This is a list of cities and towns in Poland, consisting of four sections: the full list of all 107 cities in Poland by size, followed by a description of the principal metropolitan areas of the country, the table of the most populated cities and towns in Poland, and finally, the full alphabetical list of all 107 Polish cities and 861 towns combined.
As of 30 April 2022, there are altogether 2471 municipalities (gmina) in Poland:
1513 of them are rural gminas containing exclusively rural areas, each of them forms a part of one of the 314 regular powiats, but never as its seat,
the remaining 968 contain a locality classified either as a city or a town, among them:
666 towns are managed together with their rural surroundings under a single local government in the form of an eponymous urban-rural gmina typically seated in such town (though not always; currently, Gmina Nowe Skalmierzyce is the only urban-rural gmina seated elsewhere than in the town); such mixed municipalities always form part of a regular powiat, sometimes seated in such town, in such case being usually an eponymous one (though there are some exceptions; e.g. Warsaw West County is seated in the town Ożarów Mazowiecki while Gdańsk County is seated in the town Pruszcz Gdański, although their names would suggest otherwise; in addition, two binominal "hyphen" counties seated in such towns have been named so due to long-established animosity between a pair of towns similar in size, in order to placate both competing populations, namely Strzelce-Drezdenko County and Ropczyce-Sędziszów County; finally, the mountainuous Bieszczady County has been named after the mountain range rather than its seat)
302 cities and towns are standalone as an urban gmina; nevertheless some of them be also a seat of an eponymous rural gmina surrounding it (the latter thus being often doughnut-shaped), despite not being a part of its territory;
195 standalone towns, each of them forming a part of a regular powiat and sometimes being its seat, in the latter case usually an eponymous one, though there are three exceptions (two of them are binominal "hyphen" counties, with Czarnków-Trzcianka County named so due to a long-established animosity between a pair of towns similar in size, while Bieruń-Lędziny County acquired its name when the decision was taken to have its seat relocated from its original location in Tychy, a city with powiat rights, to one of these two competing towns; the third exception is the mountainuous Tatra County named after the mountain range rather than its seat)
107 cities (governed by a city mayor or prezydent miasta), among them:
41 cities form along with two or more other municipalities an eponymous regular powiat, seated always in the city
66 cities hold status of a city with powiat rights (an independent city) which is an urban gmina operating also as a powiat in its own right within a voivodeship; nevertheless, it may be also a seat of a regular powiat, in such case usually an eponymous one (with two exceptions, namely the Łódź East County bearing the additional designation East because of bordering the city only to the west, as well as the mountainuous Karkonosze County seated in Jelenia Góra but named after the mountain range rather than its seat) despite not being included in the territory of the county (the latter thus being often doughnut-shaped)
37 cities are over 100,000, including
18 cities which serve as a seat for voivode or the voivodeship sejmik, thus being informally called voivodeship cities or capitals (in spite of only 16 voivodeships existing in Poland; the discrepancy is caused by the fact that both institutions are seated in a single capital city in only 14 of the 16 voivodeships, while in each of the remaining two they are divided equally between a pair of capital cities),
11 of them are seats of an appeal court and other supra-voivodeship institutions,
They include the capital city of the country, the only Polish city with population exceeding 1,000,000, and the only one governed by a dedicated act of Parliament.
In some cases, a city with powiat rights may also be a seat of both an eponymous rural gmina and an eponymous regular powiat, despite belonging to neither, e.g. Siedlce, Skierniewice, Słupsk. No city in Poland constitutes a separate voivodeship in its own right, though 5 cities held such status in the past.
General principles
All municipalities in Poland are governed regardless of their type under the mandatory mayor–council government system. Executive power in a rural gmina is exercised by a wójt, while the homologue in municipalities containing cities or towns is called accordingly either a city mayor (prezydent miasta) or a town mayor (burmistrz), all of them elected by a two-round direct election, while the town/city council is the legislative, budget-making and oversight body. Any local laws considered non-compliant with the national ones may be invalidated by the respective voivode, whose rulings may be appealed to an administrative court. Decisions in individual cases may in turn be appealed to quasi-judicial bodies named local government boards of appeal [pl], their ruling subject to appeal to an administrative court. A town or city mayor may be scrutinized or denied funding for his/her projects by the council, but is not politically responsible to it and does not require its confidence to remain in office; therefore, cohabitation is not uncommon. A recall referendum may however be triggered either in respect to the wójt/town mayor/city mayor or to the municipal council through a petition supported by at least 1/10 of eligible voters, but the turnout in the recall referendum must be at least 3/5 of the number of people voting in the original election in order for the referendum to be valid and binding. In addition, elected bodies of any municipality may be suspended by the Prime Minister of Poland in case of persisting law transgressions or negligence, resulting in such case in the municipality being placed under receivership. In a city with powiat rights, the city mayor additionally has the powers and duties of a powiat executive board and a starosta, while the city council has the powers and duties of a powiat (county) council; both nevertheless being elected under the municipal election rules rather than those applicable to county elections.
Cities
In spite of no linguistic distinction between a city and a town in the Polish language (both translated miasto), a city may be recognized among other Polish urban municipalities through being managed by a city mayor (prezydent miasta, literally translated city president) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) as the head of the city executive, thus being informally called miasto prezydenckie, with such privilege automatically awarded to municipalities either inhabited by more than 100,000 residents (currently 34) or those enjoying the status of a city with powiat rights (currently 66). As of 2022, all of the former group fit into the latter, though it was not always the case in the past. There is, however, a number of exemptions due to historic or political reasons, when a municipality meets neither of these two conditions but nevertheless has the city status, including the only 3 capitals of the former voivodeships of Poland (1975–1998) not meeting the abovementioned criteria, as well as 38 other municipalities which do not fit into any of the mentioned categories but have nevertheless been allowed to keep the earlier awarded status due to unspecified historical reasons. Among the 34 cities over 100,000, 18 are seats of voivode or voivodeship sejmik, thus carrying the informal designation of a voivodeship city. 11 of them are seats of an appeal court and other supra-voivodeship institutions.
The 107 Polish cities these are cities with a president (prezydent ) belong to the following size ranges in terms of the number of inhabitants (cities with powiat rights are indicated with italics; the seats of either a voivode or a voivodeship legislature are marked in bold, the seats of an appeal court are marked with an asterisk*):
1 city larger than 1,000,000: Warsaw*
1 city from 750,000 to 1,000,000: Kraków*
3 cities from 500,000 to 750,000: Wrocław*, Łódź*, Poznań*
6 cities from 250,000 to 500,000: Gdańsk*, Szczecin*, Lublin*, Bydgoszcz, Białystok*, Katowice*
Only a single officially incorporated multi-purpose metropolitan union exists in Poland, the sui generisMetropolis GZM, established by a dedicated act of Parliament of Poland within the Silesian Voivodeship, currently composed of 41 contiguous municipalities, with some of them containing also rural areas. Its total population is 2,279,560. The metropolis largely coincides with the metropolitan area of the Katowice urban area, which is a part of the wider polycentric transnational Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area.
A de facto metropolitan area is, however, also formed in some aspects by Warsaw metropolitan area, consisting of the capital city of Warsaw, a city with powiat rights, and the 9 neighbouring counties: Warsaw West County, Nowy Dwór County, Legionowo County, Wołomin County, Mińsk County, Otwock County, Piaseczno County, Pruszków County and Grodzisk Mazowiecki County. Warsaw forms together with these counties a NUTS 2 area separate as an exception from the remainder of its home region, the Mazovian Voivodeship. In addition, identical area is policed by the Capital City Police Headquarters separate from the Mazovian Voivodeship Police Headquarters, with a status equal to that of voivodeship police headquarters. Attempts to establish a formally incorporated metropolitan union have been fiercely resisted by the citizens and the city mayor of Warsaw who have considered them a form of concealed gerrymandering, potentially leading to a political takeover of the city government through aiming to counterbalance the profoundly liberal city population with the conservative population of the neighbouring areas.
A third widely known metropolitan area is the metropolitan area of Tricity in Pomeranian Voivodeship, urban area of which consists of the eponymous cities of Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia. The designation has been used informally or semi-formally only. A strategic cooperation declaration, the Tricity Charter (Polish: Karta Trójmiasta), was signed by the three city mayors on 28 March 2007. The only incorporated common management authority in the Tricity metro is the Gdańsk Bay Public Transport Metropolitan Union (Polish: Metropolitarny Związek Komunikacyjny Zatoki Gdańskiej) which is, despite the name, an inter-municipal union and not a metropolitan one.
Largest cities and towns by population
Below is the table of the most populated cities and towns in Poland. The table ranks cities by population based on data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland.
Population at various dates
Name
Voivodeship
30 Jun 2024
1 Jan 2021
30 June 2020
Dec. 2007
1999
1970
1960
1950
1900
Change 2007 – 2020
Warsaw
Masovian
1,862,402
1,794,166
1,793,579
1,706,624
1,618,468
1,315,648
1,139,189
822,036
756,400
4.92%
Kraków
Lesser Poland
807,644
779,966
780,981
766,583
740,666
583,444
481,296
343,638
120,300
1.63%
Wrocław
Lower Silesian
673,531
641,928
643,782
632,930
643,877
526,000
430,522
308,925
422,700
1.60%
L|o|dz|Łódź
Łódź
648,711
672,185
677,286
753,192
806,728
762,699
709,698
620,273
351,600
-9.82%
Poznań
Greater Poland
536,818
532,048
533,830
567,932
578,235
471,900
408,132
320,670
126,000
-5.83%
Gdańsk (part of Tricity urban area)
Pomeranian
487,834
470,621
471,525
458,717
458,988
365,600
286,940
194,633
140,600
2.66%
Szczecin
West Pomeranian
387,700
395,513
400,990
410,811
416,988
338,000
269,318
178,907
210,700
-2.17%
Lublin
Lublin
328,868
336,339
339,547
351,806
356,251
238,500
181,304
116,629
53,600
-3.42%
Bydgoszcz
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
324,984
339,053
346,739
361,222
386,855
282,200
232,007
162,524
52,200
-3.61%
Białystok
Podlaskie
290,907
295,683
297,585
294,143
285,000
168,500
120,921
68,503
66,000
1.16%
Katowice (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
286,960
291,774
317,220
345,934
305,000
269,926
175,496
31,700
-7.71%
Gdynia (part of Tricity urban area)
Pomeranian
243,918
245,867
250,242
253,521
191,500
147,625
103,458
900
-1.56%
Częstochowa
Silesian
214,342
219,278
242,300
257,812
188,189
164,906
112,198
53,700
-9.02%
Radom
Masovian
206,946
210,532
224,857
232,262
159,480
130,116
80,298
30,100
-6.00%
Rzeszów
Podkarpackie
198,609
196,821
166,454
162,049
83,105
62,526
28,133
18,300
17.88%
Toruń
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
196,935
201,106
206,619
211,955
129,872
104,906
80,637
29,600
-2.50%
Sosnowiec (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
194,818
198,996
222,586
244,102
145,000
131,654
96,448
86,700
-10.16%
Kielce
Świętokrzyskie
191,448
194,218
205,902
212,383
126,950
89,500
61,332
23,200
-5.37%
Gliwice (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
175,102
178,186
197,393
212,164
172,000
135,300
119,968
52,400
-9.52%
Olsztyn
Warmian-Masurian
169,793
171,853
175,710
171,131
94,753
67,887
43,831
24,300
-2.12%
Zabrze (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
168,946
171,691
189,062
200,177
197,840
190,049
172,355
26,000
-8.82%
Bielsko-Biała
Silesian
168,319
170,303
175,690
178,963
106,200
75,527
17,400
-2.86%
Bytom (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
161,139
164,447
184,765
205,560
187,500
182,578
173,955
51,400
-10.56%
Zielona Góra
Lubusz
140,403
141,280
117,523
118,182
73,485
54,291
31,634
21,000
20.17%
Rybnik
Silesian
135,994
137,782
141,080
144,582
43,700
34,099
27,222
7,200
-2.11%
Ruda Śląska (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
135,008
137,030
144,584
159,665
143,122
131,667
33,962
14,800
-4.99%
Elbląg
Warmian-Masurian
127,390
119,097
126,710
129,782
127,077
128,012
126,748
129,553
52,500
-2.68%
Opole
Opole
126,458
126,775
127,540
126,748
130,969
86,900
63,500
38,464
30,115
1.01%
Tychy (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
125,781
127,307
129,776
133,178
71,500
49,914
4,900
-1.68%
Gorzów Wielkopolski
Lubusz
120,087
123,341
125,411
126,019
74,782
58,671
32,825
33,600
-1.43%
Dąbrowa Górnicza (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
116,971
118,899
128,795
131,037
61,700
55,720
32,446
3,000
-7.32%
Płock
Masovian
116,962
118,989
126,968
131,011
71,900
42,798
33,128
27,000
-5.94%
Wałbrzych
Lower Silesian
108,222
110,603
123,635
136,923
125,200
117,209
93,842
16,400
-9.93%
Włocławek
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
106,928
109,347
118,432
123,373
82,599
66,820
54,536
23,000
-7.22%
Tarnów
Lesser Poland
105,922
108,177
116,118
118,297
85,929
70,835
37,405
31,700
-6.58%
Chorzów (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
105,628
107,443
113,678
121,708
151,946
147,037
129,456
57,900
-5.16%
Koszalin
West Pomeranian
104,994
106,880
107,376
109,941
65,200
44,410
18,940
20,400
-0.31%
Kalisz
Greater Poland
97,905
99,761
108,031
106,641
81,454
69,946
55,542
22,000
-7.21%
Legnica
Lower Silesian
97,300
99,072
104,754
109,335
76,000
64,185
39,010
54,900
-5.16%
Grudziądz
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
92,552
94,076
99,090
102,434
75,668
64,965
45,327
32,700
-4.77%
Jaworzno (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
89,350
90,759
96,600
99,800
63,600
53,089
20,229
17,500
-5.67%
Słupsk
Pomeranian
88,835
90,320
97,419
102,370
68,939
53,383
33,115
27,300
-6.92%
Jastrzębie-Zdrój
Silesian
86,632
88,425
93,939
102,294
24,500
1,700
-5.53%
Nowy Sącz
Lesser Poland
83,116
83,762
84,468
83,911
41,300
34,179
26,216
-0.95%
Jelenia Góra
Lower Silesian
77,366
78,778
86,220
93,407
55,900
49,617
34,996
-17.1%
Siedlce
Masovian
77,354
78,258
76,939
76,056
39,280
32,587
25,322
1.7%
Mysłowice (part of Katowice urban area)
Silesian
74,085
74,601
74,912
76,231
44,700
40,228
35,720
-2.88%
Konin
Greater Poland
71,427
73,176
80,140
83,462
40,794
17,638
12,145
-14.5%
Piła
Greater Poland
71,846
72,949
74,687
79,568
43,992
33,785
21,085
18,405
-9.80%
Piotrków Trybunalski
Łódź
71,252
72,785
78,475
81,433
59,843
52,782
42,289
-12.5%
Lubin
Lower Silesian
70,815
72,142
76,306
82,711
28,900
5,471
2,743
-14.4%
Inowrocław
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
70,713
72,561
75,681
79,517
54,911
47,267
38,005
-11.1%
Ostrów Wielkopolski
Greater Poland
70,982
71,829
72,360
74,635
49,705
42,579
32,787
11,800
-4.10%
Suwałki
Podlaskie
69,206
70,126
69,786
69,281
68,815
25,572
19,868
15,456
11,000
0%
Stargard
West Pomeranian
67,293
67,753
70,217
74,166
44,640
33,650
20,684
Gniezno
Greater Poland
66,769
67,968
69,732
71,460
50,926
44,080
36,039
Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski
Świętokrzyskie
66,258
67,975
73,111
79,047
50,147
38,108
20,273
Siemianowice Śląskie (part of Katowice urban area)
2016 population - GUS – Baza Demografia: Wyniki badań bieżących: Stan i struktura ludności: Ludność: 2016: Ludność stan w dniu 31 XII (Central Statistical Office: Demography Database: Population as of 31 December 2016).
2007 population - GUS – Baza Demografia: Wyniki badań bieżących: Stan i struktura ludności: Ludność: 2007: Ludność stan w dniu 31 XII (Central Statistical Office: Demography Database: Population as of 31 December 2007).
List of places which obtained/regained town status in the years since 1900: Nadania praw miejskich w Polsce po 1900 (Polish Wikipedia)
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