and to veto any legislation it had passed, marked the steady deterioration of the Commonwealth from a European power into a near-anarchy controlled by its neighbours. The reforms, particularly those of the Great Sejm, which passing of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, second modern constitution of the world, were thwarted with the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, and 1795) which ended with Poland's being erased from the map and its territories being divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
Partitions of Poland
Poles would resent their fate and would several times rebel against the partitioners, particularly in the nineteenth century. In 1807 Napoleon recreated a Polish state, the Duchy of Warsaw, but after the Napoleonic wars, Poland was again divided in 1815 by the victorious Allies at the Congress of Vienna. The eastern portion was ruled by the Russian Czar as a Congress Kingdom, and possessed a liberal constitution. However, the Czars soon reduced Polish freedoms and Russia eventually de facto annexed the country. Later in the nineteenth century, Austrian-ruled Galicia, particularly the Free City of Kraków, became a centre of Polish cultural life.
Reconstitution of Poland
During World War I, all the Allies agreed on the reconstitution of Poland that United States President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed in Point 13 of his Fourteen Points. Shortly after the surrender of Germany in November 1918, Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic (II Rzeczpospolita Polska). It reaffirmed its independence after a series of military conflicts, the most notable being the Polish-Soviet War (1919–1921) when Poland inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red Army.
The 1926 May Coup of Józef Piłsudski turned the reins of the Second Polish Republic over to the Sanacja movement.
World War II
The Sanacja movement controlled Poland until the start of World War II in 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded on September 1 and the Soviet Union followed on September 17. Warsaw capitulated on September 28 1939. As agreed in the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Poland was split into two zones, one occupied by Germany while the eastern provinces fell under the control of the Soviet Union.
Of all the countries involved in the war, Poland lost the highest percentage of its citizens: over six million perished, half of them Polish Jews. Poland made the fourth-largest troop contribution to the Allied war effort, after the Soviets, the British and the Americans. At the war's conclusion, Poland's borders were shifted westwards, pushing the eastern border to the Curzon line. Meanwhile, the western border was moved to the Oder-Neisse line. The new Poland emerged 20% smaller by 77,500 square kilometres (29,900 sq mi). The shift forced the migration of millions of people, most of whom were Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, and Jews. The main German Nazi death camps were in Poland. Of a pre-war population of 3,300,000 Polish Jews, 3,000,000 were killed during the Holocaust.
Postwar Communist Poland
The Soviet Union instituted a new Communist government in Poland, analogous to much of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Military alignment within the Warsaw Pact throughout the Cold War was also part of this change. The People's Republic of Poland (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa) was officially proclaimed in 1952. In 1956, the régime of Władysław Gomułka became temporarily more liberal, freeing many people from prison and expanding some personal freedoms. Similar situation repeated itself in the 1970s under Edward Gierek, but most of the time persecution of communist opposition persisted.
Labour turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of the independent trade union "Solidarity" ("Solidarność"), which over time became a political force. It eroded the dominance of the Communist Party and by 1989 had triumphed in parliamentary elections. Lech Wałęsa, a Solidarity candidate, eventually won the presidency in 1990. The Solidarity movement heralded the collapse of communism across Eastern Europe.
Democratic Poland
A shock therapy programme of Leszek Balcerowicz during the early 1990s enabled the country to transform its economy into a robust market economy. Despite temporary slumps in social and economic standards, Poland was the first post-communist country to reach its pre-1989 GDP levels. Most visibly, there were numerous improvements in other human rights, such as free speech. In 1991, Poland became a member of the Visegrad Group and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance in 1999 along with the Czech Republic and Hungary. Poles then voted to join the European Union in a referendum in June 2003, with Poland becoming a full member on May 1, 2004.
Government and politics
Poland is a republic. The chief of state is a president who is elected by popular vote for a five-year term, and is eligible for a second term. The president appoints the prime minister and deputy prime ministers, as well as the cabinet according to the proposals of the prime minister, both typically from the majority coalition.
The Polish Parliament has two chambers. The lower chamber (Sejm) has 460 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation in multi-seat constituencies, with a five percent threshold (eight percent for coalitions, threshold waived for national minorities). The Senate (Senat) has 100 members elected for a four year term in 40 multi-seat constituencies under a rare plurality bloc voting method where several candidates with the highest support are elected from each electorate.
When sitting in joint session, members of the Sejm and Senate form the National Assembly, (Polish Zgromadzenie Narodowe). The National Assembly is formed on three occasions: Taking the oath of office by a new president, bringing an indictment against the President of the Republic to the Tribunal of State, and declaration of a president's permanent incapacity to exercise their duties due to the state of their health. Only the first kind has occurred to date.
On the approval of the Senate, the Sejm also appoints the Ombudsman or the Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich) for a five-year term. The Ombudsman has the duty of guarding the observance and implementation of the rights and liberties of Polish citizens and residents, of the law and of principles of community life and social justice.
The judicial branch comprises the Supreme Court of Poland (Sąd Najwyższy); the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny); the Constitutional Tribunal of Poland (Trybunał Konstytucyjny); and the State Tribunal of Poland (Trybunał Stanu). Poland has a mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and holdover communist legal theory, although the latter is being gradually removed as part of a broader and ongoing reform process. The Constitutional Tribunal supervises the compliance of statutory law with the Constitution, and annuls laws which do not comply. Its rulings are final (since October 1999); court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Administrative divisions
Poland's provinces ("voivodeships") are largely based on the country's historic regions, whereas those of the past two decades (till 1998) had been centered on and named for individual cities. The new units range in areas from under 10,000 km² (Opole Voivodeship) to over 35,000 km² (Masovian Voivodeship). Voivodeships are governed by voivod governments, and their legislatures are called voivodeship sejmiks.
Poland is subdivided into 16 administrative regions known as voivodeships (województwa, singular województwo). In turn, the voivodeships are divided into powiaty (singular powiat), second-level units of administration, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries (NUTS-4 or rather LAU-1) and then gminy ("communes", singular gmina).
Foreign relations
Poland has forged ahead on its economic reintegration with the West. Poland became a full member of NATO in 1999, and of the European Union in 2004. Poland became an associate member of the European Union (EU) and its defensive arm, the Western European Union (WEU) in 1994. In 1996 Poland achieved full OECD membership and submitted preliminary documentation for full EU membership. Poland joined the European Union in 2004, along with the other members of the Visegrád group.
Changes since 1989 have redrawn the map of central Europe, and Poland has had to forge relationships with seven new neighbors. Poland has signed friendship treaties replacing links severed by the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. The Poles have forged special relationships with Lithuania and particularly Ukraine in an effort to firmly anchor these states to the West. Poland is a part of the multinational force in Iraq.
The military
Wojsko Polskie (Polish Army) is the name applied to the military forces of Poland. The name has been used since the early nineteenth century. Polish Armed Forces consist of the Army, which comprises 168,000 persons, Navy, 15,976 persons, and Air Force, 31,147 persons. As of 2006, professional soldiers made up 60 percent of military personnel, while the current government of Poland intended to make the army fully professional by 2012 by ending the draft or reducing it to short training of recruits that would last up to two or three months. Conscripts were required to do nine months service and every male aged 18 was due for this service. The Polish military continues to use mostly Soviet-era equipment, however after joining NATO in 1999 Poland has begun upgrading and modernizing its hardware to NATO standards.
Economy
Poland has pursued a policy of economic liberalization since 1990 and in 2007 stood out as a successful example of the transition from a state-directed economy to a primarily privately owned market economy. Its principal economic activities involve industry. Before World War II, industry was concentrated in coal, textile, chemical, machinery, iron, and steel sectors. Today it extends to fertilizers, petrochemicals, machine tools, electrical machinery, electronics, cars and shipbuilding.
The people of Poland have an improved standard of living. Poland ranked 37th in the 2006 HDI, 48th on The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index, and it has an average per capita income that has been estimated at $16,599 for the year 2006, 52nd on the IMF list of 179 countries, which roughly equals that of the three Baltic states. Consumer price inflation - at 1.3 percent in 2006 - remained among the lowest in the European Union. But the unemployment rate was 14.9 percent in 2006, and 17 percent of the population existed below the poverty line in 2003.
In 2006, GDP grew 5.3 percent, based on rising private consumption, a 16.7 percent jump in investment, and burgeoning exports. Poland in 2007 had a thriving private sector which created more than 300,000 new jobs during 2006 alone. Since 2004, EU membership and access to EU structural funds has provided a major boost to the economy. Inflows of direct foreign investment exceeded $10 billion in 2006 alone - and more than $100 billion since 1990 - with major investments being announced by foreign firms in computer, consumer electronics, and automobile component production.
Since 2002, even though the zloty appreciated 30 percent, Poland's exports more than doubled. Exports totalled $117.3-billion in 2006. Export commodities included machinery and transport equipment 37.8 percent, intermediate manufactured goods 23.7 percent, miscellaneous manufactured goods 17.1 percent, food and live animals 7.6 percent. Export partners included Germany 27.2 percent, Italy 6.6 percent, France 6.2 percent, UK 5.7 percent, Czech Republic 5.6 percent, and Russia 4.3 percent. Imports totalled $122.2-billion in 2006. Import commodities included machinery and transport equipment 38 percent, intermediate manufactured goods 21 percent, chemicals 14.8 percent, minerals, fuels, lubricants, and related materials 9.1 percent. Import partners included Germany 29 percent, Russia 9.6 percent, Italy 6.4 percent, Netherlands 5.7 percent, France 5.4 percent.
Unemployment, at 14.9 percent in 2006, remained the highest in the EU. Since joining the European Union, many Poles have left their country to work in other EU countries (particularly Ireland and the UK) because of high unemployment. An inefficient commercial court system, a rigid labor code, bureaucratic red tape, and persistent corruption kept the private sector from performing to its potential.
Agriculture is handicapped by inefficient small farms and inadequate investment. Agriculture employs 16.1 percent of the work force but contributes only 3.8 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP), reflecting relatively low productivity. Poland's two million private farms occupy 90 percent of all farmland and account for roughly the same percentage of total agricultural production. Farms are small—8 hectares on average—and often fragmented.
Restructuring and privatization of the remaining state-owned industries, especially "sensitive sectors" such as coal, oil refining, railroads, and energy transmission and generation, have stalled due to concerns about loss of control over critical national assets and lay-offs. Reforms in health care, education, the pension system, and state administration have failed so far to reduce the government budget deficit, which was roughly 2.7 percent of GDP in 2006. Further progress in public finance depends mainly on reducing losses in Polish state enterprises, restraining entitlements, and overhauling the tax code.
The previous Socialist-led government introduced a package of social and administrative spending cuts to reduce public spending by about $17-billion through 2007, but full implementation of the plan was trumped by election-year politics in 2005. The right-wing Law and Justice party won parliamentary elections in September 2005, and Lech Kaczynski won the presidential election in October, running on a state-interventionist fiscal and monetary platform. The new government has proceeded cautiously on economic matters, however, retaining, for example, the corporate income tax cuts initiated by the previous administration and indicating its intention to reduce the top personal income tax rate.
Demographics
Population
Poland's total population in 2007 was 38,530,080, the eighth-largest population in Europe. In the first decade of the 21st century, Poland's population has decreased because of an increase in emigration and a sharp drop in the birth rate. The median age for the total population of 37.3 years. The number of Poles living abroad is estimated at around 20 million. Poles had an average life expectancy at birth of 70.3 years for males and 78.8 years for females in 2004.
Ethnicity
Poles make up 96.7 percent of the population, Germans 0.4 percent, Belarusians 0.1 percent, Ukrainians 0.1 percent, as well as Tatars, Lithuanians, Roma, Lemkos, Russians, Karaites, Slovaks, and Czechs. Among foreign citizens, the Vietnamese are the largest ethnic group, followed by Greeks, and Armenians, which total 2.7 percent, according to the 2002 census. In terms of ethnicity, Poland has been regarded as a homogeneous state since the end of World War II.
Polish people, or Poles, are a western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. The West Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking West Slavic languages, and include Poles, as well as Czechs, Kashubians, Slovaks, and Sorbs. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic. The Poles can also be referred to as the inhabitants of the Republic of Poland and Polish emigrants irrespective of their ethnicity. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the Americas and Australia.
Religion
Due to the Holocaust and the flight and removal of Germans during and after World War II, Catholics make up about 90 percent of the population (94.8 percent according to church baptism statistics) with 46 percent as practising Catholics (according to opinion polls). The 1989 Polish constitution guarantee the freedom of religion allowed for the emergence of additional denominations. The Polish Episcopate influenced inclusion of the Catholic catechism in the school curriculum, a move criticised as unconstitutional but supported by 72 percent of respondents in a 2007 survey.
Despite a sharp drop in religious observance in recent years, Poland remains one of the most devoutly religious countries in Europe. Religious minorities include Polish Orthodox (1.3 percent or about 509,500), Jehovah’s Witnesses (0.3 percent or about 123,034), Eastern Catholics (0.2 percent), Lutherans (0.2 percent), and smaller minorities of Mariavites, Polish Catholics, Pentecostals, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jews, Muslims (including the Tatars of Białystok) and various Protestants (about 86,880 in the largest Evangelical-Augsburg Church, plus about as many in smaller churches).
In the Eurostat - Eurobarometer poll of 2005, 80 percent of Polish citizens responded that they believe there is a God, whereas 15 percent answered that they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force, and one percent that they do not believe there is a God, spirit, nor life force. Poland’s percentage of respondents asserting that they believe there is a God was the fourth highest among EU members behind Malta , Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal.
Language
Polish is the official language and is spoken by 97.8 percent of the population. It belongs to the west Slavic group of languages of the Indo-European language family. Poles use the Latin alphabet. Literary Polish developed during the sixteenth century, and a new vocabulary was introduced from the nineteenth century, taking words from German, Latin, Russian, and English, with spelling alterations to reflect the Polish alphabet. There are regional dialects — Great Polish in the northwest, Kuyavian to the east, and Little Polish around Cracow.
Men and women
In the cities, both men and women work outside the home, but more women are unemployed than men, while in rural areas, women work both in the fields and in the house. The Polish have the term "the second shift", which describes simultaneously managing an external job and a household. A Polish man will do almost anything not to cook, wash dishes, or clean house, while shopping for groceries is considered women's jobs. Under the communist regime, women attained opportunities for higher education and employment. By 1990, women and men had accumulated the same 11.1 years of education, although women's earnings were lower. The reappearance of a market economy has meant that although women make up less than 50 percent of the workforce, 55 percent of the unemployed are women. Moreover, women are subject to violence at home and sexual harassment at work, have less access to credit, and few women have achieved top positions in politics, business, and the professions. They are excluded from leadership in the Catholic Church.
Marriage and the family
People typically married before the age of 20, and both men and women expect to marry, have children, and have only one spouse for a lifetime. Marriage is regarded as a holy responsibility, and it was believed that the unmarried could not be happy and would have difficulty obtaining salvation. Traditionally, most marriages were arranged to improve family finances. Divorce was difficult. The traditional domestic unit was a three-generation family consisting of the married couple, their children, and the husband's parents. By 1991, over six percent of families consisted of a single mother with children. Regarding inheritance, traditionally, a father could divide the inheritance any way he wanted, although by the twenty-first century, there were legal restrictions.
Education
Children start primary school aged seven. Next is the lower secondary level consisting of three years in gymnasium, starting at the age of 13, which ends with an exam. This is followed by upper secondary level, which has several alternatives, the most common being the three years in a liceum or four years in a technikum. Both end with a maturity examination (matura, roughly equivalent to British A-levels examination and quite similar to French baccalauréat). There are several forms of tertiary education, leading to licencjat or inżynier (Polish equivalents of Bachelor's degree), magister (Polish equivalent of Master's degree) and eventually doktor (Polish equivalent of Ph.D. degree). Regarding literacy, 99.8 percent of the total population over the age of 15 could read and write in 2003.
Class
The rigid class structure that marked Poland before 1939 was ended during World War II, when the Nazis and the Communists killed educated Poles, and during the Communist regime, when government policies aimed to reduce social classes. In the late twentieth century, there were six groupings: peasants, workers, intelligentsia, szlachta (nobles or gentry), the nomenclatura (communist ruling class), and a nascent middle class. Since the downfall of the communist government, workers and intelligentsia have increased in numbers, while the nomenclatura has struggled to regain political power and maintain economic power. While the szlachta may constitute up to 15 percent of the population, their significance has been eliminated. During Communist rule, many assumed the customs of the szlachta. For those above the peasant and worker classes, men kiss women's hands and follow fashions in clothing. The educated and the szlachta stress politeness and social graces to differentiate themselves from the uneducated and the newly rich.
Culture
Polish culture has been influenced by both West and East. Today, these influences are evident in Polish architecture, folklore, and art. Poland is the birthplace of some world famous people, including Pope John Paul II (Polish: Papież Jan Paweł II), Marie Skłodowska Curie (Polish: Maria Skłodowska-Curie), Kazimierz Pułaski (Template:Lanomg-pl), Nicolaus Copernicus (Polish: Mikołaj Kopernik) and Frederic Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Chopin).
The character of Polish art always reflected world trends. The famous Polish painter, Jan Matejko included many significant historical events in his paintings. Also, a famous person in history of Polish art was Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. He was an example of a Polish Renaissance Man. Polish literature dates back to 1100s[4] and includes many famous poets and writers such as Jan Kochanowski, Adam Mickiewicz, Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905 Nobel Prize winner), Bolesław Prus, Władysław Reymont (1924 Nobel Prize winner), Juliusz Słowacki, Witold Gombrowicz, Czesław Miłosz (1980 Nobel Prize winner), Wisława Szymborska (1996 Nobel Prize winner), Stanisław Lem and, Ryszard Kapuściński. Many world renowned Polish movie directors include Academy Awards winners Roman Polański, Andrzej Wajda, Zbigniew Rybczyński, Janusz Kamiński and, Krzysztof Kieślowski. The traditional Polish music composers include world famous pianist Frederic Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Chopin)[5] as well as Krzysztof Penderecki, Karol Szymanowski, and others.
Famous modern singers, musicians and bands from Poland include Behemoth, Myslovitz, SBB, Riverside, Edyta Górniak, Lady Pank, Anita Lipnicka and Ich Troje.
Notable foods in Polish cuisine include Polish sausage (Polish: kiełbasa), red beet soup (Polish: barszcz), Polish dumplings (Polish: pierogi), tripe soup (Polish: flaczki), cabbage rolls (Polish: gołąbki), Polish pork chops (Polish: kotlety schabowe), Polish traditional stew (Polish: bigos), various potato dishes, a fast food sandwich zapiekanka, and many more. Traditional Polish desserts include Polish doughnuts (Polish: pączki), Polish gingerbread (Polish: pierniki) and others.
Sports
Other images
International rankings
| Index | Rank | Countries reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index 2006 | 58th | 168 |
| Index of Economic Freedom 2007 | 87th | 157 |
| Summary Innovation Index 2005 | 27th | 33 |
| UNICEF Child Well-being league table | 14th | 21 |
| Networked Readiness Index 2006-2007 | 58th | 122 |
See also
|
Poland Portal |
- List of Poles
- List of World Heritage Sites in Poland
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ Central Statistical Office of Poland (2007). Mały Rocznik Statystyczny 2007. Retrieved 15 August, 2007.
- ↑ Interdisciplinary and linguistic evidence for Palaeolithic continuity of Indo-European, Uralic and Altaic populations in Eurasia, with an excursus on Slavic ethnogenesis by Mario Alinei url: http://www.continuitas.com/interdisciplinary.pdf
- ↑ Teeple, J. B. (2002). Timelines of World History. Publisher: DK Adult.
- ↑ (Polish) Koca, B. (2006). Polish Literature - The Middle Ages (Religious writings). Retrieved 10 December, 2006.
- ↑ (Polish) Polskie Centrum Informacji Muzycznej: Związek Kompozytorów Polskich (2002). Towarzystwo im. Fryderyka Chopina. Retrieved 8 December, 2006.
External links
- Poland World Fact Book 2007, accessed November 23, 2007.
- Culture of Poland Countries and Their Cultures No-Sa, accessed November 25, 2007.
- Poland.gov.pl - Polish national portal
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Background Note: Poland
- Travel guide to Poland from Wikitravel
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