Poland, having over 38 million inhabitants is one of the more populated countries of Europe. The number of people grew fast in the first decade after the war, mainly due to the very dynamic natural increase rate (about 18%). Later, with small deviations it began to lower and in 1994 reached the level of 2.5% (See graph).
Poland is one of the European countries which have a medium population density (123 people/km²). The voivodships that are the most densely populated are:
– Lodz – over 736 people/km²,
– Warsaw – over 630 people/km²,
– Katowice – over 590 people/km²,
– Cracow – over 380 people/km².
On the other hand the northern and eastern territories of Poland are much more sparsely populated:
Suwalki voivodship
– about 46 people/km²,
Lomza voivodship
– about 53 people/km²,
Slupsk voivodship
– slightly over 57 people/km². (MAP illustrating population density).

In Poland there are 853 towns and 62% of the population lives in them, which compared to other European countries is a low rate. The majority of them are small towns (less than 10 thousand inhabitants), although nearly half of the urban population lives in large cities (with more than 100 thousand inhabitants). The towns are not spaced out uniformly. The largest number of towns is in the areas of Wielkopolska, Kujawy and Silesia, the smallest in the eastern regions of the country. The most urbanized region is the Upper-Silesian Industrial District with eleven large cities consisting of over 100,000 citizens. Moreover, there are larger gatherings of towns and industrial settlements in the Rybnik Industrial District and in the area of Walbrzych.
Almost the whole rural population works in agriculture and forestry. 27.06% of all the active workers work in these sectors of the economy.

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