Łódź Voivodeship

Łódź Voivodeship
Łódź Voivodeship; Województwo łódzkie
	— Voivodeship —
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Location within Poland
	Division into counties
	Coordinates (Łódź): 51°47′N 19°28′E / 51.783, 19.467
Country	Poland
Capital	Łódź
Counties	3 cities, 21 land counties * Łódź; Piotrków Trybunalski; Skierniewice; Bełchatów County; Brzeziny County; Kutno County; Łask County; Łęczyca County; Łódź East County; Łowicz County; Opoczno County; Pabianice County; Pajęczno County; Piotrków County; Poddębice County; Radomsko County; Rawa County; Sieradz County; Skierniewice County; Tomaszów Mazowiecki County; Wieluń County; Wieruszów County; Zduńska Wola County; Zgierz County
	Area
• Total	18,219 km2 (7,034 sq mi)
	Population (2006)
• Total	2,571,534
• Density	140/km2 (370/sq mi)
• Urban	1,662,937
• Rural	908,597
Car plates	E
Website	http://www.lodzkie.pl
	* further divided into 177 gminas

Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Łódź Province,^[1] or by its Polish name of województwo łódzkie [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ ˈwut͡skʲɛ] or simply Łódzkie) is a province (voivodeship) in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sieradz, Piotrków Trybunalski and Skierniewice Voivodeships and part of Płock Voivodeship, pursuant to the Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced [wut͡ɕ].

Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian to the north and east, Świętokrzyskie to the south-east, Silesian to the south, Opole to the south-west, Greater Poland to the west, and Kuyavian-Pomeranian for a short stretch to the north. Its territory belongs to three historical provinces of Poland – Masovia (in the east), Greater Poland (in the west) and Lesser Poland (in the southeast, around Opoczno).

Cities and towns[]

The voivodeship contains 44 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006):^[2]

Łódź (764,168)
Piotrków Trybunalski (79,367)
Pabianice (70,445)
Tomaszów Mazowiecki (66,705)
Bełchatów (62,062)
Zgierz (58,313)
Radomsko (49,152)
Skierniewice (48,761)
Kutno (47,557)
Zduńska Wola (44,370)
Sieradz (44,045)
Łowicz (30,204)
Wieluń (24,347)
Opoczno (22,708)
Ozorków (20,571)

Aleksandrów Łódzki (20,512)
Łask (18,684)
Rawa Mazowiecka (17,643)
Konstantynów Łódzki (17,564)
Łęczyca (15,423)
Głowno (15,167)
Koluszki (13,407)
Brzeziny (12,373)
Żychlin (8,880)
Wieruszów (8,759)
Zelów (8,173)
Poddębice (7,875)
Tuszyn (7,178)
Pajęczno (6,674)
Sulejów (6,387)

Działoszyn (6,276)
Krośniewice (4,647)
Drzewica (3,945)
Przedbórz (3,758)
Stryków (3,566)
Złoczew (3,403)
Warta (3,388)
Rzgów (3,338)
Biała Rawska (3,182)
Uniejów (2,916)
Kamieńsk (2,858)
Wolbórz (2,381)
Błaszki (2,179)
Szadek (2,007)

Administrative division[]

Łódź Voivodeship is divided into 24 counties (powiats): 3 city counties and 21 land counties. These are further divided into 177 gminas.

The counties are listed in the following table (ordering within categories is by decreasing population).

English and Polish names	Area (km²)	Population (2006)	Seat	Other towns	Total gminas
City counties
Łódź	293	764,168			1
Piotrków Trybunalski	67	79,367			1
Skierniewice	33	48,761			1
Land counties
Zgierz County powiat zgierski	854	160,805	Zgierz	Ozorków, Aleksandrów Łódzki, Głowno, Stryków	9
Sieradz County powiat sieradzki	1,491	121,013	Sieradz	Złoczew, Warta, Błaszki	11
Tomaszów Mazowiecki County powiat tomaszowski	1,026	120,973	Tomaszów Mazowiecki		11
Pabianice County powiat pabianicki	491	119,008	Pabianice	Konstantynów Łódzki	7
Radomsko County powiat radomszczański	1,443	118,856	Radomsko	Przedbórz, Kamieńsk	14
Bełchatów County powiat bełchatowski	969	112,640	Bełchatów	Zelów	8
Kutno County powiat kutnowski	886	104,124	Kutno	Żychlin, Krośniewice	11
Piotrków County powiat piotrkowski	1,429	90,227	Piotrków Trybunalski *	Sulejów, Wolbórz	11
Łowicz County powiat łowicki	987	82,338	Łowicz		10
Opoczno County powiat opoczyński	1,039	78,659	Opoczno	Drzewica	8
Wieluń County powiat wieluński	928	78,260	Wieluń		10
Zduńska Wola County powiat zduńskowolski	369	67,704	Zduńska Wola	Szadek	4
Łódź East County powiat łódzki wschodni	499	64,574	Łódź *	Koluszki, Tuszyn, Rzgów	6
Łęczyca County powiat łęczycki	774	53,435	Łęczyca		8
Pajęczno County powiat pajęczański	804	53,395	Pajęczno	Działoszyn	8
Łask County powiat łaski	617	50,874	Łask		5
Rawa County powiat rawski	647	49,443	Rawa Mazowiecka	Biała Rawska	6
Wieruszów County powiat wieruszowski	576	42,336	Wieruszów		7
Poddębice County powiat poddębicki	881	42,195	Poddębice	Uniejów	6
Skierniewice County powiat skierniewicki	756	37,779	Skierniewice *		9
Brzeziny County powiat brzeziński	359	30,600	Brzeziny		5
* seat not part of the county

Protected areas[]

Protected areas in Łódź Voivodeship include seven Landscape Parks, as listed below.

Bolimów Landscape Park (partly in Masovian Voivodeship)
Łódź Hills Landscape Park
Przedbórz Landscape Park (partly in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship)
Spała Landscape Park
Sulejów Landscape Park
Warta-Widawka Landscape Park
Załęcze Landscape Park (partly in Silesian Voivodeship)

History[]

For more details on this topic, see Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939).

Lodz Voivodship 1938 — Łódź Voivodeship 1921–1939

The capital of the Łódź Voivodeship has always been Łódź, but the area of land which it comprises has changed several times. The first was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Second Polish Republic in the years 1921–1939. In 1938 some western counties were ceded to Greater Poland Voivodeship (see: Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships on April 1, 1938).

After the change, Łódź Voivodeship's area was 20,446 km², and its population (as for 1931) was 2,650,100. It consisted of 15 powiats (counties):

Brzeziny county,
Końskie county,
Kutno county,
Łask county,
Łęczyca county,
Łowicz county,
city of Łódź county (powiat lodzki grodzki),
Łódź county,
Opoczno county,
Piotrków Trybunalski county,
Radomsko county,
Rawa Mazowiecka county,
Sieradz county,
Skierniewice county,
Wieluń county.

The largest cities of the Voivodeship were (population according to the 1931 census):

Łódź (pop. 604,600),
Piotrków Trybunalski (pop. 51,300),
Pabianice (pop. 45,700),
Tomaszów Mazowiecki (pop. 38,000),
Zgierz (pop. 26,600),
Kutno (pop. 23,400),
Radomsko (pop. 23,000).

Source: Maly rocznik statystyczny 1939, Nakladem Glownego Urzedu Statystycznego, Warszawa 1939 (Concise Statistical Year-Book of Poland, Warsaw 1939).

The next incarnation existed from 1945 until 1975 (although the city of Łódź was excluded as a separate City Voivodeship). This Łódź Voivodeship was then broken up, superseded by Łódź (see below), Sieradz, Piotrków Trybunalski, Skierniewice and partly Płock Voivodeships.

Lodz Voivodship 1975 — Łódź Voivodeship 1975–1998

Łódź Voivodeship, also known as Łódź Metropolitan Voivodeship (województwo miejskie łódzkie), existed from 1975 until 1998, after which it was incorporated into today's Łódź Voivodeship. In that period the mayor of the city of Łódź was also the voivodeship governor.

As of 1995, major cities and towns in Łódź Metropolitan Voivodeship included (with their 1995 populations):

Łódź (825,600);
Pabianice (75,700);
Zgierz (59,100);
Ozorków (21,900);
Aleksandrów Łódzki (20,400).

References[]

Notes

^ Arkadiusz Belczyk, Tłumaczenie polskich nazw geograficznych na język angielski [Translation of Polish Geographical Names into English], 2002-2006.
^ Stat.gov.pl

External links[]

See tourist information at Wikitravel:
Łódź (voivodeship)

Województwo Łódzkie Official website

Coordinates: 51°36′43″N 19°25′26″E / 51.61194, 19.42389

This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Łódź Voivodeship. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.

[1] Arkadiusz Belczyk, Tłumaczenie polskich nazw geograficznych na język angielski [Translation of Polish Geographical Names into English], 2002-2006.

[2] Stat.gov.pl

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