What percent of Poland is white?

FACT SHEET: Biden- ⁠ Harris Administration Proposes New Standards to Protect Public Health that Will Save Consumers Money, and Increase Energy Security

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new proposed vehicle pollution standards to make all vehicles, including gas-powered cars and heavy-duty trucks, cleaner and more efficient. The proposed standards would protect public health by cutting nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions – twice the annual U.S. emissions today. They would also save consumers on average $12,000 over the lifetime of a vehicle. And they would strengthen American energy security by reducing reliance on 20 billion barrels of imported oil.

Cars and truck manufacturers have made clear that the future of transportation is electric. The market is moving. Since President Biden took office, the private sector – including the American auto industry – has invested more than $120 billion in the American-made electric vehicle and battery supply chain. The United States can seize this moment to secure American leadership in the global race to a clean transportation future, or let competitors like China out-compete us for the jobs and investments building that future.

As a car enthusiast and self-proclaimed car guy, President Biden is seizing the moment. His Investing in America agenda is expanding domestic manufacturing and accelerating adoption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and fuel cell electric vehicles. This is bringing good-paying jobs back home and putting the United States on a bold path to out-compete China in securing the jobs and investments of the future.

The pollution standards proposed today by the Biden-Harris Administration will:

Spur Adoption of Pollution-Reducing Technology for Nearly All Road Vehicles

The Environmental Protection Agency today is proposing two new rules to improve public health and combat climate change that will also lower costs for families and create good-paying jobs. The first rule would target emissions of greenhouse gases and smog- and soot-forming pollutants from passenger cars, vans, and light trucks. The second rule would update vehicle emissions standards for greenhouse gas emissions from buses, freight trucks, and other heavy-duty vehicles. This rule builds on the final standards that EPA released in December 2022 for criteria pollutant emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

The proposed updates would:

• Protect Public Health. Through 2055, EPA projects that the proposed standards would avoid nearly 10 billion tons of CO₂ emissions — equivalent to more than twice the annual U.S. CO₂ emissions in 2022.
• Lower Consumer Costs. By leveraging accelerated adoption of technologies that reduce fuel and maintenance costs alongside pollution, the proposed standards would save the average consumer $12,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle. The proposals would also result in approximately $12 billion in reduced reliance on oil imports. Rapid innovation in the automotive sector has driven down the cost of emissions-reducing technology and put us closer to a clean transportation sector.
• Accelerate the Clean Vehicle Transition in Technology-Neutral Way. The EPA’s approach is technology-neutral, meaning that better-designed gas vehicles, hybrids, fuel cell vehicles, and other innovations could all be used to meet stricter standards. But with EV technology getting better and cheaper every day, and consumer demand rising rapidly, many manufacturers would likely rely on fully electric vehicles for compliance. EPA estimates that by 2032, if finalized, the proposed rules could result in electrification of 67% of new sedans, crossovers, SUVs, and light trucks; 50% of new vocational vehicles (such as buses and garbage trucks); 35% of new short-haul freight tractors; and 25% of new long-haul freight tractors.

Reinforce President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda to Continue Building a Clean Transportation Future Made in America

These standards build on the generational investments secured by the Biden-Harris Administration that will ensure our nation’s transportation systems are clean, affordable, equitable, and Made in America. In the first year of his Administration, President Biden set a goal that at least 50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles. A year later, President Biden joined countries around the world in targeting that 100 percent of all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicles sold in 2040 be zero-emission vehicles, with an interim 30 percent sales target for these vehicles in 2030.

The United States is making strong progress towards these goals. Under President Biden’s watch, the number of available electric models have doubled while the number of electric car sales have tripled. There are over 130,000 public chargers now available across the country – with all 50 states now implementing a historic federal investment to build a new national charging network. The iconic yellow school bus is going green and the U.S. Postal Service is shifting to fully electric. The private sector has committed more than $120 billion into the American-made electric vehicle and battery supply chain in the last two years alone. U.S. capacity to source the critical materials and inputs for this supply chain is also rapidly expanding. Through partnerships with unions and industry, the Administration is lifting up the workers who represent America’s competitive edge – and is ready to take on and tap into the massive economic opportunity embedded in this shift.

This extraordinary progress is propelled in large part by public and private investments made under President Biden’s leadership, including:

• Nearly $25 billion through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to support clean transportation, including by building a national network of EV chargers and alternative-fuel stations; ensuring domestic manufacturers have the materials they need to make EV batteries; and funding clean transit and clean school buses, with priority for underserved communities.
• $6 billion through the Inflation Reduction Act to directly support the clean-vehicle transition, including by extending loans to manufacture clean vehicles and their components in the United States; retooling domestic production lines for clean vehicles; and funding for Tribal, state, and local governments deploy clean heavy-duty vehicles, especially in nonattainment areas.
• More than $120 billion of private investments in EVs and batteries in the United States since President Biden has taken office.

President Biden has also acted to ensure a seamless clean-vehicle transition that benefits all Americans, including by:

• Securing tax credits that make new and previously owned clean vehicles more affordable to working families.
• Setting national standards to make charging EVs convenient and reliable for all Americans – no matter what car you drive or which state you charge in.
• Approving EV charging plans for all 50 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico, unlocking over $1.5 billion in initial funding to cover 75,000 miles of highways with Made-in-America EV chargers through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. DOT also has made available over $700 million in funding to deploy publicly accessible charging and alternative fueling infrastructure in communities across the country.
• Awarding $2.8 billion in funding to 20 companies across 12 states to supercharge U.S. manufacturing of batteries and battery materials.
• Encouraging companies, nonprofits, and others to expand community EV charging, increase consumer understanding about different types of clean transportation, and help consumers access clean-transportation benefits.
• Establishing a Joint Office of Energy and Transportation to work hand-in-hand with States, industry leaders, manufacturers, and other stakeholders.
• Releasing a Rural EV toolkit to help ensure all Americans, regardless of where they live, can benefit from the lower operating costs, reduced maintenance needs, and improved performance that EVs provide.
• Activating the purchasing power of the federal government to procure 100 percent zero-emission light-duty vehicles by 2027 and all vehicles by 2035.
• Launching pathbreaking partnerships, like the Department of Energy’s agreement with AFL-CIO to launch a national workforce development strategy for lithium-battery manufacturing, including pilot programs to train battery manufacturing workers and bolster the domestic battery supply chain.
• Through the White House Talent Pipeline Challenge, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) has certified 20,000 electricians through Registered Apprenticeships like the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP).

Providing a clear pathway for a continued rise in EV sales and protecting future generations from the impacts of climate change is a win-win for all Americans.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows racism has no boundaries

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “undisguised terror,” as described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In a matter of days, hundreds of people have been killed, thousands are displaced, and hundreds of thousands are aiming to flee to border countries that accept refugees. Newborn babies are being placed in underground bunkers and men over the age of 18 are barred from leaving and asked instead to pick up arms and fight. There are images of courageous women staying in Ukraine to do the same.

Rashawn Ray

Senior Fellow — Governance Studies

The United States and many other countries have instituted severe economic sanctions to try to deter Russia’s offensive military tactics. And yet, Vladimir Putin seems set on trying to reclaim Ukrainian land through strong military force. At his first State of the Union address, President Biden enhanced sanctions by “closing off American airspace to all Russian flights.” The economic impacts on the Russian economy will be far-reaching and the human impacts will be generational.

So far, Russia does not seem deterred by the sanctions. Videos of the brutality are painful to watch. And the images of people trying to flee battle-stricken areas and cross the Ukrainian border into other countries further highlight the stain and peril of human survival. This journey has proved to be particularly challenging for Black people who, even during a life-and-death situation, have found themselves running into racist barriers to their safety and freedom.

There are many reports of Black people being refused at border crossings in favor of white Ukrainians, leaving them stuck at borders for days in brutal conditions. Ukraine stated they would first allow women and children on trains and transport out of the country to flee the Russian invasion. However, it seems they meant Ukrainian and European women and children. Videos show Black people being pushed off trains and Black drivers being reprimanded and stalled by Ukrainians as they try to flee. There are even reports of animals being allowed on trains before Africans.

Black students and athletes are not exempt from these racial barriers. Professional Ukrainian basketball player, Maurice Creek, who is originally from Maryland and played college basketball for Indiana University and George Washington University, was stuck in a bomb shelter in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. He is headed for Romania to try and get a flight to the United States. Ukrainian medical student, Korrine Sky, who is from Zimbabwe and lives in Great Britain, stated that trying to leave Ukraine is like “Squid Games” with Ukrainians and Europeans at the top of the hierarchy, people from India and the Middle East in the middle, and Africans at the bottom. Though Sky’s perspective is disturbing, there is relevant history that people may not know.

Africans attending schools in what is now Ukraine date back to the 1920s, and the Soviet Union (now Russia) started formally recruiting Africans to attend college and professional schools in 1957. Not a coincidence, 1957 was the year that Ghana gained its independence from Great Britain. The Soviet Union wanted to try and build more positive relations with African countries and showcase to the world their growing diplomacy. When Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, scholarships to African students substantially decreased. However, African students still found schools in the area appealing. Today, over 16,000 African people are studying in Ukraine, accounting for more than 20% of Ukraine’s international students.

Related Content

The invasion of Ukraine unites a divided America

Thursday, March 3, 2022

What does the war in Ukraine mean for Africa?

Friday, February 25, 2022

Around the halls: Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Friday, February 25, 2022

Though the pathway to a visa in Ukraine and less expensive education costs are appealing to African students, economic depressions in southeastern Europe resulted in the rise of anti-immigrant prejudices and racial discrimination against Africans. Following a series of race-related murders of Africans in 2007, Ukraine passed anti-racism legislation. Hate crimes decreased to a certain extent. Still, Africans report regular occurrences of racial prejudice and name-calling (like “monkey”).

Comments made by Ukrainian officials and journalists covering the conflict reveal this deep-seated racial bias. In describing the traumatic impact of the Russian invasion to the BBC, Ukraine’s former deputy general prosecutor David Sakvarelidze stated: “It is really emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed, children being killed every day with Putin’s missiles.” Al Jazeera English news anchor, Peter Dobbie, described people in Ukraine who were fleeing to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova: “We are playing some of the latest pictures of refugees on trains trying to get on trains or get out of Ukraine. And what’s compelling is just looking at them the way they are dressed. These are prosperous, middle-class people. These are obviously not refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East that are still in a big state of war. These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to.” On CBS News, senior correspondent Charlie D’Agata reporting from Kyiv stated: “With all due respect, this not a place like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European, I have to choose those words carefully too, city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that it’s not going to happen. So it’s partly human nature…”

“European” has become a code word for white and a justification of the primary reason that people should care about the conflict, displacement, and killing. Bloody conflicts in Syria, Somalia, and other places have not received the wide-reaching international media coverage—or urgent international government action—that the invasion of Ukraine has inspired. This is not surprising. We simply have to look to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and which groups of people, communities, and countries have had equitable access to testing, treatment, and vaccination. Much like how the history of African enslavement in the United States still haunts our country in many ways, the legacy of African colonization in Europe is still surfacing, even amid a war that threatens the very existence of an entire country.

As the United States and the world offer their support to Ukraine in their fight for freedom, we cannot abandon the equitable deployment of civil and human rights. All people, regardless of race or nationality, must be equally allowed access to cross borders to safety. As we pray and hope for an end to the Russian invasion, I hope we realize there is much work to do during peacetime to ensure that everyone has equitable access to the same civil rights and dignity during conflict. We should care about the humanity and lives of people regardless of their race, ethnic origin, nationality, education, or social class background.

Related Topics

• Russia
• Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
• Ukraine

Poland Population 2023 (Live)

Since about 1999, Poland’s population has slowly been declining. Poland’s population peaked at 38.57 million people and has since then decreased to about 37.85 million people. Poland’s population is expected to decline at a much faster rate in the coming decades, shrinking to 23.17 million people at the end of the century. This means that Poland will lose almost 40% of its population by the end of the century.

Poland’s population is shrinking at a rate of 0.11%. The fertility rate in Poland is 1.439 births per woman, too low to replace the population. Additionally, Poland has negative net migration, especially as some of the country’s best and brightest have left to other countries for better job opportunities (known as “brain drain”).

Population Rank
Growth Rate
2023 World Percentage
Density
Land Area
306,130

The current population of Poland is 41,189,252 based on projections of the latest United Nations data. The UN estimates the July 1, 2023 population at 41,026,067.

Poland Growth Rate

Poland Population 2023 (Live)

Show Source

Poland Population Clock

• Net decrease of 1 person every 35 seconds
• Population estimates based on interpolation of data from World Population Prospects

Components of Population Change

Poland Population Clock

Poland Area and Population Density

According to figures calculated by the Polish Central Statistical Office, Poland had a population of 37,115,000 people by the end of 2007. This made the average population density equal to 122 people / km2. Of this number, 61.5% of the people belonged to urban areas. The male population of the country is about 48.2%, and the remaining 51.8% belongs to the female population.

Largest Cities in Poland

The capital of Poland is Warsaw, and its official language is Polish. Another language that exists on a more regional basis is Kashubian. The population of Warsaw, which is the only city with over a million residents, currently has a population of 1,708,139.

Other cities with notable populations between 500,000 and 1,000,000 are Krakow, Lodz, Wroclaw, and Poznan.

Poland Population Density Map

Show Source

Poland Population by Year (Historical)

Show Source

Poland Population by Year (Projections)

Show Source

Poland Population Pyramid 2023

Poland Median Age

Poland Population by Age

There are people over age 18 in Poland.

Census Years

Poland Population Pyramid

Poland, which is called the Republic of Poland in the official books, is located in Central Europe. To its west is Germany, to its south are Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and to the east are Ukraine and Belarus. The northern border is comprised of the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast, Lithuania and the Russian exclave. The country constitutes a total area of 120,726 square miles (312,679 square kilometers) , which makes it the 69th largest country of the world and the ninth largest in Europe. Poland is a unitary state comprised of 16 voivodeships.

Demographics

The sex ratio at the time of birth between men and women is 1.06 males / female. For the age group under 15 years, it is 1.06 males / female. For the next age group, which is 15-64 years, it is 0.99 male / female. For the last age group, which is 65 years and over, the sex ratio is calculated to be about 0.62 male / female. When combined, this data gives an overall ratio of 0.94 male per female.

The infant mortality rate is estimated to be 6.42 deaths / 1000 live births for the total, with 7.12 deaths for the males and 5.67 deaths for the females per 1000 live births.

Poland Religion, Economy and Politics

87% of the population follows a Catholic religious path, while small percentages follow Protestant, Orthodox, and other religions.

The life expectancy rate has often been in the favor of deaths, especially during the World War. The growth rate also stayed negative until around 2007, but recently the stats have changed. The growth rate has now become 1.19%, which is the estimate calculated in 2012. The birth rate in 2012 was estimated to be 9.96 per 1000 people. The death rate was calculated as 9.24 deaths per 1000 deaths, which is still very close to the birth rate. The fertility rate has been decreasing since 2008, which at that point was 1.39 children born per woman and has now reached 1.31 children born per woman.

In 2018, these numbers are now updated to reflect a median age of 40.7 years of age, with a total life expectancy of 77.8 years of age. The death rate is at 10.4 per 1,000 individuals, over a full point up from previous calculations. The birth rate is now at 9.5 births per 1,000 individuals, indicating another decrease in the natural growth rate. The fertility rate is currently at 1.35 children per woman, which is a much smaller decrease than similar recent statistics in this arena.

Poland Population History

The population of the Republic of Poland was at only 1 million around the year 1000. This figure doubled by 1370 and gave Poland a population density of 8.6 people per square km. The country was affected comparatively little by the Black Death than the rest of Western Europe, which is why its population didn’t fall as much and continued to rise. By 1490, Poland’s population had jumped up to about 8 million inhabitants. Urbanization in the country further increased the population due to the innumerous migrations. By 1815, there were 11 million Poles in the territory; but due to the 3 partitions after 1772, the population was distributed among different countries.

However, the population still struggled to revive. Even after the millions of deaths in the Second World War, the census held in 1946 indicated a total population of 23,930,000. Out of this, 32% of the people were living in cities and towns and in urban areas, whereas 68% of the people were living in the countryside. The population further grew until recently, when it finally started decreasing because of a negative growth rate.