The CSO recorded 21,087 immigration and 10,181 emigrations for permanent residence in 2025, giving Poland a affirmative balance of 10,906 people, the highest in the series since 1966. The data shows the advantage of arrivals, but only include check-ins and check-outs related to permanent stay, not the full scale of migration.
Record of affirmative balance in narrow statistics
The Central Statistical Office published on 14 September 2026 a summary of migration to permanent residence for 1966–2025. In the last year of the series, immigration amounted to 21,087 people and emigration to 10,181. The affirmative balance reached 10,906. The year before that was 9,301 people, so the improvement was 1,605, or 17.3%.
The number of immigration increased by 1 572, or 8.1% over the year. Emigration decreased by only 33 people. The increase in registered arrivals is due to the fresh affirmative balance record. As of 2016, each year included in the board ended with an immigration advantage, while in 1966–2014 the balance was negative. For 2015, GUS did not supply data.
Europe focuses more than 90% of traffic
Europe remains the undisputed centre of both streams. 19,085 people came from European countries, representing 90.5 percent of all immigration. 9 387 people, or 92.2% of all emigration, emigrated to Europe. Non-European directions are much little crucial in this statistics.
Most people came from Ukraine: 6,397, or 30.3% of the total. The following seats were taken by Germany with a score of 2,656, and the United Kingdom with a score of 2,496. 862 people arrived from the Netherlands and 584 from the United States. These are countries of erstwhile residence, not declarations of nationality. The numbers include besides the return of Polish citizens.
On the emigration side, Germany dominated, where 3 129 people left permanently. The United Kingdom chose 2,247 people, the Netherlands 640, Ireland 509 and the United States 493. The past routes of Polish emigration are inactive visible, although their scale is much smaller present than after the beginning of Western labour markets.
2006 remains a symbol of the large outflow
The highest emigration in the full GUS series was recorded in 2006. 46,936 people checked out of Poland at the time, and the balance was minus 36, 134. In 2025, the number of check-outs was nearly 5 times lower. This shows a real change that must not be underestimated: Poland has stopped permanently giving advantage to the drain in this peculiar statistics.
However, this does not mean the end of the problem of emigration. Separate GUS estimates for temporary stay about 1,513 million Polish citizens staying abroad at least 12 months in late 2025. It's a resource of people, not the number of trips in 1 year. Mixing both measures leads to false conclusions.
A affirmative balance will not replace demographic policy
The affirmative consequence is beneficial due to the fact that it means that more people than they left abroad have arrived in the permanent residence register. However, you must know who is coming, whether they are returning Poles, members of their families, or foreigners who intend to bind the future to our country. The sum alone does not answer these questions. liable migration policy requires control, clear criteria of residence and ability to integrate visitors with Polish legal order and culture.
Security and continuity of the community are at stake, but besides the labour market, housing, schools and public finances. Migration may alleviate any of the staff shortages, but it will not fix low fertility or replace household policy. Demographic problems in Poland require support for marriages, unchangeable work and conditions in which Poles want to establish families at home.
The fresh data is simply a origin for careful satisfaction, unsatisfying. Poland regains any people and attracts fresh residents, but national interest requires more than a affirmative column in the sheet. We request a state that encourages Poles to return, conducts selective migration and ensures that all decision serves the safety and future of the nation.
Source: Central Statistical Office
