Demographics
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1700 | 30,000 | — |
| 1792 | 120,000 | +300.0% |
| 1800 | 63,400 | −47.2% |
| 1830 | 139,700 | +120.3% |
| 1850 | 163,600 | +17.1% |
| 1882 | 383,000 | +134.1% |
| 1901 | 711,988 | +85.9% |
| 1909 | 764,054 | +7.3% |
| 1925 | 1,003,000 | +31.3% |
| 1933 | 1,178,914 | +17.5% |
| 1939 | 1,300,000 | +10.3% |
| 1945 | 422,000 | −67.5% |
| 1950 | 803,800 | +90.5% |
| 1960 | 1,136,000 | +41.3% |
| 1970 | 1,315,600 | +15.8% |
| 1980 | 1,596,100 | +21.3% |
| 1990 | 1,655,700 | +3.7% |
| 2000 | 1,672,400 | +1.0% |
| 2002 | 1,688,200 | +0.9% |
| 2006 | 1,702,100 | +0.8% |
| 2009 | 1,714,466 | +0.7% |
| 2010 | 1,720,398 | +0.3% |
| 2011 | 1,708,491 | −0.7% |
| Note: 2006 2010 2011 | ||
Historically, Warsaw has been a destination for internal and foreign immigration, especially from Central and Eastern Europe. For nearly 300 years it was known as the "Paris of the North" or "Second Paris". It was always a centre of European culture, existed as a major European city, and was a destination for many Europeans. Demographically it was the most diverse city in Poland, with a significant numbers of foreign-born inhabitants. In addition to the Polish majority, there was a significant Jewish minority in Warsaw. According to Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 638,000, Jews constituted 219,000 (around 34% percent). Warsaw's prewar Jewish population of more than 350,000 constituted about 30 percent of the city's total population. In 1933 out of 1,178,914 inhabitants 833,500 were of Polish mother tongue. World War II changed all of this, and to this day there is much less ethnic diversity than in the previous 300 years of the city's history. Most of the modern day population growth is based on internal migration and urbanisation.
In 1939, ca. 1,300,000 people lived in Warsaw, but in 1945 – only 420,000. During the first years after the war, the population growth was ca. 6%, so shortly the city started to suffer from the lack of flats and of areas for new houses. The first remedial measure was the Warsaw area enlargement (1951) – but the city authorities were still forced to introduce residency registration limitations: only the spouses and children of the permanent residents as well as some persons of public importance (like renowned specialists) were allowed to get the registration, hence halving the population growth in the following years. It also bolstered some kind of conviction among Poles that Varsovians thought of themselves as better only because they lived in the capital. Unfortunately this belief still lives on in Poland (although not as much as it used to be) – even though since 1990 there are no limitations to residency registration anymore .
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