More than 21,000 people moved to Poland for permanent residence in 2025, while just over 10,000 emigrated. The migration balance reached 10,906 people, the highest figure in Statistics Poland’s series dating back to 1966. Ukraine and Belarus accounted for a large share of inflows, while Germany and the United Kingdom remained the main destinations for people leaving Poland. The figures mark a clear shift from the period of mass emigration following Poland’s accession to the European Union, although they do not mean that Polish emigration has ceased to be significant.
Statistics Poland has published its latest data on the main directions of permanent emigration and immigration. In 2025, Poland recorded 21,087 permanent arrivals and 10,181 permanent departures, producing a positive balance of 10,906 people.
A year earlier, the balance stood at 9,301. It therefore increased by 1,605 people, or 17.3%, over twelve months. The change was driven mainly by stronger inflows. Immigration rose from 19,515 to 21,087, up 8.1%, while emigration was virtually unchanged, falling by just 33 people.
This was also the highest number of permanent immigrants since the beginning of the Statistics Poland series.
Poland has shifted from large outflows to a positive migration balance
Two decades ago, the migration picture looked very different.
In 2006, shortly after Poland joined the European Union and Western European labour markets began opening to Polish workers, 46,936 people emigrated permanently. Immigration amounted to only 10,802, pushing the balance down to -36,134.
That was the worst result in the entire series. By 2025, registered permanent emigration was more than 78% lower than in 2006.
The balance turned positive after 2014. Statistics Poland does not publish data for 2015 because of insufficient completeness. From 2016 onward, every year covered by the dataset recorded more permanent arrivals than departures.
Permanent migration balance
Ukraine accounts for more than 30% of permanent immigration
Ukraine was the largest single source of permanent immigration to Poland in 2025. A total of 6,397 people arrived from Ukraine, compared with 5,345 a year earlier, an increase of almost 20%.
Ukraine alone accounted for 30.3% of all registered permanent immigration.
Belarus also featured prominently. In 2025, 2,849 people registered permanent residence in Poland after arriving from Belarus, up from 2,468 a year earlier.
Together, Ukraine and Belarus accounted for 9,246 permanent arrivals, nearly 44% of the total.
Western European countries also remained important. Poland recorded 2,656 arrivals from Germany, 2,496 from the United Kingdom and 862 from the Netherlands.
Some of these flows may represent return migration, as the dataset identifies the country of arrival or departure rather than migrants’ citizenship.
Where did permanent immigrants to Poland come from?
Germany remains the leading destination for emigrants
The departure map looks different. The largest number of people deregistering permanent residence in Poland moved to Germany — 3,129 people. The United Kingdom remained the second-largest destination, with 2,247 departures.
Flows to the Netherlands were considerably smaller at 640, followed by Ireland at 509, the United States at 493 and Norway at 433.
For Germany, emigration still exceeded immigration. The bilateral balance stood at -473 people in 2025, although this was a substantial improvement from -823 a year earlier.
Negative balances were also recorded with Switzerland (-131), Norway (-119), Spain (-103) and Ireland (-94).
Ukraine presents the opposite picture. With 6,397 registered permanent arrivals and only 39 departures from Poland to Ukraine, the balance reached +6,358. For Belarus, it was +2,844.
Where did permanent emigrants from Poland go?
More than 90% of migration remains within Europe
The geographical structure is clear. In 2025, 19,085 people arrived in Poland for permanent residence from European countries, accounting for 90.5% of total immigration.
At the same time, 9,387 people emigrated permanently to European countries, representing 92.2% of all registered permanent departures.
Other continents played a much smaller role: 901 arrivals came from the Americas, 875 from Asia, 169 from Africa and 48 from Oceania.
10,000 permanent departures do not mean only 10,000 Poles left the country
Permanent-residence data require careful interpretation.
Statistics Poland notes that the figures cover only documented deregistrations from permanent residence in Poland and registrations for permanent residence after arriving from abroad. They do not capture everyone who crosses the border intending to remain abroad or in Poland for an extended period.
The figure of 10,181 permanent emigrants should therefore not be interpreted as the total number of Poles who moved abroad in 2025.
In a separate estimate of temporary emigration, Statistics Poland calculated that at the end of 2025 around 1.513 million Polish citizens had been living abroad for at least 12 months. The largest populations were in the United Kingdom (412,000), Germany (386,000), the Netherlands (130,000), Norway (76,000) and Ireland (67,000).
This is a stock estimate of emigrants living abroad, not the number of new departures during a single year.
Positive migration does not solve Poland’s demographic challenge
The record permanent migration surplus represents a significant shift from two decades ago, but its scale remains small compared with other demographic processes.
According to Statistics Poland, the natural decrease — the difference between births and deaths — reached around 168,000 people in 2025. Approximately 238,000 children were born, while deaths totalled about 406,000.
A positive permanent migration balance of 10,900 therefore offsets only a small part of the population loss caused by deaths exceeding births.
The latest figures nevertheless show a change in the character of Polish migration. In permanent-residence statistics, Poland is no longer a country experiencing the large net outflows seen in the first years after EU accession. Inflows from the east are becoming increasingly important, while return migration continues from countries that for years were the principal destinations of Polish emigrants.
Data source: Statistics Poland, Main directions of permanent emigration and immigration, 1966–2025.
