Administrative divisions of Poland

Administrative divisions of Poland Posted by Kasia on Jun 27, 2011 in Culture

The administrative division of Poland since 1999 has been based on three levels of subdivision. The territory of Poland is divided into województwa (provinces, voivodeships); these are further divided into powiaty (counties), and these in turn are divided into gminy (communes or municipalities). Major cities normally have the status of both gmina and powiat. Poland currently has 16 województw, 379 powiatów (including 65 cities with powiat status), and 2,478 gmin.

The current system (obecny system) was introduced pursuant to a series of acts passed by the Polish parliament in 1998, and came into effect on 1 January 1999. Previously (in the period from 1975 to 1998) there had been 49 smaller voivodeships, and no powiats. The reform created 16 larger voivodeships (largely based on and named after historical regions) and reintroduced powiats.

Administrative authority at województwo (singular) level is shared between a government-appointed governor, called the wojewoda (usually a political appointee), an elected assembly called the sejmik, and an executive chosen by that assembly. The leader of that executive is called the marszałek.

Here are 16 województwa and their capital cities (stolice).The way I say it in the movie is e.g. “Województwo Pomorskie ze stolicą w Gdańsku” which means Województwo Pomorskie with a capital in Gdańsk.

1. Zachodnio-Pomorskie: Szczecin

2. Pomorskie: Gdańsk

3. Warmińsko-Mazurskie: Olsztyn

4. Podlaskie: Białystok

5. Kujawsko-Pomorskie: Bydgoszcz and Toruń

6. Wielkopolskie: Poznań

7. Lubuskie: Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra

8. Dolnośląskie: Wrocław

9. Opolskie: Opole

10. Łódzkie: Łódź

11. Mazowieckie: Warszawa

12. Lubelskie: Lublin

13. Świętokrzyskie: Kielce

14. Śląskie: Katowice

15. Małopolskie: Kraków

16. Podkarpackie: Rzeszów

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)

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About the Author: Kasia

My name is Kasia Scontsas. I grew near Lublin, Poland and moved to Warsaw to study International Business. I have passion for languages: any languages! Currently I live in New Hampshire. I enjoy skiing, kayaking, biking and paddle boarding. My husband speaks a little Polish, but our daughters are fluent in it! I wanted to make sure that they can communicate with their Polish relatives in our native language. Teaching them Polish since they were born was the best thing I could have given them! I have been writing about learning Polish language and culture for Transparent Language’s Polish Blog since 2010.

Comments:

joey:

You are killing me with facts that can be found on wikipedia etc.

Tell us something real. For example: I was in Krakow recently, the park around the city is full of people who are too fond of the drink. Many of them hide their cans/bottles so that they don’t get picked up by the Straż Miejska who seem pleasent enough but are very keen on keeping Krakow safe for tourists etc(they generally put people into vans I think). It seems that you need a licence to sell anything on the street, no drinking in the park, no hassling people for money etc. Generally people do ask for money but if you say no they will leave you alone and move on. I gave money to 2 people which isn’t a lot, one woman in the park and another guy at a bus stop far from city centre at about 5,45am! I felt sorry for him even though he probably saw me at the bus stop with my bags, saw his opportunity, threw off one of his shoes and hobbled out with only one shoe on, I gave him 5zl., it was my last day, he went into the shop behind me to buy beer I presume, I can only imagine that he was wishing that the bus would turn up sooner rather than later. Anyway back to my story about the park, I was sitting at a bench, small knapsack between my legs and a half drunk bottle of water sticking out the top of it!!! I spot a straż miejska van coming my way along the road, to my surprise they stopped, passenger gives a gawk out the window at me, I say to him as good as possible “Dzień dobry” which I hoped would stop him from commiting the fatal error of picking up a tourist. I wished that I had included the proper form of Pan whatever that is. He stayed in the van anyway and moved on. This didn’t do much for my confidence about my appearance and I had to go and buy a T shirt and jeans to remedy the situation!!!
joey:

I have just watched your video, I liked it a lot, more videos would be good if that is possible. w Katowicach versus w Warszawie etc.(Katowice being treated as plural while Warszawa is treated as singular) and to hear the words is great for pronunciation.

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