The ¦l±skie Voivodeship - A Region in Poland

The ¦l±skie Voivodeship is situated in the southern part of Poland – a country located in the centre of Europe that since 2004 has been a member of the European Union. Poland is the largest country among the new members. It covers the area of 312,7 thousand sq. m. and her population is 38,7 million inhabitants.

The region neighbours with the following voivodeships: Opolskie, Łódzkie, ¦więtokrzyskie and Małopolskie and from the south it borders with the Czech and Slovak Republic. Within 600 km from Katowice, there are six European capital cities: Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Budapest and Berlin. 

Mapa administracyjna Polski z zaznaczeniem ¦l±ska

The unique economic position of the ¦l±skie Voivodeship results from the fact that it is the most industrialised and urbanised region in Poland. 

The largest towns of the ¦l±skie Voivodeship:

Inhabitants in thousand

The high urbanisation rate is evidenced by the value of almost 79% of the population inhabiting the region’s 71 towns of which:

• 4 towns have the population over 200 thousand inhabitants,
• 8 towns have the population from 100 to 200 thousand inhabitants,
• 11 have the population from 50 to 100 thousand inhabitants.

The ¦l±skie Voivodeship holds 14^th position in Poland in terms of the area occupied, a 2^nd in terms of the population number. Within this relatively small area, covering 12,331 km², i.e. 3,9% of Poland’s territory, there are 4,714,982 inhabitants, i.e. 12,3% of the general population number, which is the highest population density in Poland (382 people/km² versus 122 people/km² in Poland and 116 people/km² in the EU). Such a large population concentration in the relatively small area forms the huge potential sales market of consumable goods.

The major elements of the settlement system in the ¦l±skie Voivodeship are the municipal agglomerations: the Upper-Silesian – of the European significance and: Bielsko, Czêstochowa and Rybnik – of the national significance.

The Voivodeship is of polycentric nature – there is no one core centre that would fulfil the metropolitan functions (administration, finances, insurance, schools of higher education, culture).

It is the Upper-Silesian Agglomeration that makes the region specific. It is the complex of towns, in fact adjacent to one another, spanning for 70 km from Dabrowa Górnicza to Gliwice. It covers about 18% of the Voivodeship’s area (1,200 sq. km.) and it is inhabited by almost 60% of the region’s population, i.e. 2,8 million people. The average population density is over 1,900 people/sq. km. and is almost 5 times higher that the regional rate. The administration, schools of higher education, larger companies are mostly concentrated in large towns of the agglomeration, such as: Katowice, Sosnowiec, Bytom, Gliwice, Zabrze, Tychy and Chorzów. The significant role is also played by the capitals of the sub-regions: Rybnik, Bielsko-Biała and Częstochowa.

The ¦l±skie Voivodeship is a structurally diversified area. Apart from the well-developed industry, there are also agricultural areas as well as the significant natural and landscape places of interest and the important sites of religious worship, enabling the growth of various forms of tourism.

The ¦l±skie Voivodeship: