There are so many Ukrainians in Poland primarily due to the 2022 Russian invasion, creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe, but also due to pre-existing migration trends, geographical proximity (shared border), cultural/linguistic ties, and Poland's strong demand for labor, making it an accessible destination for work and safety for millions fleeing conflict.
During Poland's post-1989 transition to democracy, migrants from Ukraine became an important part of the labour force. Then, in 2014, conflict sparked by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine drove more Ukrainian migrants to Poland.
Poland supports Ukraine's European integration for similar reasons. An independent and strong, and most importantly, friendly, Ukraine is an important instrument of Polish Eastern European policy since it significantly counterbalances the Russian Federation's influence and ambition relative to Poland.
Ukrainians accounted for 8 per cent of Poland's population. What else do we know? In April, there were 3.85 million Ukrainians in Poland. At the end of May, we estimated 3.37 million, with 1.43 million in the 12 largest Polish cities alone.
The largest migrant communities originate from Ukraine (over 1,1 million), the UK (close to 185,000), and Germany (over 87,000). Since 2014, immigration to Poland has risen from an average 200,000 persons per year recorded in 2014-2020 to 303,275 persons in 2023.
The number of Poles returning to Poland from the U.K. has been around the 25,000 mark for the last five years. One reason so many Poles are returning home is family.
Most people living in Poland, regardless of actual ethnic descent, identify as Polish. Therefore, 98% of the country is to be considered Polish. Other ethnic groups that are present in the country are the Kashubians, Rusyns, Germans, Belorussians, Ukrainians, Lemkos, Romas, ethnic Jews, and Silesians.
In the years 2015 to 2018, around 55-60% of Poles were consistently in favour, with around 30-40% opposed. The surveys then resumed in March 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion. At that time, a record 94% supported accepting refugees, with only 3% opposed.
Comparisons are often made between Ukrainian and Russian, another East Slavic language, yet there is more mutual intelligibility with Belarusian, and a closer lexical distance to West Slavic Polish and South Slavic Bulgarian.
During the 14th century, Poland and Lithuania fought wars against the Mongol invaders, and eventually most of Ukraine passed to the rule of Poland and Lithuania. More particularly, Red Ruthenia, and part of Volhynia and Podolia became part of Poland.
In terms of haplogroup distribution, the genetic pattern of Ukrainians most closely resembles that of Belarusians.
In 2020 in Poland, the GDP per capita at PPP was 277% of this indicator in Ukraine, which meant that the Ukrainian GDP per capita in US dollars calculated based on PPP was only 36% of that in Poland.
Name of Poland was establish during rule of the second known ruler Bolesław the Brave (992-1025). "Polska", "Rzeczpospolita", "Korona" were all used simultaneously. Poland (Polska) could mean either the Crown (Korona) or the whole Commonwealth (Rzeczpospolita) depending on the context.
Most modern Second World countries are former Soviet nations: Hungary, Romania, Poland, Russia, and so on.
✅ Pros: affordable cost of living, stunning mountains, strong culture, safe environment. ❌ Cons: bureaucracy, Polish language is hard, long winters, lower salaries. The biggest challenge? Missing friends and family back home.
By early November, according to the UNHCR, the number of Ukrainian refugees recorded across Europe was around 7.8 million. The countries receiving the largest numbers of refugees as of May 2025 were Germany (1.2 million), Poland (1 million), and the Czech Republic (0.4 million).
These are the four vital differences between the Russian and Ukranian alphabet:
Historians and linguists generally agree that Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian are the oldest languages with a clear written record.
No, Ukrainian and Belarus are East Slavic languages. Polish is South Slavic and we understand each other well with Czechs, Slovaks, and even Croats and Serbs.
Unwillingness of Countries to Accept Refugees
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia have either refused outright or resisted taking in refugees since the European Commission first pushed through temporary quotas in 2015 as a way to ease the burden on frontline states—mainly Italy and Greece.
After the war, Poland became an ethnically homogeneous country. However, in the last decade Poland witnessed a mass-scale migration to the country, mostly from neighboring Ukraine and Belarus and increasingly from Central, South Asia and the Middle East.
Relations between the Polish and Russian governments and their citizens have become increasingly hostile since the Russo-Ukrainian War. According to a 2022 poll, only 2% of Poles viewed Russia positively, the lowest number in the world among countries polled.
What else has affected the birth rate in Poland in recent decades? The reason for the declining fertility rate was the world-view and economic changes after 1989. The opportunities brought by the new political system led young people to change their priorities and value system.
Nowak, Kowalski, Wiśniewski, Wójcik, Kamiński , Kowalczyk, Lewandowski, Dąbrowski, Zieliński, Szymański, Woźniak, Kozłowski, Jankowski, Mazur, Wojciechowski, Kwiatkowski, Krawczyk, Piotrowski .
⸻ 🧬 Polish DNA: A Slavic Core with Deep European Roots Modern genetic studies show that Poles carry Slavic- Indo-European ancestry blended with older Paleolithic and Neolithic European layers: • 🔬 Y-DNA (Paternal Line): – R1a1a (M17) – Dominant in Poland (~55–60%).