Poles

The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy, singular Polak) are a Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Poland, they are bounded by the Polish language, which belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of west slavic languages of Central Europe, living mainly in Poland. Their religion is mainly Roman Catholic. They use modified Latin alphabet.

Poles
Polacy

The Baptism of Poland. Detail from Jan Matejko's Christianisation of Poland AD 966.
Total population
c. 60 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
Poland   38,000,000[2][3][4]
United States	10,600,000[3][4][1][5]
Brazil	3,000,000[5]
Germany	2,850,000[6]
Israel	1,250,000 (ancestry, passport eligible);[7] 202,300 (citizenship)[8]
Canada	1,010,705[9]
France	1,000,000[1]
Other countries    United Kingdom 911,000[10][11]    Argentina 500,000[12]    Belarus 295,000[13]    Russia 273,000[14]    Australia 216,056[15]    Lithuania 164,000[16]    Ukraine 144,130[17]    Ireland 122,515[18]    Norway 120,000[19]    Italy 109,018[20]    Sweden 75,323[21]    Belgium 70,600[14]    Spain 70,606[22]    Austria 69,898[23]    Netherlands 60,000[14]    Latvia 44,783[24]    Denmark 37,876[25]    Kazakhstan 34,057[26]    South Africa 30,000[27]    Czech Republic 20,305[28]    Paraguay 16,748[29]    United Arab Emirates 14,500[14]    Greece 14,145    Iceland 10,540[30]    Venezuela 9,000[31]    Peru 7,000[32]    Hungary 5,730[33]    Moldova 4,174[34]    Romania 3,671[35]    Slovakia 3,084[36]    Finland 3,000[37]    New Zealand 2,166[38]    Estonia 1,747[39]
Languages
Polish • Kashubian • Silesian
Religion
Christianity: Predominantly Roman Catholicism[40]
Related ethnic groups
Other West Slavs: Silesians, Kashubs, Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Sorbs, Hanoverian Wends(†), Obotrites(†), Veleti(†)

There are about 60 million Poles in the world. Besides Poland, many live in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and elsewhere.

The most famous Poles are Pope John Paul II, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Nicolaus Copernicus and Lech Wałęsa.

Polish surnames often end with "-ski", "-ska", "-cki" or "-cka".

The most popular Polish surnames are Nowak and Kowalski.