Poland is the largest country in Central Europe by area and population, with a turbulent history shaped by centuries of partition and occupation by neighbouring empires. Warsaw, the capital, was almost entirely destroyed during World War II and was painstakingly rebuilt by its citizens, with the historic centre now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Poland joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004 and has become one of Europe's fastest-growing economies.
Population and area are rounded.
White and red come from the coat of arms of Poland, a white eagle on a red shield, used since the Middle Ages. The flag was adopted in 1919 after Poland regained independence, and the state flag and naval ensign add the eagle to the white stripe. Poland has celebrated a national Flag Day every 2 May since 2004.
Horizontal white-over-red. Indonesia and Monaco are red-over-white (red on top).
Poland has the largest population of storks in Europe — about 25% of the world's white storks.
Poland's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:
Every flag that has flown over Poland, from today back through time.
The Sejm officially adopted the horizontal white-over-red bicolour in 1919, and its basic design has been unchanged since — retained even throughout the communist People's Republic.
State flag with eagle (used abroad & at sea):
The civil and state ensign adds the crowned white eagle in the white stripe. By law it is reserved for official use abroad, at sea, and at airports rather than general display.
The communist-era state ensign bore a white eagle stripped of its crown. The crown was restored to the eagle at the end of 1989 as communism fell.
The interwar state ensign charged with the crowned white eagle of the reborn Polish Republic, before the coat of arms was redesigned in 1927–28.
Long before the modern white-and-red bicolor, the Kingdom of Poland — and the vast Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth it formed in 1569 — was represented by the royal banner: the crowned white eagle on a red field, in use since the late 13th century. The white-and-red of the national colours is drawn directly from this eagle. The Commonwealth, once one of Europe's largest states, was carved up and erased by Russia, Prussia and Austria in the partitions ending in 1795.
Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Poland.
Two white crosses and a gold crown on red, from the city's medieval arms. This League of Nations-administered free city was the flashpoint where World War II began.
A pro-Russian Rusyn republic centered on Florynka in the western Lemko region, flying a blue-yellow-green tricolor after the collapse of Austria-Hungary.
Napoleon's Polish client state, a brief restoration of statehood after the Partitions; its white-and-crimson flag preceded the modern Polish flag by a century.
One of the largest states in Europe, an elective monarchy with an early constitution and a 'noble democracy', partitioned out of existence by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
A tiny independent city-republic created at the Congress of Vienna, the last fragment of sovereign Poland, until Austria annexed it after a failed 1846 uprising.
The Soviet-aligned communist state flew the same white-and-red bicolor as the republic before and after it, the eagle on its arms shorn of its royal crown until 1989.
The 16 states, provinces and regions of Poland with their own flags.
Lower Silesian
Kuyavian-Pomeranian
Lubusz
Łódź
Lublin
Lesser Poland
Masovian
Opole
Podlaskie
Subcarpathian
Pomeranian
Świętokrzyskie
Silesian
Warmian-Masurian
Greater Poland
West PomeranianPoland shares a land border with 7 countries: Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
17 other national flags use the same main colours as Poland's.
Austria
Bahrain
Canada
Denmark
Georgia
Indonesia
Japan
Latvia
Malta
Monaco
Peru
Qatar
Singapore
Switzerland
Tonga
Tunisia
Turkey
Belarus
Czech Republic
Germany
Lithuania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine