Voivodeships of Poland

Etymology and use

Some English-language sources, in historical contexts, speak of "palatinates" rather than "voivodeships". The term "palatinate" traces back to the Latin palatinus, which traces back to palatium ("palace").

More commonly used now is province or voivodeship. The latter is a loanword-calque hybrid formed on the Polish "województwo".

Some writers argue against rendering województwo in English as "province", on historical grounds: before the third, last Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1795, each of the main constituent regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, and Royal Prussia—was sometimes idiosyncratically referred to as a "province" (prowincja). According to the argument, such a prowincja (for example, Greater Poland) cannot consist of a number of subdivisions ("województwa", the plural of "województwo") that are likewise called "provinces". This, however, is an antiquarian consideration, as the word "province" has not been used in Poland in this sense of a region for over two centuries; and those former larger political units, all now obsolete, can now be referred to in English as what they actually were: "regions".

The Polish województwo, designating a second-tier Polish or Polish–Lithuanian administrative unit, derives from wojewoda, (etymologically, a 'warlord', 'war leader' or 'leader of warriors', giving it the same etymology as the English word "Duchy", but now simply the governor of a województwo) and the suffix -ztwo (a "state or condition").

The English voivodeship, which is a hybrid of the loanword voivode and -ship (the latter a suffix that calques the Polish suffix -ztwo), has never been much used and is absent from many dictionaries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it first appeared in 1792, spelt "woiwodship", in the sense of "the district or province governed by a voivode." The word subsequently appeared in 1886 also in the sense of "the office or dignity of a voivode."

Poland's Commission on Standardization of Geographic Names outside the Republic of Poland prefers the form which omits the 'e', recommending the spelling "", for use in English.

Current

Administrative powers

Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode (governor), the sejmik (regional assembly) and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivode's offices are in a different city from those of the executive and the sejmik. Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below.

The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the regional representative of the central government. The voivode acts as the head of central government institutions at regional level (such as the police and fire services, passport offices, and various inspectorates), manages central government property in the region, oversees the functioning of local government, coordinates actions in the field of public safety and environment protection, and exercises special powers in emergencies. The voivode's offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki.

The sejmik is elected every five years. (The first of the five-year terms began in 2018; previous terms lasted four years.)) Elections for the sejmik fall at the same time as that of local authorities at powiat and gmina level. The sejmik passes by-laws, including the voivodeship's development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, and holds them to account.

The executive (zarząd województwa), headed by the marszałek drafts the budget and development strategies, implements the resolutions of the sejmik, manages the voivodeship's property, and deals with many aspects of regional policy, including management of European Union funding. The marshal's offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski.

List

Economies

Main article: List of Polish voivodeships by GRP

According to 2017 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably and there is a large gap between the richest per capita voivodeship (being the Masovian Voivodeship at 33,500 EUR) and the poorest per capita (being the Lublin Voivodeship at 14,400 EUR).

Historical development

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'')

The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Greater Poland at various points over the period from the mid-16th century until the late 18th century:

• Poznań Voivodeship (województwo poznańskie, Poznań)
• Kalisz Voivodeship (województwo kaliskie, Kalisz)
• Gniezno Voivodeship (województwo gnieźnieńskie, Gniezno) from 1768
• Sieradz Voivodeship (województwo sieradzkie, Sieradz)
• Łęczyca Voivodeship (województwo łęczyckie, Łęczyca)
• Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship (województwo brzesko-kujawskie, Brześć Kujawski)
• Inowrocław Voivodeship (województwo inowrocławskie, Inowrocław)
• Chełmno Voivodeship (województwo chełmińskie, Chełmno)
• Malbork Voivodeship (województwo malborskie, Malbork)
• Pomeranian Voivodeship (województwo pomorskie, Gdańsk)
• Duchy of Warmia (Księstwo Warmińskie, Lidzbark Warmiński)
• Duchy of Prussia (Księstwo Pruskie, Królewiec)
• Płock Voivodeship (województwo płockie, Płock)
• Rawa Voivodeship (województwo rawskie, Rawa Mazowiecka)
• Masovian Voivodeship (województwo mazowieckie, Warszawa)

Lesser Poland (''Małopolska'')

The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Lesser Poland over the period of the mid-16th century until the late 18th century:

• Kraków Voivodeship (województwo krakowskie, Kraków)
• Sandomierz Voivodeship (województwo sandomierskie, Sandomierz)
• Lublin Voivodeship (województwo lubelskie, Lublin)
• Podlaskie Voivodeship (województwo podlaskie, Drohiczyn)
• Ruthenian Voivodeship (województwo ruskie, Lwów today [Lviv, Ukraine])
• Bełz Voivodeship (województwo belzkie, Bełz [Belz, Ukraine])
• Volhynian Voivodeship (województwo wołyńskie, Łuck [Lutsk, Ukraine])
• Podole Voivodeship (województwo podolskie, Kamieniec Podolski [Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine])
• Bracław Voivodeship (województwo bracławskie, Bracław [Bratslav, Ukraine])
• Kijów Voivodeship (województwo kijowskie, Kijów [Kyiv, Ukraine, or Kiev])
• Czernihów Voivodeship (województwo czernichowskie, Czernihów [Chernihiv, Ukraine])

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Voivodeships of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were based on the administrative structure that existed in the Duchy prior to the Commonwealth's formation, from at least the early-15th century. They were:

• Wilno Voivodship (województwo wileńskie, Wilno [Vilnius, Lithuania])1413
• Troki Voivodship (województwo trockie, Troki [Trakai, Lithuania])
• Nowogrodek Voivodship (województwo nowogrodzkie, Nowogródek [Novogrudok, Belarus])
• Brest-Litovsk Voivodship (województwo brzesko-litewskie, Brześć Litewski [Brest, Belarus])
• Minsk Voivodship (województwo mińskie, Mińsk [Minsk, Belarus])
• Mscislaw Voivodship (województwo mścisławskie, Mścisław [Mstsislaw, Belarus])
• Smolensk Voivodship (województwo smoleńskie, Smoleńsk [Smolensk, Russia])
• Vitebsk Voivodship (województwo witebskie, Witebsk [Vitebsk, Belarus])
• Polock Voivodship (województwo połockie, Połock [Polotsk, Belarus])
• Duchy of Samogita (księstwo żmudzkie, Miedniki-Wornie [Varniai, Lithuania])

Duchy of Livonia

While the Duchy of Livonia was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, approximately 1569–1772, in various periods it comprised the following voivodeships in varying combinations:

• Wenden Voivodship (województwo wendeńskie, Wenden [Cēsis, Latvia]) from 1598 until the 1620s
• Dorpat Voivodship (województwo dorpackie, Dorpat [Tartu, Estonia]) from 1598 until the 1620s
• Parnawa Voivodship (województwo parnawskie, Parnava [Pärnu, Estonia]) from 1598 until the 1620s
• Inflanty Voivodeship (województwo inflanckie Dyneburg [Daugavpils, Latvia]) from the 1620s
• Duchy of Courland and Semigalia (księstwo Kurlandii i Semigalii), Mitawa [Jelgava, Latvia])

Congress Poland

From 1816 to 1837 there were 8 voivodeships in Congress Poland.

• Augustów Voivodeship
• Kalisz Voivodeship
• Kraków Voivodeship
• Lublin Voivodeship
• Mazowsze Voivodeship
• Płock Voivodeship
• Podlaskie Voivodeship
• Sandomierz Voivodeship

Second Polish Republic

The administrative division of Poland in the interwar period included 16 voivodeships and Warsaw (with voivodeship rights). The voivodeships that remained in Poland after World War II as a result of Polish–Soviet border agreement of August 1945 were very similar to the current voivodeships.

Collapsed list of car registration plates from 1937, please use table-sort buttons.

Polish People's Republic

After World War II, the new administrative division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 (+2) voivodeships, then 17 (+5). The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław and Olsztyn, and partly joined to Gdańsk, Katowice and Poznań voivodeships. Two cities were granted voivodeship status: Warsaw and Łódź.

In 1950, new voivodeships were created: Koszalin (previously part of Szczecin), Opole (previously part of Katowice), and Zielona Góra (previously part of Poznań, Wrocław and Szczecin voivodeships). In 1957, three more cities were granted voivodeship status: Wrocław, Kraków and Poznań.

Collapsed list of car registration plates from 1956 – please use table-sort buttons

Poland's voivodeships 1975–1998

Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganisation of the administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of the local government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the three-level administrative division (voivodeship, county, commune), a new two-level administrative division was introduced (49 small voivodeships, and communes). The three smallest voivodeships—Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź—had the special status of municipal voivodeship; the city president (mayor) was also provincial governor.

Collapsed list of Voivodeships: 1975–1998, please use table-sort buttons.

Notes

References

• "Poland", Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition, 2010, Macropaedia, volume 25, p. 937.
• "Poland", The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition, edited by Paul Lagassé, Columbia University Press, 2000, p. 2256.
• "Poland", The Encyclopedia Americana, 1986, volume 22, p. 312.
• "Poland", in Central Intelligence Agency, The CIA World Factbook 2010, New York, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2009, , p. 546.
• "Voivodeship", The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, volume XIX, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989, p. 739.

References

1. Marek Kępa. "All Over the Map: A Quick Tour of Poland’s Voivodeships".
2. "Voivodeship", ''[[The Oxford English Dictionary]]'', second edition, volume XIX, Oxford, [[Clarendon Press]], 1989, p. 739.
3. (2002). "Toponymic Guidelines of Poland for Map Editors and Other Users". Główny Urząd Geodezii i Kartografii / Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography.
4. "Standardization of Polish Geographical Names".
5. (28 November 2019). "The Constitution of Poland: A Contextual Analysis". Bloomsbury Publishing.
6. (14 September 2018). "Samorządowcy dostali dodatkowy rok. Jak wykorzystają 5-letnią kadencję? - Prawo i finanse".
7. (December 2023). "Powierzchnia i ludność w przekroju terytorialnym w 2021 roku". [[Statistics Poland.
8. (2021). "Powierzchnia i ludność w przekroju terytorialnym w 2021 roku". [[Statistics Poland.
9. "Eurostat - Tables, Graphs and Maps Interface (TGM) map".
10. data as per April 1, 1937