Most Polish countries in the world

Have you ever wondered how many Poles there are in the world? Because we’re a 38 million nation, but adding up all the people of Polish origin around the world makes as a 60 million nation!  There are over 20 million people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest and most dispersed in the world. 

The history of Poles departures is hundreds of years old. They traveled to different parts of the world in search of peace, freedom, work and a better life - after the war, later in communism and since 2004 when we joined European Union.

From 1945 till the end of communism in 1989, Poles were not free to go abroad because of the restrictive passport and exit-visa policies. It is estimated that in the postwar period 6 million people left Poland even though they knew they wouldn’t be able to come back.

The accession to the EU in 2004 coupled with unrestricted entry to all EU member countries caused one of the biggest emigrations flows in Poland’s postwar history. As a result, Poland became one of the largest exporters of labour within the enlarged EU. Poles still are represented mostly in blue-collar and industrial sectors but continue to expand into white-collar professional and managerial roles.

The Statistical Office informed that in 2016 there were 2,5 million Poles abroad, mostly in UK and Germany. But these are just people who left for work. It’s estimated that around 4,3 million Poles live in West Europe, 1,5 million in East Europe and 12,5 million in both Americas.

The country with the biggest number of Poles is definitely USA (over 10 million Poles) where they represent the largest of the Slavic groups in America. The history of Poles in the USA dates back to the Colonial era, and that means that Poles have lived there for over 400 years. Polish immigrants appear in the annals of Jamestown from 1609, having been engaged by the colony as skilled craftsmen to create products for export. In the 18th century, two polish noblemen–Tadeusz Kościuszko and Casimir Puławski both fought on the rebel side in the Revolutionary War. But the first wave of Polish immigrants lasted during the partitioning of Poland, from roughly 1800 to 1860 and was largely made up of political dissidents—intellectuals and nobility.

Chicago with 1,5 million Poles is the biggest Polish city outside Poland. When I was taking a German course in Germany my teacher used to say: It’s good you learn a language other than Polish because Polish is spoken in only Poland and Chicago. Second biggest Polish city is New York City (0,7 million) where Greenpoint is often called Little Poland owing to the strong Polish presence dating back to 19th century.  

The second country is Germany — 3 million, but according to other sources even up to 7 million people of Polish origin. If you want to meet a Pole there you should go to Ruhr Region (0,7 million) or Berlin (0,2 million).

I discovered how many Germans have Polish origin when I was a student. There were plenty of German Erasmus students at my university and as I took a lot of classes in English, I had a pleasure to meet them. There was always a 90% chance that the German guy I talked to had probably Polish parents and speaks Polish pretty well.

Now there’s something nobody expects, but the third country on the list is Brazil with almost 2 million Poles. Curitiba, the only Brazilian city which gained its proper name in polish language (Kurytyba)  is probably the second city with the biggest number of polish descents. Krzysztof Arciszewski is known for being the first Pole in Brazil. He came ashore in the 17th century on Dutch ships as Dutch wanted to conquer the north of the country. 

However, the true invasion of Poles took place in the 19th century at the turn of 20th century with a group of 16 polish families arrived by ship to the Brazilian coast. The Brazil government started the whitening policy (blanqueamiento) to improve the race. To dilute or dissolve the black race, Brazil introduced public measures (funded and subsidized immigrant travels) to increase European immigration and as a result over a million Europeans arrived in there in a 19th and 20th century. In 1890-1914 more than a 100 thousand of Poles arrived in Brazil populating the countries south Parana region.

1 million Poles in France are one of the oldest Polish diaspora communities in Europe. Paris enjoyed a great popularity among prominent members of Polish community as such Marie Skłodowska-Curie, Adam Mickiewicz or Fryderyk Chopin in the times when the French capital became a major center of Polish culture, a place where political elites and military authorities constantly flowed bringing with them the hope of liberating their country from the Communist regime.