Polish people

Polish people, or Poles,^{[lower-alpha 1]} are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation^[37][38][39] who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Central Europe. The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland, regardless of heritage or ethnicity. The majority of Poles adhere to Roman Catholicism.^[36]

Quick Facts Polacy (Polish), Total population ...

Poles

Polacy (Polish)
The flag of Poland, one of the symbols of Polish people
Total population
c. 60 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Poland   37,394,000 (2011)[2]
United States	10,600,000 (2015)[1][3][4]
Germany	2,253,000 (2018)[5]
Brazil	1,800,000 (2007)[6]
Canada	1,010,705 (2013)[7]
France	1,000,000 (2022)[8][9][10]
United Kingdom	682,000 (2021)[11][12]
Other countries Argentina 500,000 (2014)[13] Belarus 288,000 (2019)[14] Russia 273,000 (2013)[15] Australia 216,056 (2006)[16] Israel 202,300 (2011)[17] Lithuania 183,000 (2021)[18] Ukraine 144,130 (2001)[19] Ireland 112,500 (2018)[20] Norway 108,255 (2019)[21] Italy 97,000 (2016)[6][22] Sweden 75,323 (2012)[23] Austria 69,898 (2015)[24] Spain 63,000 (2019)[25] Netherlands 60,000 (2017)[15] Belgium 49,600 (2019)[25] Latvia 44,783 (2011)[26] Denmark 37,876 (2014)[27] Kazakhstan 34,057 (2018)[28] South Africa 30,000 (2014)[29] Iceland 20,927 (2022)[30] Czech Republic 20,305 (2017)[31] Hungary 20,000 (2018)[6][32] Switzerland 20,000 (2007)[6] Paraguay 16,748 (2012)[33] Greece 15,000 (2019)[25] United Arab Emirates 14,500 (2015)[15] Chile 10,000 (2007)[6] Mexico 10,000 (2007)[6] Moldova 10,000 (2007)[6] Uruguay 10,000 (2007)[6] Slovakia 5,282 (2021)[34] Portugal 4,326[35]
Languages
Predominantly Polish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism[36]
Related ethnic groups
Other West Slavs Especially other Lechites

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The population of self-declared Poles in Poland is estimated at 37,394,000 out of an overall population of 38,512,000 (based on the 2011 census),^[40] of whom 36,522,000 declared Polish alone.^[2][41][4] A wide-ranging Polish diaspora (the Polonia) exists throughout Eurasia, the Americas, and Australasia. Today, the largest urban concentrations of Poles are within the Warsaw metropolitan area and the Katowice urban area.

Ethnic Poles are considered to be the descendants of the ancient West Slavic Lechites and other tribes that inhabited the Polish territories during the late antiquity period. Poland's recorded history dates back over a thousand years to c. 930–960 AD, when the Western Polans – an influential tribe in the Greater Poland region – united various Lechitic clans under what became the Piast dynasty,^[42] thus creating the first Polish state. The subsequent Christianization of Poland by the Catholic Church, in 966 CE, marked Poland's advent to the community of Western Christendom. However, throughout its existence, the Polish state followed a tolerant policy towards minorities resulting in numerous ethnic and religious identities of the Poles, such as Polish Jews.