page_title: Polish diaspora
section_title: North America
hierarchical_section_title: Polish diaspora / North America
caption_attribution_description: Polish ancestry in the USA (1990 census) and Canada (2016 census). Legend: &#160;&#160;Over 10% &#160;&#160;7% - 10% &#160;&#160;5% - 7% &#160;&#160;4% - 5% &#160;&#160;3% - 4% &#160;&#160;2% - 3% &#160;&#160;below 2%
context_page_description: The Polish diaspora refers to Poles and people of Polish heritage or origin who live outside Poland. The Polish diaspora is also known in Modern Polish as Polonia, which is the name for Poland in Latin and in many Romance languages.
  There are roughly 20,000,000 people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest in the world and one of the most widely dispersed. Reasons for the displacement include border shifts, forced expulsions, resettlement by voluntary and forced exiles as well as political and economic emigration. Major populations of Polish ancestry can be found in their native home region of Central Europe and in many other countries of Europe and also well in the Americas, Australasia and South Africa. There are also smaller Polish communities in most countries of Asia and Africa.
context_section_description: The United States and Canada were the major focus of Polish political and economic migration since 1850 up until the fall of the Iron Curtain.
caption: Polish ancestry in the USA and Canada by area:   Over 10%   7% - 9.9%   5% - 6.9%   4% - 4.9%   3% - 3.9%   2% - 2.9%   below 2%
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