Poles in the United Kingdom

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Poles in the United Kingdom

Polonia w Wielkiej Brytanii
Distribution by regional area at the 2011 census
Total population
Polish-born residents in the United Kingdom: 840,769 – 1.3% (2021/22 Census)[note 1]  England: 718,251– 1.3% (2021)[1]  Scotland: 75,351 – 1.4% (2022)[2]  Wales: 24,832 – 0.8% (2021)[1]  Northern Ireland: 22,335 – 1.2% (2021)[3] Polish citizens/passports held: 760,146 (England and Wales only, 2021)[4]
Regions with significant populations
Greater London South East of England East of England East Midlands
Languages
British English, Polish
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Polish diaspora, Polish American, Polish Brazilian, Polish Argentine, Polish Canadian, Polish Irish, Polish Maltese, Polish Swedes, Polish Norwegians, Polish Icelanders, Polish Dutch, Polish German ^ Does not include ethnic Poles born in the United Kingdom or those who have Polish ancestry

British Poles, alternatively known as Polish British people or Polish Britons, are ethnic Poles who are citizens of the United Kingdom. The term includes people born in the UK who are of Polish descent and Polish-born people who reside in the UK. There are approximately 682,000^[5] people born in Poland residing in the UK. Since the late 20th century, they have become one of the largest ethnic minorities in the country alongside Irish, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Germans, and Chinese. The Polish language is the second-most spoken language in England and the third-most spoken in the UK after English and Welsh. About 1% of the UK population speaks Polish.^[6][7] The Polish population in the UK has increased more than tenfold since 2001.^[8]

Exchanges between the two countries date to the middle ages, when the Kingdom of England and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were linked by trade and diplomacy.^[9] A notable 16th-century Polish resident in England was John Laski, a Protestant convert who influenced the course of the English Reformation and helped in establishing the Church of England.^[10] Following the 18th-century dismemberment of the Commonwealth in three successive partitions by Poland's neighbours, the trickle of Polish immigrants to Britain increased in the aftermath of two 19th-century uprisings (1831 and 1863) that forced much of Poland's social and political elite into exile. London became a haven for the burgeoning ideas of Polish socialism as a solution for regaining independence as it sought international support for the forthcoming Polish uprising.^[11] A number of Polish exiles fought in the Crimean War on the British side. In the late 19th century governments mounted pogroms against Polish Jews in the Russian (Congress Poland) and Austrian sectors of partitioned Poland (Galicia). Many Polish Jews fled their partitioned homeland, and most emigrated to the United States, but some settled in British cities, especially London, Manchester, Leeds and Kingston upon Hull.^{[12][13][14][15]}

The number of Poles in Britain increased during the Second World War. Most of the Polish people who came to the United Kingdom at that time came as part of military units reconstituted outside Poland after the German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II. On 3 September 1939, Britain and France, which were allied with Poland, declared war on Germany. Poland moved its government abroad, first to France and, after its fall in May 1940, to London.^[16] The Poles contributed greatly to the Allied war effort; Polish naval units were the first Polish forces to integrate with the Royal Navy under the "Peking Plan". Polish pilots played a conspicuous role in the Battle of Britain and the Polish army formed in Britain later participated in the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. The great majority of Polish military veterans were stranded in Britain after the Soviet Union imposed communist control on Poland after the war. This particularly concerned Polish soldiers from eastern areas, which were no longer part of Poland as a result of border changes due to the Potsdam Agreement.^[17] The Polish government-in-exile, though denied majority international recognition after 1945, remained at its post in London until it formally dissolved in 1991, after a democratically elected president had taken office in Warsaw.

The European Union's 2004 enlargement and the UK Government's decision to allow immigration from the new accession states, encouraged Polish people to move to Britain rather than to Germany. Additionally, the Polish diaspora in Britain includes descendants of the nearly 200,000 Polish people who had originally settled in Britain after the Second World War. About one-fifth had moved to settle in other parts of the British Empire.^[18][19]