Voivodships of Poland (original) (raw)

A voivodship (in Polish wojew�dztwo) is a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland since the 14th century. As a result of Local Government Reogranization Act of 1998, 16 new voivodships were created (effective January 1 1999) and replaced the 49 voivodships which had existed since 1 July 1975.

Today's provinces are largely based on the country's historical regions, whereas those of 1975-1998 were centered on and named for individual cities. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km² (Opole Voivodship) to over 35,000 km² (Masovian Voivodship), and in population from one million (Lubusz Voivodship) to over five million (Masovian Voivodship).

Poland's present voivodships (since 1999)

See also List of capitals of subnational entities.

For a table with area and population figures, see the Polish ("Polski") version of this page.

Polish voivodships 1975-1998 (49)

This reorganisation of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973-1975. In place of three level administrative division (voivodship, county, commune), new two-level administrative division was introduced (49 small voidships and communes). Tree smallest voivodships of Warsaw, Cracow and Lodz had special status of city voivodship; the city president (mayor) was also province governor.

(English name, Polish name, abbrevation, capital city)

Polish voivodships 1950-1975 (17+5)

In 1950 new voivodships created: Koszalin - previously part of Szczecin, Opole - previously part of Katowice, and Zielona G�ra - previously part of Poznan, Wroclaw and Szczecin voivodships.

1950-1975 2 cities with voivodship status: Warsaw and Lodz,
1957-1975 5 cities with voivodship status: additionally Wroclaw, Krakow and Poznan.

Polish voivodships 1945-1950 (14+2)

Newly acquired teritories in the west and north organized into the voivodships of Szczecin, Wroclaw, Olsztyn and partly joined to Gdansk, Katowice and Poznan voivodships.

Polish voivodships 1921-1939 (16+1)

Polish voivodships 1569-1795

Province of Greater Poland

Province of Lesser Poland

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Livonia