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Polish Facts
The Polish language is the most widely-spoken of the Slavic language subgroup of Lekhitic languages which include Kashubian (and its extinct dialect/language Slovincian) and the also-extinct Polabian language. The three languages and one language/dialect, along with Upper and Lower Sorbian, Czech and Slovakian, belong to the West branch of Slavic languages.Spoken in: Poland and other 16 countries.
Total speakers: around 43 million people.
Official language of: Poland
Polish is mainly spoken in Poland. In fact, Poland is one of the most homogenous European countries in terms of its mother tongue, as close to 97% of Polish citizens declare Polish as their mother tongue. After the 2nd World War the previously Polish territories annexed by the USSR kept a large amount of Polish population that was unwilling or unable to migrate towards the post-1945 Poland and even today Ethnic Poles in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine constitute large minorities.
Statistics:
Poland: 36,554,000
Australia: 13,782
Austria: 39,000
Azerbaijan: 1,264
Belarus: 403,000
Canada: 222,355
Czech Republic: 50 000
Estonia: 601
Germany: 241,000
Hungary: 21,000
Israel: 100 000
Latvia: 57,000
Lithuania: 257,000
Romania: 10 000 Russia (Europe)
Slovakia: 50,000 Ukraine,
United Arab Emirates: 100
USA: 3,398,763
Total: 42,708,133