The issuance of PESEL numbers to Ukrainian citizens has been underway in Poland since March 16, 2022. By July 12, 2022, more than 1,225,000 of those numbers had been issued. The Polish Economic Institute (PIE) examined where PESELs are issued, analyzing where Ukrainian refugees are most likely to settle in Poland.

More than 120,000 PESEL numbers were assigned to refugees from Ukraine in Warsaw. This is the largest number in the country, accounting for almost 1/10 of all applications processed. What’s more, if we add up all the PESEL numbers issued in Warsaw and the surrounding counties that make up the Warsaw-Capital region, it turns out that more than 184,000 numbers were issued in this area, which is about 15 percent of all numbers issued in Poland.

Warsaw is followed by other provincial capitals: Wrocław (45 thousand), Kraków (32 thousand), Poznań (31 thousand). More than 358 thousand applications were registered in the provincial capitals, i.e. approx. 30 percent of their total number.

However, significant differences can be seen between provincial cities – the number of registered applications in Warsaw or Wrocław exceeds the number of numbers issued in Olsztyn or Białystok by several times.

To better illustrate the situation, PIE also analyzed the number of PESEL numbers issued per 1,000 residents of a given poviat. The first three places were occupied by Grójec Poviat (about 86 PESEL numbers per 1 thousand residents), Brzezinski Poviat (78) and Nowy Dwor Poviat (77).

Thus, it can be seen that large cities and their functional areas (e.g., Warsaw and environs, Wroclaw and environs, Szczecin and environs, Tri-City) registered a very significant number of applications not only in absolute terms, but also per 1,000 residents.

Adrian Andrzejewski