The Polish Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Foreign Trade promote foreign trade by furnishing information, establishing or extending commercial relations, and arranging for Polish participation in trade fairs, and exhibitions abroad. The most important worker's organization in Poland is Solidarity, founded in 1980 by Lech Welesa. There are a number of professional associations and trade unions representing a wide variety of occupations.

There are also many cultural, sports and social organizations in Poland. National youth organizations include the European Federalist Youth, Polish Students' Union, Polish Environmental Youth Movement, Union of Young Christian Democrats, The Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, and YMCA/YWCA. National women's organizations include the Democratic Women's Union and the Polish Association of University Women. Other social action groups include the Helsinki Human Rights Foundation and Fundacja Stefana Batorego, a group which promotes a democratic and open society. The Red Cross is also active.

Figures prominent in Polish history include Mieszko I (fl.10th century), who led Poland to Christianity; his son and successor, Boleslaw I ("the Brave," d.1025), the first king of sovereign Poland; Casimir III ("the Great," 1309–70), who sponsored domestic reforms; and John III Sobieski (1624–96), who led the Polish-German army that lifted the siege of Vienna in 1683 and repelled the Turkish invaders. Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kos´ciuszko (1746–1817), trained as a military engineer, served with colonial forces during the American Revolution and then led a Polish rebellion against Russia in 1794; he was wounded, captured, and finally exiled. Kazimierz Pulaski (1747–79) fought and died in the American Revolution, and Haym Salomon (1740–85) helped to finance it. The reconstituted Polish state after World War I was led by Józef Pilsudski (1867–1935), who ruled as a dictator from 1926 until his death. Polish public life since World War II has been dominated by Wladyslaw Gomulka (1905–82), Edward Gierek (1913–2001), and Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski (b.1923), Communist leaders, respectively, during 1956–70, during 1970–80, and after 1981. Important roles have also been played by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski (1901–81), Roman Catholic primate of Poland, archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw, and frequent adversary of the postwar Communist regime; Karol Wojtyla (b.1920), archbishop of Cracow from 1963 until his elevation to the papacy as John Paul II in 1978; and Lech Walesa (b.1943), leader of the Solidarity movement during 1980–81, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1983, and President of Poland from 1990 to 1995.

The father of Polish literature is Nicholas Rey (1505–69), one of the earliest Polish writers to turn from Latin to the vernacular. Poland's golden age is marked by the beginning of literature in Polish; its greatest poet was Jan Kochanowski (1530–84). Notable among 19th-century poets and dramatists was Adam Mickiewicz (1798–1855), whose The Books of the Polish Nation and of the Polish Pilgrimage, Pan Tadeusz , and other works exerted a paramount influence on all future generations. Other leading literary figures were the poets and dramatists Juliusz Slowacki (1809–49) and Zygmunt Krasin´ski (1812–59), whose Dawn breathed an inspired patriotism. Józef Kraszewski (1812–87), prolific and patriotic prose writer, is considered the father of the Polish novel. The leading late-19th-century novelists were the realists Aleksander Glowacki (1847–1912), who wrote under the pseudonym of Boleslaw Prus, and Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846–1916), Poland's first Nobel Prize winner (1905), whose The Trilogy described the 17th-century wars of Poland; he is internationally famous for Quo Vadis. Another Nobel Prize winner (1924) was the novelist Wladyslaw Reymont (1867–1925), acclaimed for The Peasants . A Pole who achieved stature as an English novelist was Joseph Conrad (Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 1857–1924). Other important literary figures around the turn of the century were the playwright and painter Stanislaw Wyspian´ski (1869–1907), the novelist Stefan Zeromski (1864–1926), and the novelist Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885–1939). The best-known modern authors are novelist and short-story writer Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904–91), a Nobel Prize winner in 1978 and a US resident since 1935; the satirist Witold Gombrowicz (1904–69); science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem(b.1921); the dissident novelist Jerzy Andrzejewski (1909–83); the poet Czeslaw Milosz (b.1911), a Nobel Prize winner in 1980 and resident of the United States since 1960; and novelist Jerzy Kosinski (1933–91), who lived in the United States since 1957 and wrote in English.

The greatest Polish composer was Frédéric Chopin (1810–49), born in Warsaw, who lived in Paris after 1831. A popular composer was Stanislaw Moniuszko (1819–72), founder of the Polish national opera and composer of many songs; he influenced such later composers as Wladyslaw Zelen´ski (1837–1921), Zygmunt Noskowski (1846–1909), and Stanislaw Niewiadomski (1859–1936). Other prominent musicians include the pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941), also his country's first prime minister following World War I; the great harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (1877–1959); the renowned pianist Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982); the violinist Wanda Wilkomirska(b.1929); the conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski (b.1923); and the composers Mieczyslaw Karlowicz (1876–1909) and Karol Szymanowski (1883–1937). Witold Lutoslawski (1913–94) and Krzysztof Penderecki (b.1933) are internationally known contemporary composers.

The first Polish painters of European importance were Piotr Michalowski (1800–55) and Henryk Rodakowski (1823–94). In the second half of the 19th century, Polish realism reached its height in the historical paintings of Jan Matejko (1838–93), Artur Grottger (1837–67), Juliusz Kossak (1824–99), and Józef Brandt (1841–1915), as well as in genre painting and the landscapes of Wojciech Gerson (1831–1901), Józef Szermentowski (1833–76), Aleksander Kotsis (1836–77), Maksymilian Gierymski (1846–74), Aleksander Gierymski (1849–1901), and Józef Chelmon ´ski (1849–1914). Feliks Topolski (1907–89), who lived in London since 1935, is well known for his oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Andrzej Wajda (b.1926), Roman Polan´ski (b.1933), an expatriate since the mid-1960s, and Krzysztof Zanussi (b.1939) are famous film directors, and Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) was a well-known stage director.

The outstanding scientist and scholar Nicolaus Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik, 1473–1543) is world renowned. Among Poland's brilliant scientists are Maria Sklodowska-Curie (1867–1934), a codiscoverer of radium and the recipient of two Nobel Prizes, and Casimir Funk (1884–1967), the discoverer of vitamins. Oskar Lange (1904–66) achieved renown as an economist.

All communications services are government owned and operated; however, a privatization process is underway. In 1998 there were 8 million main line telephones and 1.7 million mobile cellular phones.

In 1995 the three national radio networks were Polskie Radio, Radio Solidarnesc, and Radio Z, and television programming was broadcast by Telewizja Polskie. As of 1998, there were 14 AM and 777 FM radio stations. As of 1995, there were 179 television stations. In 2000, there were about 523 radios and 400 television sets for every 1,000 people. The same year, there were about 69 personal computers in use for every 1,000 people, with 19 Internet service providers serving about 3.5 million users in 2001.

Though the constitution provides for free speech and a free press, there are some restrictions on these rights. The Penal Code prohibits speech which publicly insults or ridicules the Polish state or its principal organs; it also prohibits advocating discord or offending religious groups. Though the media are not censored, they may be subject to prosecution under these and other penal codes.

Virtually the entire Polish population is literate. For the year 2000, adult illiteracy was estimated at 0.2% (males, 0.2%; females 0.2%). Primary, secondary, and most university and other education is free. State and local expenditure on education is, therefore, substantial. Lower schools are financed by local budgets, higher and vocational schools from the state budget. In the latter half of the 1990s, approximately 24.8% of government expenditure was allocated to education. As of 1999, public expenditure on education was estimated at 5.4% of GDP.

The school system, which is centralized, consists of an eight-year primary school followed by a four-year secondary general education school, five-year technical school, or basic three-year vocational training school. In 1996, primary schools had a combined enrollment of 5,021,378 students and a staff of 325,601 teachers. Student-to-teacher ratio stood at 15 to 1. In the same year, secondary schools had 2,539,138 students and 121,301 teachers. As of 1999, 97% of primary-school-age children were enrolled in school, while 88% of those eligible attended secondary school. Vocational schools are attended by students studying technology, agriculture, forestry, economy, education, health services, and the arts. Institutions of higher learning had 75,432 teachers and enrolled 720,267 students in 1996.

Higher learning is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Higher Education and other ministries. A matriculation examination, which is common for all students, is required for admission to institutions of higher learning. Of the 98 third-level institutions, 11 are universities, 18 polytechnical schools, 17 art schools, 11 medical academies, and three theological academies. Jagiellonian University, among the oldest in Europe, was established at Cracow in 1364. Other prominent universities are the Warsaw University; the Central School of Planning and Statistics (Warsaw); the Higher Theater School (Warsaw); the Academy of Fine Arts (Cracow); and the Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan ´). During the communist era the Roman Catholic University at Lublin was the only free private university in the Socialist bloc. Evening and extramural courses are available for anyone who is interested and is not a part of the school system. Foreign students are also welcome to study in Poland, either as regular students or at their summer schools.

The National Library, established in Warsaw in 1928, is the second-largest in Poland, with about 2.8 million volumes, including periodicals, manuscripts, maps, illustrations, and music. Other important libraries are the Public University and the government departmental libraries in Warsaw; Poland's largest library, the Jagiellonian University Library in Cracow, which has3.5 million volumes; and the Ossolineum Library in Wroclaw. In 1997 there were 9,230 public libraries, jointly holding almost 135 million volumes. Lax security at Poland's libraries poses a challenge to the preservation of rare documents: in 1998, a scientific library in Cracow reported the theft of a rare book by Nicholas Copernicus, and in 1999, the Jagiellonian University Library reported the theft of an indeterminate number of rare manuscripts.

Of the more than 500 museums in Poland, the foremost is the National Museum in Warsaw, which has an extensive and important art collection as well as a collection of Polish art from the 12th century to present day. Other important museums are the National Museum in Cracow, notable for its collection of Far Eastern Art, and the National Museum in Poznan ´, which has a celebrated collection of musical instruments. Cracow also has an important collection of European decorative arts at the Wawel Royal Castle, housed in a 16th century manor house, and the Czartoryski Museum, a world-class collection of antiquities and contemporary artifacts including 35,000 prints, drawings, and paintings. Warsaw has dozens of museums, including the Center for Contemporary Art, founded in 1986, in Ujazdowski Castle; the Museum of Independence, founded in 1990, chronicling Poland's pivotal role in the collapse of the Soviet Empire; the Museum of Polish Emigration to America; the Frederick Chopin Museum, chronicling the life of one of the country's best-known composers; the Marie Curie Museum, housed at her birthplace; and the Museum of the Jewish Historical Institute.

As of 1999, there were an estimated 2.3 physicians and 5.1 hospital beds per 1,000 people. The same year, the total health care expenditure was estimated at 6.2% of GDP.

Poland's birth rate was an estimated 10.3 per 1,000 people as of 2002. In 1990–95 75% of married women (ages 15 to 49) used contraception. There were 440,603 births in 1999, translating to a total fertility rate of 1.6. In 1994, Poland immunized children up to one year old against tuberculosis, 94%; diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus, 95%; polio, 96%; and measles, 96%. As of 1999, the rates for DPT and measles were, respectively, 98% and 97%.

Life expectancy in 2000 averaged 73 years and infant mortality was 9 per 1,000 live births. The general mortality rate was 10 per 1,000 people in 1999.

There were many cases of tuberculosis in 1994 as part of the spread of tuberculosis throughout much of Eastern Europe (39 per 100,000 people in 1999). The heart disease mortality rate for Polish men and women was below average for high human development countries. The likelihood of dying after 65 of heart disease in 1990–1993 was 240 in 1,000 for men and 201 in 1,000 for women. In 1994, there were 197,603 deaths due to cardiovascular disease. In Poland, the smoking prevalence in men was high (51%) and slightly less for women (29%) in 1993. HIV prevalence in 1999 was 0.1 per 100 adults. Approximately 12,000 people were infected with HIV as of 1997.

Almost 40% of all urban dwelling space was destroyed during World War II. Although investment in public housing has increased, and credits have been assigned for cooperative and private construction, the housing shortage remained critical five decades later. The average wait for an apartment ranged from 10–15 years. In 1984 there were 10,253,000 dwelling units;4.6% had only one room, 21% consisted of two rooms, 35.5% of three rooms, 25.7% of four rooms, and 13.2% of five or more rooms. An additional 193,000 dwelling units were constructed in 1985. As of 1992, there was a shortage of 1.3 million housing units, a figure that was expected to reach 2.4 million in 2000. About 1.8 million apartments were expected to be lost due to deterioration by 2020.