Pomeranian Voivodeship

The name Pomerania derives from the Slavic po more, meaning "by the sea" or "on the sea".

The voivodeship contains 7 cities and 35 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (official 2019 figures).

Cities (governed by a city mayor or prezydent miasta):

1. Gdańsk (468,158)
2. Gdynia (246,244)
3. Słupsk (90,769)
4. Tczew (60,120)
5. Wejherowo (49,652)
6. Starogard Gdański (47,775)
7. Sopot (35,827)

Towns:

1. Rumia (49,160)
2. Chojnice (39,890)
3. Malbork (38,465)
4. Kwidzyn (38,444)
5. Lębork (35,333)
6. Pruszcz Gdański (31,135)
7. Reda (26,011)
8. Kościerzyna (23,776)
9. Bytów (16,918)
10. Ustka (15,460)
11. Kartuzy (14,536)
12. Człuchów (13,649)
13. Puck (11,213)
14. Miastko (10,439)
15. Sztum (9,940)
16. Władysławowo (9,930)
17. Czersk (9,910)
18. Nowy Dwór Gdański (9,905)
19. Prabuty (8,695)
20. Pelplin (7,784)
21. Skarszewy (6,994)
22. Gniew (6,707)
23. Żukowo (6,691)
24. Czarne (5,932)
25. Dzierzgoń (5,364)
26. Brusy (5,188)
27. Debrzno (5,096)
28. Nowy Staw (4,248)
29. Łeba (3,644)
30. Skórcz (3,625)
31. Kępice (3,580)
32. Hel (3,267)
33. Czarna Woda (2,786)
34. Jastarnia (2,704)
35. Kobylnica (2,248)
36. Krynica Morska (1,303)

Pomeranian Voivodeship is divided into 20 counties (powiats): 4 city counties, and 16 land counties. These are further divided into 123 gminas (communes).

The counties are listed below in order of decreasing population.

Kartuzy Wejherowo Puck Gdynia Sopot Gdańsk Gdańsk Novy Dwór Lębork Słupsk Słupsk Tczew Malbork Sztum Kwidzyn Kościerzyna Człuchów Chojnice Bytów Starogard
Gdański

Pomeranian Voivodeship (1466-1772)

West Prussia 1816-1919

Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919-1939)

Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia

Gdańsk Voivodeship (1945-1975)

Gdańsk Voivodeship (1975-1998)

Pomeranian Voivodeship 1998-present

Timeline since 1919

The Gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 29.2 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 5.9% of Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 20,800 euros or 69% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 74% of the EU average.

Major corporations

• Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport
• Obwodnica Trójmiejska

The A1, S6 and S7 highways pass through the province.

Railway

• Pomorska Kolej Metropolitalna
• SKM

The three busiest railway stations of northern Poland, and three of ten busiest railway stations of Poland overall, are located in the voivodeship. Those are Gdynia Główna, Gdańsk Główny and Gdańsk Wrzeszcz.

Higher education

Protected areas in Pomeranian Voivodeship include two National Parks and nine Landscape Parks. These are listed below.

• Słowiński National Park (a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve)
• Tuchola Forest National Park (part of a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve)
• Coastal Landscape Park
• Iława Lake District Landscape Park (partly in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship)
• Kashubian Landscape Park
• Słupia Valley Landscape Park
• Tricity Landscape Park
• Tuchola Landscape Park (partly in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship)
• Vistula Spit Landscape Park
• Wdydze Landscape Park
• Zaborski Landscape Park

Football, basketball, motorcycle speedway and volleyball enjoy the largest following in the voivodeship. The Arka Gdynia and Lechia Gdańsk football clubs contest the Tricity Derby, the fiercest football rivalry in northern Poland.

Since the establishment of the province, several major international sports competitions were co-hosted by the province, including the EuroBasket 2009, UEFA Euro 2012, 2013 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, 2016 European Men's Handball Championship, 2017 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, 2021 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2023 World Men's Handball Championship.

• There are two spa towns in the province: Sopot and Ustka.
• The provincial capital of Gdańsk was the largest city of Poland for over 250 years, from the mid-15th century to the early 18th century, when it was surpassed by the national capital of Warsaw. Gdańsk has five sites listed as Historic Monuments of Poland, a joint record with Kraków, including its historic city center.
• There are numerous castles in the province, and the Kwidzyn and Malbork castles are listed as Historic Monuments of Poland, with the latter also designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• The longest wooden pier in Europe, the Sopot Pier, is located in the voivodeship.
• In 1380, the first Scots settled in Gdańsk, founding what would eventually become a significant Scottish diaspora in Poland, and later on, Scots also lived in Chojnice, Czarne, Człuchów, Debrzno, Gniew, Kościerzyna, Puck, Starogard Gdański, Tczew. The Stare Szkoty neighbourhood of Gdańsk is named after the Scottish settlers.
• One of the three parish churches of the Armenian Catholic Church in Poland is located in Gdańsk (see also: Armenians in Poland).
• The voivodeship features several places where major international treaties were signed in the past, i.e. the Dano-Polish truce of 1458 and Polish-Swedish alliance of 1677, both signed in Gdańsk, the Polish-Swedish truces of 1629 and 1635 signed in Stary Targ and Sztumska Wieś, respectively, and the peace treaty ending the Second Northern War of 1655-1660.
• Sztutowo is the location of the former Stutthof concentration camp, the first Nazi German concentration camp established outside of pre-war Germany during World War II.
• The Westerplatte peninsula in Gdańsk was the site of the Battle of Westerplatte, the first battle of the German invasion of Poland and World War II, and is now designated a Historic Monument of Poland.
• During World War II, the Stalag II-B and Stalag XX-B major prisoner-of-war camps for Polish, British, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch, Soviet, Italian, American, Australian, New Zealander, Canadian, Senegalese, Malagasy, Tunisian, Moroccan, Algerian and other Allied POWs were operated in the territory by Nazi Germany. There are cemeteries of the POWs at the sites in Czarne and Malbork.
• There are numerous memorials at the sites of Nazi massacres of Poles from World War II, including the largest massacres in Piaśnica, Szpęgawsk and Chojnice.
• The Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of four first-level administrative divisions containing the name of the region of Pomerania, the other being the neighbouring West Pomeranian Voivodeship and Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany.