The population of Poland, currently 38.5 million people, is experiencing slow growth at the rate of about 100,000 people a year and is expected to reach 39.5 million by the year 2000. Approximately 62% of the population lives in cities. In the 1970's there was a net migration of 2 million people from the country to the towns. This dropped to 1.3 million people in the 1980's and declined further to 100,000 a year in the 1990's. The cities are mostly small or medium sized. Some 43 cities have populations of more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Warsaw, the capital and Poland's largest metropolitan area, has a population of 1.7 million people. The five other largest cities are: Lodz, Krakow, Wroclaw, Poznan and Gdansk.
The population of Polish communities abroad is estimated at 12 million, with the largest living in the USA (5.6 mn.), CIS (2.5 mn.), France (1 mn.), Germany (800,000), Canada (790,000), Brazil (200,000), Australia (150,00), and the UK (140,000).
The overwhelming majority of Poles are Roman Catholic, followed by members of the Polish Orthodox Church and various Protestant denominations, mainly Lutherans. There is also a small number of Jews and Muslims.