* As of 1/8/2026
1 birth
Every 1.9 minutes
1 death
Every 1.3 minutes
1 emigrant
Every 1.1 hours
1 person
Every 3.7 minutes
187K
250K
500K
750K
1M
Poland, which is called the Republic of Poland in the official books, is located in Central Europe. To its west is Germany, to its south are Slovakia and Czechia, and to the east are Ukraine and Belarus. The northern border is comprised of the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast, Lithuania and the Russian exclave. The country constitutes a total area of 120,726 square miles (312,679 square kilometers) , which makes it the 69th largest country of the world and the ninth largest in Europe. Poland is a unitary state comprised of 16 voivodeships.
The sex ratio at the time of birth between men and women is 1.06 males / female. For the age group under 15 years, it is 1.06 males / female. For the next age group, which is 15-64 years, it is 0.99 male / female. For the last age group, which is 65 years and over, the sex ratio is calculated to be about 0.62 male / female. When combined, this data gives an overall ratio of 0.94 male per female.
The infant mortality rate is estimated to be 6.42 deaths / 1000 live births for the total, with 7.12 deaths for the males and 5.67 deaths for the females per 1000 live births.
Polish (96.9%)
Silesian (1.1%)
Other (1.6%)
Unspecified (0.4%)
The main religion in Poland is Catholic.
Catholic
Unspecified
Orthodox
Protestant
Other
87% of the population follows a Catholic religious path, while small percentages follow Protestant, Orthodox, and other religions.
The life expectancy rate has often been in the favor of deaths, especially during the World War. The growth rate also stayed negative until around 2007, but recently the stats have changed. The growth rate has now become 1.19%, which is the estimate calculated in 2012. The birth rate in 2012 was estimated to be 9.96 per 1000 people. The death rate was calculated as 9.24 deaths per 1000 deaths, which is still very close to the birth rate. The fertility rate has been decreasing since 2008, which at that point was 1.39 children born per woman and has now reached 1.31 children born per woman.
In 2018, these numbers are now updated to reflect a median age of 40.7 years of age, with a total life expectancy of 77.8 years of age. The death rate is at 10.4 per 1,000 individuals, over a full point up from previous calculations. The birth rate is now at 9.5 births per 1,000 individuals, indicating another decrease in the natural growth rate. The fertility rate is currently at 1.35 children per woman, which is a much smaller decrease than similar recent statistics in this arena.
The population of the Republic of Poland was at only 1 million around the year 1000. This figure doubled by 1370 and gave Poland a population density of 8.6 people per square km. The country was affected comparatively little by the Black Death than the rest of Western Europe, which is why its population didn’t fall as much and continued to rise. By 1490, Poland’s population had jumped up to about 8 million inhabitants. Urbanization in the country further increased the population due to the innumerous migrations. By 1815, there were 11 million Poles in the territory; but due to the 3 partitions after 1772, the population was distributed among different countries.
However, the population still struggled to revive. Even after the millions of deaths in the Second World War, the census held in 1946 indicated a total population of 23,930,000. Out of this, 32% of the people were living in cities and towns and in urban areas, whereas 68% of the people were living in the countryside. The population further grew until recently, when it finally started decreasing because of a negative growth rate.
