POLAND

Poland, officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and 9th in Europe.

Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 33rd most populous country in the world. The largest metropolitan areas in Poland are the Upper Silesian Coal Basin centred on Katowice (3.5 million inhabitants); the capital, Warsaw (3 million); Kraków (1.3 million) Łódź (1.3 million); the Tricity of Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia in the Vistula delta (1.1 million); Poznań (900,000); Wrocław (900,000); and Szczecin (700,000).

The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental as one moves south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 20 °C (68 °F) and 27 °C (81 °F). Winters are cold, with average temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F) in the northwest and −8 °C (17.6 °F) in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east; winter is drier than summer.