Polish Community Abroad

Polacy za granicąChicagoAccording to an estimate of Poles outside of Poland, lives around 21 million Poles and people of Polish origin. In Poland, according to a 2008 stat. there are around 39 million Poles.

The largest communities of Polish people are found in the United States (6 - 10 million), Germany(around 1.5 million), Brazil (around 1 million), France (around 1 million), Canada (600 thousand), Belarus (around 400 thousand), Ukraine (around 300- 500 thousand), Latvia (250- 300 thousand), Great Britain (around 150 thousand), Australia (130-180 thousand), Russia (around 100 thousand) and Kazakhstan(60-100 thousand)
Polish immigrants come from various waves of migrants:

  • Those who escaped after the cultural uprisings in the XIX century.( mostly to France and Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany and South America)
  • Work-related emigration from the second half of the XIX century to 1939 (workers, mostly to France, Belgium and Germany and a handful of men to the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
  • Emigration after the Second World War as well as the result of difficult political era after the war (around 800 thousand people left to other European countries, and the United States)
  • Emigration as a result of political and economical states in the 1980’s.
  • Emigration due to work related reasons after 1989, mostly to Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Canada, and the United States, around 270 thousand Poles.