Is Poland a poor country?

There's not a unified, global system for establishing a stars meaning. You've got the Michelin system, which accounts for things like elevators and parking, thus excluding a large number of smaller, local, "boutique" hotels. I would use tripadvisor.com or similar sites to get reviews from other travelers pertaining to such-and-such hotel.

Probably not. Star ratings of hotels differ widely throughout the World.

Poland is such a poor country. Unemployed person in Greece gets more money than I for full time job and we have higher prices compared to them and fuel is also getting to 6zl which is 1.5 euro.

That is really cheap for gas, here we can pay up 4$ at some places although it has been coming down.

Per gallon or liter?

Poland four star is a nice hotel- usually with a pool but it is not the same as a four star in the west. A three star is something like Journey's End or best western- here a three star is a crap shoot. You may get nice but you may not. Take the advice and check reviews on tripadvisor or booking.- they are there to help.

Per gallon.

Absolutely true. The star system in Poland is completely inconsistent. In my little town there's a no-star hotel which is better than many three-star dumps I've used. Four-star places are usually not worth the extra. When travelling in PL I check out the websites of three-star places. You can often get a vibe from how much care they take in putting their site together.

Per Gallon that is how people in Poland measure their gas also right?

Wrong. Per liter. About 5 to the gallon.

$6.35/(us)gallon.

US gallon= 3.79 Litres

UK/Imperial Gallon=4.54 Litres

Here's the latest list of EU countries by GDP (PPP) per capita (an indicator of a country's standard of living). Poland comes 22nd out of 27 member states.

Luxembourg 80,119 Intl. $
Netherlands 42,183
Austria 41,822
Sweden 40,394
Ireland 39,639
Germany 37,897
Belgium 37,737
Denmark 37,152
Finland 36,236
United Kingdom 36,090
France 35,156
Spain 30,626
Italy 30,462
...................................................
Cyprus 29,074
Slovenia 28,642
Czech Republic 27,062
Greece 26,294
Malta 25,428
Portugal 23,361
Slovakia 23,304
Estonia 20,380
Poland 20,334
..................................................
Hungary 19,591
Lithuania 18,856
Latvia 15,662
Bulgaria 13,597
Romania 12,476

I think with those figures, what drags it down a lot is the presence of many small "farmers".

Either way, it means Poland isn't exactly poor.

To put it in perspective, that group of 27 countries is the richest and most highly developed region of our planet.

Seriously? I'm not so sure that the definition of "poor" should mean "anything less than the very best and brand new."

What I always say is that Poland is not an especially poor country but the great majority of Poles feel subjectively poor. This has little to do with actual privation and a lot to do with not being able to afford the newest and most expensive products in every single area.

Partly this is the Polish tendency to divide the world into two spheres, rich (the absolute richest countries in the world) and poor (everybody else).

Driving a car for five years instead of trading in each and every year is hardly a sign of true poverty. Endemic malnutrition and lack of basic infrastructure like running water and electricity are.

The main difference I found (mainly with private owned accommodation, not necessarily hotels) is that in "western style" accommodation you will have towels, toiletries, tea/coffee, hair dryer, iron etc (+ all, or at least most, utensils you need if renting apartment/ suite). I recently spent holidays in Poland (we usually stay in apartments, as having small kid we value space...). In Poland, lots of places still don't give you those little things that make your stay more pleasant. They sometimes provide them on request.

I didn't see too much of difference in case of hotels, if anything, 3-4 star hotel in Poland will be slightly better than UK fro example.

yes,,so, as far as the EU is concerned, Poland is Poor,end of story. yawn,,get over it.

What's that?

that's a quote from a previous poster JoshuaT

Thanks, I missed that.

i know what you wanted to say. Its about current development of Poland... `How did the mighty fallen`... just crossed my mind. Its paradox that Poland which has older and deeper culture then western European countries happen to be poorer then those countries


on the other side, you have it anywhere in the world

mochadot18
WTF u talking? its NY and he means a litre not a gallon...1 gallon = 4 litres go figure missy:)In Nj we get 3.47 a gal meaningless then a buck for litre so almost half the price:))

the definition of poverty is not to be able to meet ones most basic needs. .... if you have a roof over your head clothes on your back and food in your belly you are not poor.

Poland is not a third world country the majority of the populations basic needs are met and those who cannot meet their own basic needs can find help to do it, poland is not poor.

So there lies the problem. Not comparing like with like. For example a minimum expectation would be to have toilet within your apartment, not a communal one. How many apartments don't have a bath/shower? A good few from what I have seen is Poznan.

But Poland isn't a poor country, there is just a massive gap between the haves and have nots. And as for a the minimum wage, there appears to be ways to circumvent this!

Where on earth are you seeing such apartments? There was never many built like that in Poznan - Warsaw had some, but Poznan never did.


There is no way to circumvent it that wouldn't immediately result in the business owner getting into considerable trouble with the labour authorities.

Only the very, very old ones, where ownership is in doubt, so no-one maintains them.
They should be demolished anyway.
Haven't seen many of them in Poland.
As a matter of fact, I saw some in London too, also occupied by squatters.

while i don't know the accuracy of what you are saying in regards to not everyone having an individual toilet... it is not a minimum requirement of basic needs. Basic needs are ones that human beings need to survive Food Shelter Water and depending where you live clothing for coverage in harsh conditions in those most basic terms even indoor plumbing is a luxury most countries do not afford so on a world view like that having to share a toilet is much better than not having one, and doesnt make you poor.

for a world view.. according to the u.n a poor country would be defined as one where most of the inhabitants live on less than 1 american dollar a day. This would be insufficient for covering ones basic needs. The poorest countries in the world are ones with a higher percentage of population living below this threshold. For the sake of knowledge these are the 20 poorest countries in the world.

1)Democratic republic of the condo
2)Liberia
3)Zimbabwe
4)Burundi
5)Eritrea
6)Central African Republic
7)Niger
8)Sierra Leone
9)Malawi
10)Togo
11)Madagascar
12)Afghanistan
13)Guinea
14)Mozambique
15)Ethiopia
16)Mali
17)Guinea-Bisseau
18)Comoros
19)Haiti
20)Uganda
Poland doesn't even come close... number 20's GDP per capita 956$ Poland GDP per capita 20 100 $

Poland is not a poor country- but it has many poor people according to western standards.