Poles

Polish people
(Polacy)

Chopin • Copernicus • Skłodowska-Curie • Prus • John III Sobieski Rejewski • Kościuszko • Conrad • Piłsudski • Matejko Wałęsa • Kubica • Szymborska • Boruc • Domeyko Sienkiewicz • Pope John Paul II • Paderewski • Doda • Michalczewski
Total population
60 million (est.)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Poland 38,860,000 [2]  United States 9 385 233 [3]  Brazil 1 800 000 - 3 000 000 [4]  Germany 1,055,700 [5]  Canada 984 565 [6]  France 900 000 [7]  United Kingdom 500,000 - 1 100 000 [1][8]  Argentina 500 000 [9]  Belarus 400,000 [10]  Lithuania 205,500 [11]  Ireland 200,000 [12]  Australia 150,900  Ukraine 144,130 [13]  Norway 120,000 [14]  Italy 100,000 [15]  Spain 78,305 [16]  Russia 73,000  Latvia 52,446 [17]  Czech Republic 52,000 [18]  Greece 50 000 [19]  Kazakhstan 47,293 [20]  Chile 45 000 [21]  Netherlands 39 500 [22]  South Africa 30 000 [23]  Sweden 30 000 [24]  Austria 21,000 [25]  Iceland 10,540 [26]  Denmark 5,300 [27]  Moldova 4,174 [28]  Romania 3,671 [29]  Finland 3 000 [30]
Languages
Polish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic with Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish minorities.
Related ethnic groups
Czechs, Slovaks, Kashubians, Sorbs and other West Slavs

The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy [pɔˈlat​͡sɨ], singular Polak) nation, belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of west slavic languages group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. The Poles are defined as the inhabitants of Poland and Polish emigrants irrespective of their ethnicity. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Western and Eastern Europe, the Americas and Australia.

From the middle 15th-century into the early 19th-century, the name Poles (Polak) means only the of all gentry, called Szlachta. Poles, consisting only of middle and petty nobles, regardless of ethnic origin and religious beliefs^[31]. All of these nobles formed the privileged class.

There is no commonly accepted definition of the Polish people. According to the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the Polish nation consists of all citizens of Poland. However, as in most European countries, many people limit the group to native speakers of the Polish language, people who share certain traditions, or people who share a common ethnic background originating from Poland. The name of the nation comes from Polish pole, meaning "field", descending from a Proto-Indo-European root.^[32] 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 (internal struggles) ^[33]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 word for a Polish person is Polak (masculine) and Polka (feminine); however, when the masculine form of this common noun is used in the English language (usually spelled as Polack) it is always offensive.^[34] The feminine form typically refers in English to the style of music (i.e. Polka).

The inhabitants of Poland live in traditional and historically-geographical regions. There are seven major areas - Masovia, Pomerania, Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Warmia, Mazury and Silesia.

Genetics

Polish people show the characteristic R1a genes of a common male ancestorship at a very high frequency of 55.9-56.4%. Such large frequencies of R1a have been found in South Asia and Central Asia.^[35]

Statistics

Polish people are the sixth largest national group in Europe.^[36] Estimates vary depending on source, though available data suggest a total number of around 60 million people worldwide (with roughly 21 million living outside of Poland, many of whom are not of Polish ethnicity, but Polish nationals).^[1] There are almost 39 million Poles in Poland alone. There are also Polish minorities in the surrounding countries including Germany, and indigenous minorities in the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Belarus. There are some smaller indigenous minorities in nearby countries such as Moldova and Latvia. There is also a Polish minority in Russia which includes indigenous Poles as well as those forcibly deported during and after World War II; the total number of Poles in what was the former Soviet Union is estimated at up to 3 million.^[37]

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 to 20 million. There is a notable Polish diaspora in the United States, Canada, and Brazil. France has a historic relationship with Poland and has a relatively large Polish-descendant population. Poles have lived in France since the 1700s. In the early 20th century, over a million Polish people settled in France, mostly during world wars, among them Polish émigrés fleeing either Nazi occupation or later Soviet rule.

In the United States a significant number of Polish immigrants settled in Chicago, Ohio, Detroit, New York City, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and New England. The highest concentration of Poles in the United States is in New Britain, Connecticut. The majority of Polish Canadians have arrived in Canada since World War II. The number of Polish immigrants increased between 1945 and 1970, and again after the fall of Communism in 1989. In Brazil the majority of Polish immigrants settled in Paraná State. The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world (after Chicago) and Polish music, dishes and culture are quite common in the region. 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 over half a million Polish people have immigrated to the United Kingdom. The Polish community in Norway has increased dramatically and has grown to a total number of 120,000, making Polish people the largest immigrant group in Norway.

Before World War II many Polish Jews became followers of Zionism and subsequently emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. Following the Holocaust, the vast majority of surviving Polish Jews moved to Israel, contributing to the largest single place of origin of Israeli Jews.

Polish tribes

The following is a 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 separate ethnicities while others have been assimilated into the culture of Poland.^[38][39][40]

Allegory of Polonus (Szlachta) from the 18th century

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

See also

References

External links

Movie (on-line)

• Animated history of Poland, (PARP, Expo 2010 Shanghai China)

Other

• History of Ancient Poland