Warsaw Demographics

[PoliAussie]

I'm exchanging to a university in Warsaw next year. I've heard from a Pole that it is in fact not very 'Polish' there in terms of people, but is 'diversified' in the London sense (their way of putting it, not mine!).

Are there any Poles here who can give me an overview of what to expect in Warsaw? Dziękuję :thumb001:

[Voskos]

For Polish standards, 1% non Poles is diverse.

[Ülev]

unban R1ethel, only Rethel can help, he is Mazovian

[Peterski]

I'm exchanging to a university in Warsaw next year. I've heard from a Pole that it is in fact not very 'Polish' there in terms of people, but is 'diversified' in the London sense (their way of putting it, not mine!).

Are there any Poles here who can give me an overview of what to expect in Warsaw? Dziękuję :thumb001:

From 2011 census.

The number of inhabitants with Non-Polish citizenship per 10,000 inhabitants, by county, in Masovian Voivodeship. The darkest red is 40-94 (so 4-10% of all inhabitants) and 3 counties had so many - Warsaw, Pruszków and Piaseczno. I guess that Warsaw had 94 (almost 10% of foreigners):

https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/publikacje-i-foldery/spisy-powszechne/narodowy-spis-powszechny-ludnosci-i-mieszkan-2011-raport-z-wynikow-wojewodztwa-mazowieckiego,15,1.html

https://i.imgur.com/laTfxra.png

That was back in 2011, now there must be more. Still not as diverse as London, though.

And for comparison Cracow had over 7% foreigners in 2011:

https://s7.postimg.cc/m8syq9lkr/Screen_Hunter_2394_May._17_09.16.jpg

For comparison Belfast in Ulster had 6% foreigners in 2011:

https://s7.postimg.cc/e2szsti97/Screen_Hunter_2396_May._17_13.03.jpg

So Warsaw and Cracow are more diverse than Belfast, but surely not than London.

[PoliAussie]

Thanks for the detailed response, Peterski. The numbers are higher than I expected. I wonder if there's a breakdown of where the foreigners originate from?

[Bobby Martnen]

So Warsaw and Cracow are more diverse than Belfast

al-Warsavistan & al-Cracovistan

[Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas]

As someone who has lived in Poland before I wouldn't expect much diversity. Most foreigners I met where just exchange students. There were some Vietnamese/Thai restaurants run by Asians though and some Turks/Kurds running kebab kiosks.

Nowadays due to the war in Ukraine there's nearly a million of Ukrainians risiding permanently in Poland so they are the most visible diaspora though I am guessing most of them don't stand out from the rest of the crowd.

[michal3141]

From 2011 census.

The number of inhabitants with Non-Polish citizenship per 10,000 inhabitants, by county, in Masovian Voivodeship. The darkest red is 40-94 (so 4-10% of all inhabitants) and 3 counties had so many - Warsaw, Pruszków and Piaseczno. I guess that Warsaw had 94 (almost 10% of foreigners):

https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/publikacje-i-foldery/spisy-powszechne/narodowy-spis-powszechny-ludnosci-i-mieszkan-2011-raport-z-wynikow-wojewodztwa-mazowieckiego,15,1.html

https://i.imgur.com/laTfxra.png

That was back in 2011, now there must be more. Still not as diverse as London, though.

And for comparison Cracow had over 7% foreigners in 2011:

https://s7.postimg.cc/m8syq9lkr/Screen_Hunter_2394_May._17_09.16.jpg

For comparison Belfast in Ulster had 6% foreigners in 2011:

https://s7.postimg.cc/e2szsti97/Screen_Hunter_2396_May._17_13.03.jpg

So Warsaw and Cracow are more diverse than Belfast, but surely not than London.

94 out of 10000 is not 10%. It is 1% ! This seems not much!
From my experience when I was in Warszawa ("Varshava") it looked like there are definitely more foreigners than 1%. There were Arabs, Jews, Indians, Viets, Chinese, some Russians etc. Not sure about exact breakdown. Not sure how many of them were tourists though...

[Peterski]

How can Cracow have over 7% and Warsaw only 1%? Maybe it should really be 94 / 1000 not 10,000.

Data for Kraków is from this link (page 99): http://stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/krak/ASSETS_2012_raport_z_wyn_nsp_2011_2.pdf

=====

Born abroad per 1000 inhabitants (in case of Cracow - 5.7% born abroad - this data is on page 95):

From page 109 of the PDF: https://warszawa.stat.gov.pl/publikacje-i-foldery/spisy-powszechne/narodowy-spis-powszechny-ludnosci-i-mieszkan-2011-raport-z-wynikow-wojewodztwa-mazowieckiego,15,1.html

https://i.imgur.com/UhEtVSd.png

[michal3141]

I'm exchanging to a university in Warsaw next year. I've heard from a Pole that it is in fact not very 'Polish' there in terms of people, but is 'diversified' in the London sense (their way of putting it, not mine!).

Are there any Poles here who can give me an overview of what to expect in Warsaw? Dziękuję :thumb001:

Apart from many tourists there are the following permanent legal inhabitants in Warszawa (according to some recent study):


Ukrainians: 7471
Vietnamese: 3240
Belarusians: 1816
Russians: 1421
French: 910
Chinese: 710
Indians: 704
Germans: 620
Italians: 591
Turks: 398
Hungarians: 214
Kazakhs: 137
'Unknown nationality': 115
Uzbeks: 105
Egyptians: 100
Tunesians: 93
Iraqis: 83
Syrians: 81
Afghans: 40

Source: http://warszawa.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/zdjecia/afganczycy,4206878,galop,26854780,t,id,tm,zid.html

[Veneda]

Apart from many tourists there are the following permanent legal inhabitants in Warszawa (according to some recent study):


Ukrainians: 7471
Vietnamese: 3240
Belarusians: 1816
Russians: 1421
French: 910
Chinese: 710
Indians: 704
Germans: 620
Italians: 591
Turks: 398
Hungarians: 214
Kazakhs: 137
'Unknown nationality': 115
Uzbeks: 105
Egyptians: 100
Tunesians: 93
Iraqis: 83
Syrians: 81
Afghans: 40

Source: http://warszawa.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/zdjecia/afganczycy,4206878,galop,26854780,t,id,tm,zid.html

Probably some of them have temorary residence permit only, like Iraquis, Germans, Belarusians (according to the link info)

[Ülev]

.......

[PoliAussie]

Apart from many tourists there are the following permanent legal inhabitants in Warszawa (according to some recent study):


Ukrainians: 7471
Vietnamese: 3240
Belarusians: 1816
Russians: 1421
French: 910
Chinese: 710
Indians: 704
Germans: 620
Italians: 591
Turks: 398
Hungarians: 214
Kazakhs: 137
'Unknown nationality': 115
Uzbeks: 105
Egyptians: 100
Tunesians: 93
Iraqis: 83
Syrians: 81
Afghans: 40

Source: http://warszawa.naszemiasto.pl/artykul/zdjecia/afganczycy,4206878,galop,26854780,t,id,tm,zid.html

I can see why diversity wouldn't be noticeable - most of these foreigners 'blend in' easily. In light of Warsaw's total population, these amounts are minuscule. Now I'm not sure why the few Poles I've conversed with over this see it as such a major issue. Perhaps they are, for whatever reason, attuned to noticing those who stand out from the crowd.

[michal3141]

I can see why diversity wouldn't be noticeable - most of these foreigners 'blend in' easily. In light of Warsaw's total population, these amounts are minuscule. Now I'm not sure why the few Poles I've conversed with over this see it as such a major issue. Perhaps they are, for whatever reason, attuned to noticing those who stand out from the crowd.


You need to factor the foreign tourists/visitors in. In popular places you can notice a lot of them. This probably creates an impression that there are many more foreigners living in Warszawa than on paper.

[Peterski]

This probably creates an impression that there are many more foreigners living in Warszawa than on paper.

A large number of foreign exchange students probably also adds to this impression.

[PoliAussie]

Valid points. The continual arrival of new yet temporary foreigners can certainly give the visual impression of a level of diversity, whether high or low, and in essence the effect of it. For example, if 100,000 Chinese lived in Warsaw throughout a year, but not for a year, and if they left and arrived at consistent and equal intervals, then the effect in the eyes of the casual observer might be something like ~30,000 Chinese living there 'permanently' but not in actuality.