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Doing Business in Poland1. INTRODUCTION1.1 GeographyLocationPoland is located in Central and Eastern Europe. Poland’s eastern borders are with Lithuania,Belarus and Ukraine, and its southern borders are with the Czech and Slovak Republics. Itswestern border is with Germany, and its northern borders are with Russia and the Baltic Sea.AreaPoland is the largest of the Central and Eastern European countries with an area of 312,685square kilometres.CoastlinePoland has 440 kilometres of coastline on the Baltic Sea.ClimateThe climate in Poland is temperate with moderate winters and warm summers with occasionalshowers.TerrainMostly flat plain; mountains along southern border.Time zonePoland uses Central European Time, which is 1 hour ahead of UK (GMT + 1) and 6 hoursahead of New York (EST + 6).1.2 PeoplePopulationThe total population of Poland is around 38.32 million and it is the 6 th largest country in theEU. Poland has the largest working population in Central Europe. With 50% of the Polishsociety under the age of 35 it is also one of the youngest populations on the continent.The majority of Poles live in towns and cities; 42% of Poles live in the 42 largestagglomerations of more than 100,000 inhabitants.Ethnic GroupsThe ethnic groups in Poland are: Polish 97.6%; other 2.4%.ReligionThe dominant religion is Roman Catholicism (90%) although there is freedom of religion.LanguageThe official language is Polish. Many people also speak a second language, includingEnglish, German, French, and Russian.4