1186
POLAND
Area and Population.
The area of the Polish State cannot be strictly denned until its boundaries are determined by the Peace Treaty with Russia and Lithuania and by the plebiscite in Upper Silesia. The Peace Treaty with Russia, the Treaty of Riga, was signed on March 18, 1921, and ratifications were exchanged on May 2, 1921. The Treaty of Peace with Lithuania is being negotiated (May, 1921), while as regards Upper Silesia, no decision as to its final status had been taken by the Supreme Council by May, 1921.
According to a recent estimate, Poland at present has an area of 149,042 square miles, and a population of (1920) 24,272,349. Of this Congress Poland (i.e., the Poland as delimited and handed over to Russia by the Congress of Vienna, 1815) had 12,789,226 inhabitants; Galicia, 8,257,505 ; and Former Prussian Poland, 3,225,618. The territories separated from Russia and ceded to Poland by the Treaty of Riga comprise an area of 43,908 square miles, with 3,683,568 inhabitants. The area of the Polish territory within the frontiers of the Curzon line and the Treaty of Versailles comprises about 96,796 square miles, with a population of 3,882,000.
The density of population in the whole country is 188 per square mile, while within the Curzon line it is 246 '5 per square mile. The racial percentage is as follows (the percentage within the Curzon line is given in brackets) : Poles, 65 3 per ceut. (70'8 per cent.) ; Ukrainians, 16 - 7 percent. (15 - 8 per cent.) ; Jews, 7"4 per cent. (6*8 per cent.) ; Germans, 5'2 per cent. (6"0 per cent.) ; White Russians, 31 per cent. ; Ruthenians, 0'5 per cent. ; Lithuanians, 0'4 per cent. ; Aborigines, 0*6 per cent. ; others, 0'8 per cint. (0*6 per cent.).
The territory of Congress Poland is divided into 5 counties (wojewddztwo) : Warsaw, Lodz, Lublin, Kielceand Bialystok, comprising 83 districts (jw The former Prussian Provinces are divided into two counties : Posen and Pomerelia, comprising 55 districts. Galicia is divided into 4 counties : Cracow (24 districts) ; Lwow (28 districts) ; Stanislawow (16 districts) ; Tarnopol (17 districts).
Population of principal towns : —
Warsaw .
980,000
Czestocbowa
101,500
Wloelawek .
54,000
Lodz
429,775
Biiilvsiok .
80,800
Kalisz .
Lemberg (1910) .
206,113
Lublin
73.000
Dabrowa
49.P04
Vilna .
205,000
Kadom .
7(1. imo
rabjniiiiv(19l2-lS)
48,000
Cracow .
176,463
Brest Litowsk
Thorn (1910-11) .
46,000
Posen .
156,691
Bromberg .
57,696
Kielce .
Sosnowiec
119,000
IV/.mysl
54,078
Zawlercte .
42,700
No recent statistics of births, deaths and marriagei are available ; in 1912 (including the territories of the former kingdom of Poland, Galicia, Poznania and West Prussia) there were : Marriages, 172,144 ; births (living), 898,819 ; deaths, 488,193; surplus of births over deaths, 410,626.
Before the war, emigration was chiefly to the United States. The Polish population in America is estimated to be over 4,000,000.
Religion.
The great majority of the population profess the Roman Catholic faith, but there is no established church in Poland and all denominations enjoy equal rights, though Article 117 of the Constitution declares Roman Catholicism
