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Poles
Skłodowska-Curie • Pope John Paul II • Chopin • Copernicus Wałęsa • Kościuszko • Wajda • Piłsudski
Total population
50 million (est.)[5]
Regions with significant populations
Poland 38,860,000 [6]  United States 9,385,233 [7]  Brazil 1,500,000 [8]  Canada 820,000 [9]  United Kingdom 750,000 [10]  Argentina 500,000 [11]  Belarus 400,000 [12]  Germany 290,000 [13][14]  Lithuania 250,000 [15]  Australia 150,900 [16]  Ukraine 144,130 [17]  Russia 73,000 [18]  Ireland 63,276 [19]  Latvia 57,000 [20]  Czech Republic 52,000 [21]  Italy 50,790 [22]  Kazakhstan 47,293 [23]  Netherlands 39,500 [24]  Austria 21,000 [25]  Iceland 7,000 [26]  Turkey 5,000 [27] Rest of World 1,145,000 (est.) [28]
Language(s)
Polish
Religion(s)
Predominantly Roman Catholic (+90%), with other Christian[29], Jewish, and secular minorities.
Related ethnic groups
West Slavs

Polish people, or Poles, (Polish: Polacy) are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. 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.

There is no commonly accepted definition of the Poles. According to the preamble of the Constitution of Poland, the Polish Nation consists of all citizens of Poland. However, like in most European countries, many people limit the group to native speakers of the Polish language, people that share certain views or traditions, or people who share a common ethnic background originating from Poland. As to the ethnicity, the name of the nation comes from a western Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with Poland and the Polish language. Poles belong to the Lechitic subgroup of these ethnic people. The Polans of Giecz, Gniezno, and Poznań were one of the most influential tribes of Greater Poland and managed to unite many other West Slavic tribes in the area under the rule of what became the Piast dynasty, thus giving birth to a new state. The Polish name for a Pole is Polak (male) and Polka (female).

Estimates vary greatly, though most data suggests a total number around 50 million. Other estimates expect that number at around 60 million worldwide. There are 38 million Poles in Poland alone as well as autochthonous Polish minorities in the surrounding countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are also some smaller minorities that like other nearby countries like Moldova and Latvia. Note that there is also a Polish minority in Russia which included autochthonous Poles as well as some forcibly deported Poles. The total number of Poles in what was the former Soviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million.^[1]

The term "Polonia" is usually used in Poland to refer to people of Polish origin who live outside Polish borders, officially estimated at around 10-12 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States (Polish-American), Canada,(Polish Canadians) and Brazil (see Polish Brazilian, in Paraná see "polaco"). In the United States a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, and Buffalo. In recent years, since joining the European Union, many Polish people have emigrated to countries such as Ireland; where an estimated 200,000 Polish people have entered the labour market. It is estimated that three quarters of a million have in the United Kingdom.

The following is the list of Polish tribes - tribes which constituted the lands of Poland in the early Middle Ages, at the beginning of the Polish state. Some of them have remained a separate ethnicity while others have been assimilated into the culture of Poland.

(for ethnic Poles living abroad see Polonia, for those living and working in the United Kingdom see Polish British)

A survey carried out by the CBOS public opinion institute, between March 30 and April 2, 2007, found that 86% of Poles felt that EU membership had had a positive effect, with only 5% of the respondents speaking against it, down from 22 percent in 2004. The institute also found that 55% of those surveyed prefer the EU to remain a union of sovereign states, while 22% supported the idea of a "United States of Europe".^[2] Principal areas of Polish life that have been improved by EU membership, are agriculture (according to 75% of those surveyed), the environment (61%), productivity (57%) and unemployment (56%).^[3]

Among the ten new EU members, of which eight are Eastern European, Poles are the most mobile, with considerable numbers of Polish migrants found in almost all ‘old’ EU countries, filling numerous vacancies on the European labour market, especially in areas where indigenous workforce is insufficient. According to Franck Duvell of Oxford, some countries, like Germany and Austria, missed on that opportunity by discriminating against mobile Europeans, granting them freedom of movement without freedom of employment, which resulted in the increase of numbers of illegal migrant workers. “In fact, the EU accession process, and namely the Polish experience could possibly serve as a paradigm for easing some of Europe’s migration dilemma,” Duvell suggested.^[4]

• History of Polish war veterans being admitted to Canada after World War II
• Federation of Poles in Great Britain
• Polonia Świata (Free Poles - Polonia Directory)
• Polish Heritage Trust of New Zealand
• Polacy w Wielkiej Brytanii, Polish Community in the UK