Poland
Brief Description:
Area:
Total area is 312,679 square kilometer. It is bordered by the the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south;Germany to the west; Ukraine and Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and Lithuania to the north.
Government System:
Parliamentary Republic.
Population:
The total population is about 38,502,396 and density is 120 per square kilometer.
Largest cities:
Monetary unit:
Zoty
National name:
The Republic of Poland.
Languages :
The official language is Polish which is a Lechitic language spoken by native speakers in Poland as well as abroad. A regional language in Poland is Kashubian used by a particular indigenous ethnic group. Minority languages in Poland are Belarusan, Czech, Lithuanian, German, Slovak, Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish. There are also diaspora languages used by ethnic groups not possessing their territory in Europe, such as Yiddish, Romani, Karaim, Grabar (Old Armenian) and Tatar. The main immigrant languages include Czech, Eastern Yiddish, Greek, Lithuanian, Russian and Slovak. The main foreign languages spoken by Poles are English, Russian and German.
Religion :
Majority of the population of Poland is Christan with 86.7% to 91% of the population belonging to the Roman Catholic Church.
Literacy rate:
The literacy rate in Poland is 99.7% with a rank of 23 out of 194.
GDP/PPP :
Total GDP is $ 813.988 billion and per capita is $ 21,111. The nominal GDP is $ 513,934 billion and per capita is $ 13,334.
In the second World War Poland was attacked by Germany and was divided by Germany and USSR. Thousands of polish soldiers and policemen were killed in Soviet camps. Poland was the first target of World War II. At the yalta conference, Poland was relegaled to a state of Soviet dependence. In 1980s, a movement ‘solidarity’ was born. As a result in 1981 martial law was introduced in Poland .In 1988 the Government decided to start a dialogue with the opposition. In 1989 non fully parliamentary elections were held and the opposition took part . Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected prime minister and ‘Solidarity’ led government was formed . As a result, there were collapse of USSR, fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the cold war and Poland’s reunion with the democratic world. Poland is now a democratic country ,with pluralistic party and bicameral parliament . Constitution is the supreme act, established by a national referendum in 1997. The bicameral parliament is elected every four years. The supreme power lies in the hands of the president and the cabinet. The presidents office was restored as head of state in 1989. Prime minister and other ministers are appointed by the president.