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Poles
Polacy
Matejko Christianization of Poland.jpg
The Baptism of Poland. Detail from Jan Matejko's Christianisation of Poland AD 966.
Total population
c. 60 million
Regions with significant populations
 Poland   38,000,000
  United States 10,600,000
  Brazil 3,000,000
  Germany 2,850,000
 Israel 1,250,000 (ancestry, passport eligible); 202,300 (citizenship)
  Canada 1,010,705
  France 1,000,000
Languages
Polish • Kashubian • Silesian
Religion
Christianity: Predominantly Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Other West Slavs: Silesians, Kashubs, Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians, Sorbs, Hanoverian Wends(†), Obotrites(†), Veleti(†)

The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy, singular Polak) are a Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Poland, they are bounded by the Polish language, which belongs to the Lechitic subgroup of west slavic languages of Central Europe, living mainly in Poland. Their religion is mainly Roman Catholic. They use modified Latin alphabet.

There are about 60 million Poles in the world. Besides Poland, many live in the United States, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and elsewhere.

The most famous Poles are Pope John Paul II, Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Nicolaus Copernicus and Lech Wałęsa.

Polish names often end with "-ski", "-ska", "-cki" or "-cka".

The most popular Polish surnames are Nowak and Kowalski.

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