page_title: Poland
section_title: Urban demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Poland / Urban demographics
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kraków, Rynek Główny - sukiennice (widok z wieży Kościoła Mariackiego), 1344-1392, 1557-1559, 1875-1879 This is a photo of a monument in Poland identified by the ID 616524
context_page_description: Poland is a country in Central Europe. It is on the east of Germany. The Czech Republic and Slovakia are to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania, and the Russian exclave Kaliningrad to the north. The total land area of Poland is about 312,679 km², slightly larger than Oman. This makes Poland the 77th largest country in the world with over 38.5 million people. Most Polish people live in large cities, including the capital, Warsaw, Łódź, Cracow, the second capital of Poland, Szczecin, Gdańsk, Wrocław and Poznań.
  The word "Poland" was written officially for the first time in 966. In 1569, Poland formed a strong union with Lithuania called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At some point in its history, it was the largest state in Europe and became very influential. Much of the territory that now makes up Central European states used to belong to that Commonwealth. Eventually, after a slow decline, the Commonwealth collapsed in 1795. Poland regained its independence in 1918 after World War I. In 1921, Poland defeated Soviet Russia in the Polish-Soviet War that started in 1919.
context_section_description: The lists below show the population count of Poland's largest cities based on 2005 estimates.
caption: Kraków
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