Polish Americans now made up 6.7% of Chicago’s population, and numbered at 182,064. Polish is the third most widely spoken language in Chicago behind English and Spanish.
What US city has the most Polish?
New York. With over 218,000 inhabitants who have roots in the Land on the Vistula, the Big Apple is often called America’s most Polish town, along with Chicago.
Does Chicago have the largest Polish population?
Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the world’s second largest Polish population. The Polonia Triangle, center of the city’s original Polish Downtown, is the Illinois city’s oldest, most prominent Polish settlement, full of local Polish shops and restaurants.
What state has the most Polish?
Estimated population by state, according to the 2018 American Community Survey:
- New York – 886,669.
- Illinois – 875,652.
- Michigan – 821,091.
- Pennsylvania – 803,177.
- Wisconsin – 496,506.
- New Jersey – 490,520.
- Florida – 484,698.
- California – 472,869.
Why is there a big Polish population in Chicago?
Although restrictions during World War I and in the 1920s cut off this immigration, by 1930 Polish immigrants and their children had replaced Germans as the largest ethnic group in Chicago. A second wave brought hundreds of thousands of Poles, displaced by World War II and then by the Communist takeover of Poland.
Why is Chicago so Polish?
Chicago attracted mostly Poles with peasant backgrounds who came there for economic reasons. After the abolishment of serfdom in Poland in the mid-19th century, the peasantry gained economic freedom, and many of its members sought to earn money in America.
Does Chicago have a large Polish community?
The Polish immigrant population in the city of Chicago, at nearly 70,000 persons, is the largest in the United States. There are more than 106,000 elderly persons in the Polish community, with about one-third of them living in the suburbs and two-thirds in Chicago. Some 83.8 percent are native born.
What part of Chicago is Polish?
Located on the city’s near northwest side, the area of Polish Downtown shifted and expanded over time as Polish immigration to Chicago exploded along with other Eastern Europeans amid Chicago’s population boom in the late nineteenth century.
Are there more Poles in Chicago than Warsaw?
Right away, we can say Chicago is not the largest Polish city outside of Warsaw because there are two cities, Łódź and Wroclaw, that at any given time, appear to have a larger population (by definition Polish) than Chicago’s Polish ancestry.
Where is the largest Polish population outside of Poland?
Chicago
Chicago bills itself as the largest Polish city outside of Poland with approximately 1,900,000 people of Polish ethnicity in the Chicago metropolitan area.
What is a Polish last name?
The Most Common Surnames in Poland
| surname | number of citizens | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | NOWAK | 203,980 |
| 2. | KOWALSKA / KOWALSKI | 137,981 |
| 3. | WIŚNIEWSKA / WIŚNIEWSKI | 109,896 |
| 4. | WÓJCIK | 99,098 |
What are typical Polish features?
Poles are funny, intelligent, helpful, quick and incredibly well educated. But they can also be the most stubborn, arrogant, untrusting and insensitive people on the planet.
What cities have the largest Polish population?
The ten largest cities in Poland (and their investment strengths)
- Warsaw. Population: 1.79 million.
- Kraków. Population: 780,000.
- Łódź Population: 672,000.
- Wrocław. Population: 642,000.
- Poznań Population: 532,000.
- Gdańsk. Population: 472,000.
- Szczecin. Population: 398,000.
- Bydgoszcz. Population: 347,000.
What percentage of Chicago is Irish?
About 204,000 Chicagoans, or 7.5 percent of the city’s population, claim Irish ancestry today. The largest population is in Lakeview, home to an estimated 19,000 people with Irish heritage.
Is Jack a Polish name?
This table lists some Polish given names, together with diminutives and English equivalents. An English equivalent usually exists only for a Christian name.
Appendix:Polish given names.
| Masculine names | ||
|---|---|---|
| Polish name | Common diminutives | English equivalent |
| Jan | Janek, Jasiek, Jaś | John |
| Janusz | Janek, Januszek, Janeczek | John, Jack |
Does Chicago have a Little Italy?
Chicago’s Little Italy is smaller in comparison to other Italian neighborhoods in big U.S. cities, but it’s Chicago’s oldest, continuously Italian neighborhood.
Where do most Polish live in the US?
U.S. cities and communities with large Polish American populations are largely concentrated in the Upper Midwestern United States, Chicago metropolitan area and the New York metropolitan area, with Wisconsin accounting for the largest number of communities with large Polish populations.
Where do most Polish immigrants live?
Most Poles live in Europe, the Americas and Australia, but a few Poles have settled in smaller numbers in Asia, Africa and Oceania, as economic migrants or as part of Catholic missions.
What percentage of America is Polish?
3 percent
According to the Census Bureau, more than 9 million Americans claim Polish ancestry, roughly 3 percent of the U.S. population.
Why do Polish names end in ski?
Names derived from places usually ended in -ski, meaning “of,” and for a long time, they were reserved for nobility. In the 13th century, however, it became fashionable to adopt a -ski name, making it one of the most identifiable traits of Polish last names.
Why do Polish girl names end in A?
The law requires a given name to indicate the person’s gender. Almost all Polish female names end in a vowel -a, and most male names end in a consonant or a vowel other than a.
Examples of feminine and neuter forms.
| Father / husband | Unmarried woman | Married woman or widow |
|---|---|---|
| ending in a consonant (except g) | -ówna | -owa |