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After centuries of relative ethnic diversity, the population of modern
Poland has become nearly completely ethnically homogeneous
Polish as a result of altered borders and the Nazi German and Soviet or
Polish Communist campaigns of genocide, expulsion and deportation (
from or to Poland) during and after
World War II.
Ethnic minorities remain in Poland, however, including some newly arrived or increased in number. Ethnic groups include Germans, Ukrainians and
Belarusians.
Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Although the concept of an ethnic minority is mostly used about a modern period, Poland has historically been a multi-ethnic country. The early influx of
Czechs,
Hungarians,
Slovaks, and Germans was particularly notable, and they formed significant minorities (or majorities) in urban centers. After the mid-14th-century
Polish–Lithuanian union and the
Union of Lublin, which established the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569,
Lithuanians and
Ruthenians became part of the population.
A 1493 estimate listed the combined population of Poland and Lithuania at 7.5 million, broken down by ethnicity:
In 1618, after the
Truce of Deulino, the Commonwealth's territory increased and its population reached 12 million. Its inhabitants could be roughly divided into:
At that time, the szlachta (nobility) were 10 percent of the population and the
burghers 15 percent.[2]
With the population and territorial losses of the mid- and late 17th century, the 1717 population of the Commonwealth had declined to nine million in the following ethnic groups:
According to the
1921 Polish census, 30.8 percent of the population were ethnic minorities.[3] This was exacerbated by the Polish victory in the
Polish-Soviet War and the large territorial gains in the east as a consequence. According to the
1931 Polish census (as cited by
Norman Davies),[4] 68.9 percent of the population was Polish, 13.9 percent were Ukrainians, about 10 percent Jewish, 3.1 percent Belarusians, 2.3 percent Germans and 2.8 percent other groups (including
Lithuanians,
Czechs and
Armenians). There were also smaller communities of
Russians and
Romani people. The minority situation was complex and fluid during the period.
Poland was also a nation of many religions. In 1921, 16,057,229 Poles (about 62.5 percent) were
Roman Catholics, 3,031,057 (about 11.8 percent) were
Eastern Rite Catholics (primarily
Ukrainian Greek and
Armenian Rite Catholics), 2,815,817 (about 10.95 percent) were
Greek Orthodox, 2,771,949 (about 10.8 percent) were
Jewish, and 940,232 (about 3.7 percent) were Protestants (mostly
Lutherans).[5] Poland had the world's second-largest Jewish population by 1931: one-fifth, about 3,136,000.[3]
The Jewish population of Poland, the largest Jewish community in pre-war Europe at about 3.3 million people, was almost completely destroyed by 1945. Approximately three million Jews died of starvation in
ghettos and
labor camps, or were slaughtered in Nazi
extermination camps or by
Einsatzgruppen death squads. Between 40,000 and 100,000 Polish Jews survived the Holocaust in Poland, another 50,000 to 170,000 were repatriated from the Soviet Union, and 20,000 to 40,000 came from Germany and other countries. There were 180,000 to 240,000 Jews in Poland at the country's postwar peak, settled mainly in
Warsaw,
Łódź,
Kraków and
Wrocław.[6]
The Republic of Poland shall ensure Polish citizens belonging to national or ethnic minorities the freedom to maintain and develop their own language, to maintain customs and traditions, and to develop their own culture.
National and ethnic minorities shall have the right to establish educational and cultural institutions, institutions designed to protect religious identity, as well as to participate in the resolution of matters connected with their cultural identity.
The Act on Ethnic and National Minorities and on the Regional Language of 6 January 2005 (
Polish: Ustawa o mniejszościach narodowych i etnicznych oraz o języku regionalnym)[7] stipulates that to be recognized as an ethnic or national minority, a group must reside in Poland for at least 100 years; this excludes minorities recognized by the Communist regime, such as the
Greeks.[8] There are three categories of recognized minorities in Poland: nine national minorities (Belarusians, Czechs, Lithuanians, Germans, Armenians, Russians, Slovaks, Ukrainians and Jews), four ethnic minorities (Karaites, Lemkos, Roma and Tatars), and the regional
Kashubian linguistic minority.[7][9]
Ethnic-minority languages: Karaim, Lemko, Romani and Tatar
Non-territorial languages: Hebrew, Yiddish, Karaim, Armenian and Romani
Minorities have a number of rights, including street signs and education in their native language, cultural development and non-assimilation. In municipalities (gminy) where they constitute more than 20 percent of the population, they have the right to official communications in their native language. Such municipalities must be included on the official register of municipalities where an additional language is used, and incentives exist for officials of these municipalities to learn the regional language.[7]
Demographics
In the
Polish census of 2002, 96.7 percent claimed
Polish nationality and 97.8 percent said that they speak
Polish at home.[11] In the 2011 census, 1.44 percent of Poland's 39 million inhabitants said that they had an ancestry other than Polish. That figure included 418,000 who identified as Silesian (362,000 as a single ethnicity and 391,000 as a second ethnicity) and 17,000 Kashubians (16,000 as a single ethnicity). Recognized minorities were 0.3 percent of the population: 49,000 Germans (26,000 a single ethnicity), 36,000 Ukrainians (26,000 single-ethnicity), 7,000 Lemkos (5,000 single-ethnicity), 37,000 Belarusians (31,000 single-ethnicity), 12,000 Roma people (9,000 single-ethnicity), and 8,000 Russians (5,000 single-ethnicity); 0.2 percent of the population were foreign citizens.[12][13]
1,404,000 declared non-Polish ethnicity first or second; 842,000 declared Polish and non-Polish ethnicity (52 percent of Silesians, 93 percent of Kashubians, 46 percent of Germans, and 40 percent of Ukrainians); 640,000 declared non-Polish nationality first (562,000 declared only non-Polish ethnicity); 802,000 declared non-Polish ethnicity second (50 percent Silesian, 26 percent Kashubian, eight percent German).
Around 50,000
Armenians settled in Poland in the 14th century,[15] and an Armenian colony gradually formed through successive immigrations. According to the
Polish census of 2002, there are 1,082 Armenians in Poland,[11] although Armenian-oriented sources cite estimates as high as 92,000.[16]
Bangladeshis
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In the
Polish census of 2002, 48,700 people said that they belong to this group.[9] This number fell to 46,800 in the 2011 census.[17] They live in close concentrations in southern and eastern
Białystok, near and in areas adjoining the Polish-Belarusian border.
Chechens
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According to the Polish census of 2002, 386
Czechs live in Poland;[9] many live in
Zelów or near the Czech border, such as in the
Czech Corner. The best-known Pole with Czech roots was, arguably, painter
Jan Matejko.
Polish
Gorals are an ethnic group in southern Poland who speak a Polish dialect which has been heavily influenced by Slovak. Some urban Poles find this dialect difficult to understand.[19] Polish Gorals live primarily in the region of
Podhale and are separated from Slovak Gorals by the
High Tatra mountains, which (with
Zakopane Style architecture) are an important part of Goral identity and part of the reason why
Zakopane is a popular tourist destination and winter resort town.[citation needed] A Nazi attempt to Germanize the Goralenvolk during its World War II occupation of Poland was largely unsuccessful.
Four to five thousand
Greeks live in central and southeast Poland, most of whom came in 1949, after the
Greek Civil War. It is estimated that after this conflict, some 14,000 Greeks came to Poland, settling mainly in the town of
Zgorzelec in
Lower Silesia. In the course of time, most of them returned to their homeland or moved to Germany. According to the 2011 census, there are 3,600 individuals who claim some form of Greek identity living in Poland. Among famous Poles of Greek origin are musicians
Eleni Tzoka and
Apostolis Anthimos.
Poland had the world's largest population of
Jews for many centuries, and Jews were Poland's first minority group. However, the community did not survive
World War II. Before the war, there were 3,474,000 Jews in Poland. Those who escaped mostly went to the United States, Israel, Great Britain or Latin America. Many survivors willingly emigrated or were expelled by the Communists after the war. In the 2002 census, there were 1,055 Jewish people in Poland.[9] In the 2011 census, that number increased to 7,353.[20] They live primarily in large cities such as
Warsaw,
Wrocław,
Kraków and
Lublin.
Karaims
There were 45
Crimean Karaims in the 2002 census, 43 of whom were Polish citizens.
Kashubians
In the
Polish census of 2002, 5,100 people declared
Kashubian ethnicity; 52,665 declared Kashubian as their native language. In ten municipalities, more than 20 percent of the population spoke Kashubian:
Przodkowo (49 percent),
Sulęczyno (48.6 percent),
Stężyca (43.2 percent),
Sierakowice (39.9 percent),
Linia (35.5 percent),
Chmielno (34.8 percent),
Puck (30.9 percent),
Somonino (30.8 percent),
Szemud (26.3 percent) and
Parchowo (22.6 percent).[11] In the 2011 census, the number of people citing Kashubian as their first single ethnicity increased to 17,000; 229,000 declared Kashubian as their first or second ethnicity.[14]
Kursenieki
The
Kursenieki, also known as Kuronowie Pruscy and Kurończycy in Polish and Kuršininkai in Lithuanian, are a nearly-extinct
Baltic ethnic group living along the
Curonian Spit. They were assimilated by the Germans except along the Curonian Spit, where some still live.
Lemkos and Rusyns
In the 2002 census, 5,850 Polish citizens declared themselves
Lemkos and 62 identified as
Rusyns. In the 2011 census, 10,000 people declared Lemkos as their first or second ethnicity.
There were 5,846 Lithuanians in Poland (5,639 Polish citizens), according to the 2002 census. They live in close concentrations in
Suwałki in north-eastern Poland and in
Puńsk Municipality, where they were 74.4 percent of the population.
There were 286
Macedonians in Poland in the 2002 census, including 187 Polish citizens. Five thousand Macedonian speakers were mentioned in 1970.[21]
Masurians
There were 46 self-declared
Masurians in the 2002 census, all Polish citizens.
Romani
There were 12,731
Romani people in Poland, according to the 2002 census.[9] The Polish Roma population suffered heavily from their attempted extermination by Germany during World War II. They are dispersed and live around the country, although they are more numerous in the south.
Russians are scattered around Poland, but live mainly in the east. There were 3,244 Russians in Poland in the 2002 census.[9] This includes
Old Believers, numbering two to three thousand in north-eastern Poland.
Scots
Scottish people migrated to Poland in large numbers in the mid-16th century. Mostly from the
Highlands and mainly
Catholic and
Episcopalian, they fled religious persecution and harsh economic conditions. There was extensive trade between Scotland's eastern ports, such as
Dundee,
Leith and
Aberdeen, and towns such as Danzig (
Gdańsk) and Königsberg (modern
Kaliningrad).[22]William Lithgow, who visited Poland in 1616, reported an estimated 30,000 Scottish families living in the country which he described as "... a mother and nurse for the youth and younglings of Scotland ... in cloathing, feeding, and inrichening them".[23] Many came from Dundee and Aberdeen, and could be found in towns on the banks of the
Vistula as far south as Kraków. It is believed that many Poles have unacknowledged Scottish ancestry.[24][25] There were 26 self-declared Scots in the 2011 census, including 13 Polish citizens.
In the 2002 census, 173,153 people declared Silesian ethnicity and about 60,000 listed
Silesian as their
native language. In the 2011 census, Silesian ethnicity was declared by 809,000 responders out of five million in the region (including 362,000 who declared it as their only ethnicity, 418,000 who declared it as their first ethnicity, and 415,000 who declared it with a Polish ethnicity.[26]
Slovaks
Slovaks live in southern Poland, and there were 1,710 in the 2002 census.[9] Polish Slovaks inhabit two small frontier regions in
Spisz and
Orawa (near the Polish-Slovak border). Larger groups of Slovaks live in
Kraków and
Silesia.
Small populations of Polish
Lipka Tatars practice
Islam. Some Polish towns, mainly in northeastern Poland's
Podlaskie Voivodeship, have
mosques. Tatars arrived as mercenary soldiers during the late 14th century. The 2002 census listed 447 people declaring this ethnicity.[9]
Before the
Russian-Ukrainian War,
Ukrainians in Poland were scattered throughout eastern and northern districts. In the Polish census of 2002, 27,172 people declared that they belonged to this group.[9]
About 30,000 Vietnamese lived in Poland in 2015, primarily in large cities.[27] They publish a number of pro- and anti-Communist newspapers. The first immigrants were Vietnamese students at Polish universities after World War II. Their numbers increased slightly during the
Vietnam War, when agreements between the Vietnamese and Polish governments allowed Vietnamese guest workers to receive industrial training in Poland. A large number of Vietnamese immigrants arrived after 1989.[28]
Others
Groups of
Americans (1,541 in 2002, 992 of whom had Polish citizenship),
Britons,
Turks (232, including 74 Polish citizens),
Hungarians (579, including 228 Polish citizens),
French (1,633 in 2002, including 1,068 Polish citizens),
Italians (1,367, including 835 Polish citizens),
Serbs,
Croats,
Bulgarians (1,112, including 404 Polish citizens),
Romanians,
Georgians,
Palestinians (229, including 146 Polish citizens) and other
Arabs,
Kurds,
Scandinavians, and
Flemings (23, including 10 Polish citizens) live in Poland.
^Ewa Nowicka, YOUNG VIETNAMESE GENERATION IN POLAND: CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE, PRZEGLĄD ZACHODNI, 2014, No. II
"Archived copy"(PDF). Archived from
the original(PDF) on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 11 September 2015.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link)