Lesser Poland Voivodeship

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was 40.4 billion € in 2018, accounting for 8.1% of the Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €19,700 or 65% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 72% of the EU average.[4]

The region's economy includes high technology, banking, chemical and metallurgical industries, coal, ore, food processing, and spirit and tobacco industries. The most industrialized city of the voivodeship is Kraków. The largest regional enterprise operates here, the Tadeusz Sendzimir Steelworks in Nowa Huta, employing 17,500 people. Another major industrial center is located in the west, in the neighborhood of Chrzanów (chiefly the production of railway engines) and Oświęcim (chemical works). Kraków Park Technologiczny, a special economic zone, has been established within the voivodeship. There are almost 210,000 registered economic entities operating in the voivodeship, mostly small and medium-sized, of which 234 belong to the state-owned sector. Foreign investment, growing in the region, reached approximately US$18.3 billion by the end of 2006.

130,000 students attend fifteen Kraków institutions of higher learning. The Jagiellonian University, the largest university in the city (44,200 students), was founded in 1364 as Cracow Academy. Nicolaus Copernicus and Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II) graduated from it. The AGH University of Science and Technology (29,800 students) is considered to be the best technical university in Poland. The Academy of Economics, the Pedagogical University, the Kraków University of Technology and the Agricultural Academy are also very highly regarded. There are also the Fine Arts Academy, the State Theatre University and the Musical Academy. Nowy Sącz has become a major educational center in the region thanks to its Higher School of Business and Administration, with an American curriculum, founded in 1992. The school has 4,500 students. There are also two private higher schools in Tarnów.

Located in Southern Poland, Lesser Poland is the warmest place in Poland with average summer temperatures between 23 °C (73 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F) during the day, often reaching 32 °C (90 °F) to 38 °C (100 °F) in July and August, the two warmest months of the year. The city of Tarnów, which is located in Lesser Poland, is the hottest place in Poland all year round, average temperatures being around 25 °C (77 °F) during the day in the three summer months and 3 °C (37 °F) during the day in the three winter months. In the winter the weather patterns alter each year; usually winters are mildly cold with temperatures ranging from −7 °C (19 °F) to 4 °C (39 °F), but the winter season changes often to a more humid and warmer winter, or more continental and cold, depending on the many various wind patterns that affect Poland from different regions of the world. Błędów Desert, the only desert in Poland, is located in Lesser Poland, where temperatures can often reach 38 °C (100 °F) in the summer.

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Four national parks and numerous reserves have been established in the voivodeship to protect the environment of Lesser Poland. The region has areas for tourism and recreation, including Zakopane (Poland's most popular winter resort) and the Tatra, Pieniny and Beskidy Mountains. The natural landscape features many historic sites. The salt mine at Wieliczka, the pilgrimage town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Kraków's Old Town are ranked by UNESCO among the most precious sites of world heritage. At Wadowice, birthplace of John Paul II (50 kilometers southwest of Kraków) is a museum dedicated to the late Pope's childhood. The area of Oświęcim, with the former Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz-I and Auschwitz-II-Birkenau, as well as the Auschwitz Jewish Center, is visited annually by a million people. Another tourist destination is the town of Bochnia with its salt mine, Europe's oldest.

Kraków, capital of Lesser Poland

Tarnów

Nowy Sącz

Oświęcim

Chrzanów

Olkusz

Nowy Targ

Bochnia

The voivodeship contains 4 cities and 58 towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2019[3]):

Lesser Poland Voivodeship is divided into 22 counties (powiats): 3 city counties and 19 land counties. These are further divided into 182 gminas.

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

The spa town of Szczawnica in the Pieniny Mountains

Czarny Staw in the High Tatras

Protected areas in Lesser Poland Voivodeship include six National Parks and 11 Landscape Parks. These are listed below.

• Babia Góra National Park (a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve)
• Gorce National Park
• Magura National Park (partly in Subcarpathian Voivodeship)
• Ojców National Park
• Pieniny National Park
• Tatra National Park (part of a UNESCO biosphere reserve shared with Slovakia)
• Bielany-Tyniec Landscape Park
• Ciężkowice-Rożnów Landscape Park
• Dłubnia Landscape Park
• Eagle Nests Landscape Park (partly in Silesian Voivodeship)
• Kraków Valleys Landscape Park
• Little Beskids Landscape Park (partly in Silesian Voivodeship)
• Pasmo Brzanki Landscape Park (partly in Subcarpathian Voivodeship)
• Poprad Landscape Park
• Rudno Landscape Park
• Tenczynek Landscape Park
• Wiśnicz-Lipnica Landscape Park

Lesser Poland Voivodeship's symbols can be blazoned as follows:

Coat of arms: A traditional Iberian shield gules, an eagle argent displayed armed, legged, beaked, langued and crowned Or.

Flag: Per fess argent and gules, a narrow fess Or.

1. Nowak: 23,671
2. Wójcik: 13,347
3. Zając: 10,206

The Lesser Poland Voivodeships has partnerships with the following regions:[5]

In February 2020, the French region of Centre-Val de Loire suspended its partnership with the Lesser Poland Voivodeship as a response to the anti-LGBT resolution passed by the voivodeship's authorities.[6][7][8] In September 2021, the voivodeships's authorities revoked the controversial declaration.[9]

• Second Polish Republic’s Kraków Voivodeship (1919–1939)
• Lesser Polish Way

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lesser Poland Voivodeship.

• Małopolskie Voivodship Official Site
• Photo- and Topographic Maps of the whole region
• Poland - Climate
• Agency for Regional Development of Lesser Poland - MARR
• Tourism Information of Małopolskie Voivodship
• Małopolska Province invites
• Photos of Krakow, Tatry, Zakopane
• Info about the Smaller Poland - Malopolska Province