The Poles in Lithuania (, ), also called Lithuanian Poles, estimated at 183,000 people in the Lithuanian census of 2021 or 6.5% of Lithuania's total population, are the country's largest ethnic minority.
During the Polish–Lithuanian union, there was an influx of Poles into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the gradual Polonization of its elite and upper classes. At the end of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, almost all of Lithuania's nobility, clergy, and townspeople spoke Polish and adopted Polish culture, while still maintaining a Lithuanian identity. In the 19th century, the processes of Polonization also affected Lithuanian and Belarusian peasants and led to the formation of a long strip of land with a predominantly Polish population, stretching to Daugavpils and including Vilnius. The rise of the Lithuanian national movement led to conflicts between both groups. Following World War I and the rebirth of both states, there was the Polish–Lithuanian War, whose main focus was Vilnius and the nearby region. In its aftermath, the majority of the Polish population living in the Lithuanian lands found themselves within the Polish borders. However, interwar Lithuania still retained a large Polish minority. During World War II, the Polish population was persecuted by the USSR and Nazi Germany. Post-World War II, the borders were changed, territorial disputes were suppressed as the Soviet Union exercised power over both countries and a significant part of the Polish population, especially the best-educated, was forcefully transferred from the Lithuanian SSR to the Polish People's Republic. At the same time, a significant number of Poles relocated from nearby regions of Byelorussian SSR to Vilnius and Vilnius region. After Lithuania regained independence, Lithuania–Poland relations were tense in the 1990s due to alleged discrimination of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
Currently, the Polish population is grouped in the Vilnius region, primarily the Vilnius and Šalčininkai districts. In the city of Vilnius alone there are more than 85,000 Poles, who make up about 15% of the Lithuanian capital's population. Most Poles in Lithuania are Roman Catholic and speak Polish, although a minority of them speak Russian or Lithuanian, as their first language. Together with Vilnius City, Poles inhabit an area of approximately 4000 km2.
Statistics
According to the Lithuanian census of 2021, the Polish minority in Lithuania numbered 183,421 persons or 6.5% of the population of Lithuania. It is the largest ethnic minority in modern Lithuania, the second largest being the Russian minority. Poles are concentrated in the Vilnius Region. Most Poles live in Vilnius County (170,919 people, or 21% of the county's population); Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has 85,438 Poles, or 15.4% of the city's population. Especially large Polish communities are found in Vilnius District Municipality (46% of the population) and Šalčininkai District Municipality (76%).
Lithuanian municipalities with a Polish minority exceeding 15% of the total population (according to the 2021 census) are listed in the table below:
Top 10 cities by number of Poles: Vilnius: 85,438 Šalčininkai: 4,930 Lentvaris: 2,859 Nemenčinė: 2,858 Eišiškės: 2,844 Pabradė: 2,681 Grigiškės: 2,518 Visaginas: 2,084 Trakai: 938 Švenčionys: 860
Languages
The adoption of Polish cultural features by the nobles, townspeople, and clergy in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, combined with an influx of migrants from Poland, created a Lithuanian variant of the Polish language. The local variety of Polish called Polszczyzna Litewska became the native tongue of the Lithuanian nobility in the 18th century.
Out of the 234,989 Poles in Lithuania, 187,918 (80.0%) consider Polish to be their first language. 22,439 Poles (9.5%) speak Russian as their first language, while 17,233 (7.3%) speak Lithuanian. 6,279 Poles (2.7%) did not indicate their first language. The remaining 0.5% speak various other languages. The Polish regiolect spoken by Lithuanian Poles is classified under Northern Borderlands dialect. Most of Poles who live southwards of Vilnius speak a form of Belarusian vernacular called there "simple speech", that contains many substratical relics from Lithuanian and Polish.