A voivodeship ( ), or voivodship ( ; plural: ), is the highest-level administrative division of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term has been in use since the 14th century and is commonly translated into English as "province".The word voivodeship, as an equivalent for , appears in some large English dictionaries such as the OED and Webster's Third New International Dictionary but is not in common English usage. Hence the word province is a recommended translation: "Jednostki podziału administracyjnego Polski tłumaczymy tak: województwo—province..." ("Polish administrative units are translated as follows: województwo—province..."). Arkadiusz Belczyk, ("Translation of Polish Geographical Names into English"), 2002-2006. Examples: New Provinces of Poland (1998) , Map of Poland , . More examples:
"Following the reform of the administrative structure in 1973-1975, the number of provinces () was increased from 22 to 49... [I]ncreasing the number of provinces meant the reduction of each in size. In this way Warsaw was able to dilute the political importance of the provincial party chiefs." "Poland", The Encyclopedia Americana, 1986, volume 22, p. 312. "Poland is divided into 49 provinces." "Poland", The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition, edited by Paul Lagassé, Columbia University Press, 2000, p. 2256. "Local government in Poland is organized on three levels. The largest units, at the regional level, are the ('provinces')..." "Poland", Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th edition, 2010, Macropaedia, volume 25, p. 937. "GOVERNMENT... Administrative divisions: 16 provinces (, singular–)..." "Poland," in Central Intelligence Agency, The CIA World Factbook 2010, New York, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2009, , p. 546. The same information appears in the current online CIA World Factbook / "Poland / Administrative divisions". In this source, where "English translations" of province names are given, they are in the noun ("Silesia"), not the adjective ("Silesian"), form. Professor Paul Best, of Southern Connecticut State University, writes: "[I]n standard dictionaries the Polish word is translated as 'province'." Paul Best, review of Bogdan Horbal, Lemko Studies: A Handbook (2010), in The Polish Review, vol. 58, no. 4 (2013), pp. 125–26.
The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999, reduced the number of voivodeships to sixteen. These 16 replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975, and bear a greater resemblance (in territory, but not in name) to the voivodeships that existed between 1950 and 1975.
Today's voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while those prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under (Opole Voivodeship) to over (Masovian Voivodeship), and in population from under one million (Opole Voivodeship) to over five million (Masovian Voivodeship).
Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed governor called a voivode (), an elected assembly called a , and an executive board () chosen by that assembly, headed by a voivodeship marshal (). Voivodeships are further divided into ('counties') and ('communes' or 'municipalities'), the smallest administrative divisions of Poland.
Etymology and use Some English-language sources, in historical contexts, speak of "palatinates" rather than "voivodeships". The term "palatinate" traces back to the Latin , which traces back to palatium ("palace").
More commonly used now is province or voivodeship. The latter is a loanword-calque hybrid formed on the Polish "".
Some writers argue against rendering in English as "province", on historical grounds: before the third, last Partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, in 1795, each of the main constituent regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, and Royal Prussia—was sometimes idiosyncratically referred to as a "province" (). According to the argument, such a prowincja (for example, Greater Poland) cannot consist of a number of subdivisions ("", the plural of "") that are likewise called "provinces". This, however, is an antiquarian consideration, as the word "province" has not been used in Poland in this sense of a region for over two centuries; and those former larger political units, all now obsolete, can now be referred to in English as what they actually were: "regions".
The Polish , designating a second-tier Polish or Polish–Lithuanian administrative unit, derives from , (etymologically, a 'warlord', 'war leader' or 'leader of warriors', giving it the same etymology as the English word "Duchy", but now simply the governor of a ) and the suffix (a "state or condition").
The English voivodeship, which is a hybrid of the loanword voivode and -ship (the latter a suffix that calques the Polish suffix ), has never been much used and is absent from many dictionaries. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it first appeared in 1792, spelt "woiwodship", in the sense of "the district or province governed by a voivode." The word subsequently appeared in 1886 also in the sense of "the office or dignity of a voivode.""Voivodeship", The Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, volume XIX, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1989, p. 739.
Poland's Commission on Standardization of Geographic Names outside the Republic of Poland prefers the form which omits the 'e', recommending the spelling "", for use in English.
Current
Administrative powers Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode (governor), the sejmik (regional assembly) and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivode's offices are in a different city from those of the executive and the sejmik. Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below.
The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the regional representative of the central government. The voivode acts as the head of central government institutions at regional level (such as the police and fire services, passport offices, and various inspectorates), manages central government property in the region, oversees the functioning of local government, coordinates actions in the field of public safety and environment protection, and exercises special powers in emergencies. The voivode's offices collectively are known as the .
The is elected every five years. (The first of the five-year terms began in 2018; previous terms lasted four years.)) Elections for the fall at the same time as that of local authorities at and level. The passes by-laws, including the voivodeship's development strategies and budget. It also elects the and other members of the executive, and holds them to account.
The executive (), headed by the drafts the budget and development strategies, implements the resolutions of the , manages the voivodeship's property, and deals with many aspects of regional policy, including management of European Union funding. The marshal's offices are collectively known as the .
List
+ Polish voivodeships since 1999 Abbr. Flag Coat of arms Ter. code English name Polish name Capital city/cities Area Population (2025) Density Car platessq miper per sq mi DS 02 Lower Silesian dolnośląskie Wrocław 2,862,442 D, V KP 04 Kuyavian–Pomeranian kujawsko-pomorskie Bydgoszcz, Toruń 1,977,537 C LU 06 Lublin lubelskie Lublin 1,987,787 L LB 08 Lubusz lubuskie Gorzów Wielkopolski, Zielona Góra 966,389 F LD 10 Łódź łódzkie Łódź 2,336,680 E MA 12 Lesser Poland małopolskie Kraków 3,427,656 K, J MZ 14 Masovian mazowieckie Warsaw 5,506,411 W, A OP 16 Opole opolskie Opole 926,482 O PK 18 Subcarpathian podkarpackie Rzeszów 2,057,923 R, Y PD 20 Podlaskie podlaskie Białystok 1,129,475 B PM 22 Pomeranian pomorskie Gdańsk 2,358,779 G, X SL 24 Silesian śląskie Katowice 4,275,429 S, I SK 26 Holy Cross świętokrzyskie Kielce 1,152,544 T WN 28 Warmian–Masurian warmińsko-mazurskie Olsztyn 1,343,915 N WP 30 Greater Poland wielkopolskie Poznań 3,474,825 P, M ZP 32 West Pomeranian zachodniopomorskie Szczecin 1,617,418 Z Seat of voivode. Seat of sejmik and marshal.
Economies
According to 2017 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably and there is a large gap between the richest per capita voivodeship (being the Masovian Voivodeship at 33,500 EUR) and the poorest per capita (being the Lublin Voivodeship at 14,400 EUR).
Historical development
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
Greater Poland Province (Prowincja wielkopolska) The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Greater Poland Province at various points over the period from the mid-16th century until the late 18th century: Poznań Voivodeship (województwo poznańskie, Poznań) Kalisz Voivodeship (województwo kaliskie, Kalisz) Gniezno Voivodeship (województwo gnieźnieńskie, Gniezno) from 1768 Sieradz Voivodeship (województwo sieradzkie, Sieradz) Łęczyca Voivodeship (województwo łęczyckie, Łęczyca) Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship (województwo brzesko-kujawskie, Brześć Kujawski) Inowrocław Voivodeship (województwo inowrocławskie, Inowrocław) Chełmno Voivodeship (województwo chełmińskie, Chełmno) Malbork Voivodeship (województwo malborskie, Malbork) Pomeranian Voivodeship (województwo pomorskie, Gdańsk) Duchy of Warmia (Księstwo Warmińskie, Lidzbark Warmiński) Duchy of Prussia (Księstwo Pruskie, Królewiec) Płock Voivodeship (województwo płockie, Płock) Rawa Voivodeship (województwo rawskie, Rawa Mazowiecka) Masovian Voivodeship (województwo mazowieckie, Warszawa)
Lesser Poland Province (Prowincja małopolska) The following is a list of the Voivodeships within Lesser Poland Province over the period of the mid-16th century until the late 18th century: Kraków Voivodeship (województwo krakowskie, Kraków) Sandomierz Voivodeship (województwo sandomierskie, Sandomierz) Lublin Voivodeship (województwo lubelskie, Lublin) Podlaskie Voivodeship (województwo podlaskie, Drohiczyn) Ruthenian Voivodeship (województwo ruskie, Lwów [today Lviv, Ukraine]) Belz Voivodeship (, Bełz [Belz, Ukraine]) Volhynian Voivodeship (województwo wołyńskie, Łuck [Lutsk, Ukraine]) Podole Voivodeship (województwo podolskie, Kamieniec Podolski [Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine]) Bracław Voivodeship (województwo bracławskie, Bracław [Bratslav, Ukraine]) Kijów Voivodeship (województwo kijowskie, Kijów [Kyiv, Ukraine, or Kiev]) Czernihów Voivodeship (województwo czernichowskie, Czernihów [Chernihiv, Ukraine])
Lithuanian Province (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Voivodeships of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were based on the administrative structure that existed in the Duchy prior to the Commonwealth's formation, from at least the early-15th century. They were: Wilno Voivodship (województwo wileńskie, Wilno [Vilnius, Lithuania])1413 Troki Voivodship (, Troki [Trakai, Lithuania]) Nowogrodek Voivodship (województwo nowogrodzkie, Nowogródek [Novogrudok, Belarus]) Brest-Litovsk Voivodship (województwo brzesko-litewskie, Brześć Litewski [Brest, Belarus]) Minsk Voivodship (województwo mińskie, Mińsk [Minsk, Belarus]) Mscislaw Voivodship (województwo mścisławskie, Mścisław [Mstsislaw, Belarus]) Smolensk Voivodship (województwo smoleńskie, Smoleńsk [Smolensk, Russia]) Vitebsk Voivodship (województwo witebskie, Witebsk [Vitebsk, Belarus]) Polock Voivodship (województwo połockie, Połock [Polotsk, Belarus]) Duchy of Samogita (księstwo żmudzkie, Miedniki-Wornie [Varniai, Lithuania])
Duchy of Livonia While the Duchy of Livonia was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, approximately 1569–1772, in various periods it comprised the following voivodeships in varying combinations: