9 great facts about Poland’s economy and society that will change the way you think about this country

Is Poland experiencing a renaissance?

In her article named “The second Jagiellonian age” Vendeline von Bredow from „The Economist” says that since the 16th century, Poland has never been as wealthy, peaceful and strong as it is now.

Many foreign journalists and commentators notice that Poland becomes one of the world’s most important centers of innovation. Alison Coleman from Forbes enjoys watching our startups and explains the phenomenon: “Poland is rich in tech innovation and tech talent, and its economy is in reasonably good shape compared with other European countries.”

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Maybe, in fact, we DO have a renaissance in Poland, and it’s getting better all the time? To examine this assumption, we gathered a fistful of stats. The numbers don’t lie – we have reasons to be proud! See, what other countries can congratulate us, and why Polish people can (and should) be proud of.

So here you go, the most surprising facts about Poland!

1. Education at the highest level

In 2014, Pearsons gave Poland 10th place in education level rating Report The Learning Curve. It’s 5th rank in Europe! High standard of Polish education gets confirmed in other studies, like OECD’s in which Poland got 11th position.

It translated into Polish students’ successes in the international competitions. There is, for example, Wojtek Różowski: a 16 y.o. who won 2015 Young Scientist Fair E(x)plory, and right after, he went for gold in a prestigious Infomatrix World Finals in Bucharest (Source).

Polish education system delights also Amanda Ripley, the author of „The Smartest Kids in the World: and How They Got That Way”. She indicates the enormous progress our country made: “Poland is the surprise. Poland has dramatically improved its education system in the last few years. In terms of PISA scores, in 2000 Poland was below average in reading and below the U.S. Now it’s outperforming us in math, reading, and science, and this has all happened in six to nine years.” She also says that Polish 15-year olds results in PISA exams grew by 29 points in less than a decade, while young Americans’ stayed on the same level.

2. Best developers

World’s programming forefront is full of Polish developers: they win most important competitions like TopCoder, Google Code Jam, Facebook Hacker Cup or Capture the Flag (CTF).

There is no match for aces like Łukasz Sentkiewicz (Sky_) or Przemysław Dębiak (Psyho)!

Also, Polish students conquer worldwide Olympiads in Informatics.

3. Polish startups

Polish startups gain foreign observers’ attention for a long time, and they appreciate those startups’ innovation.

Let’s list some globally successful representatives:

Educational platform Brainly
Medical visit scheduling system DocPlanner – Internet go-between doctors and patients
Offline tracking beacons producer Kontakt.io (you can integrate them with Marketing Automation for an offline-online store synergy)
Atsora: communication tool for financial companies to connect with SMB/ small businesses
Voice identification app VoicePin
Breakthrough in robotics – Husarion: you can build your own robot (!)
New energetic solution: Olga Malinkiewicz’s Saule Technologies, introducing perowskit: Practical, elastic material, that accumulates solar energy.
Tylko: an app which allows you to design furniture – from A to izzard
SALESmanago: Marketing Automation software, offering unique features (such as SALESmanago Copernicus – Machine Learning & AI, integration with beacons for online tracking, anonymous marketing automation and real-time decision engine for multichannel marketing). In February 2016, the company closed a $6 million round of funding from 3TS Capital Partners. In 2015 SALESmanago generated over 200% growth in revenues in 2015, which makes us one of the world’s fastest growing SaaS companies.

4. M-commerce leader

Mobile commerce grows fast in our country and, according to forecast, Poland will become European leader in mobile retail by the end of 2018 when counting per capita value (Source: The New World of Retail whitepaper)

Generally speaking, new technologies adapt here fast. It worked for NFC: UK and Poland lead its growth in Europe.

Polish consumer wants to try novelties.

5. Rapid ecommerce growth

According to Gemius Report, Poland is one of the fastest developing ecommerce markets in EU, with the constant growth of 25% per year. When other EU countries grew by 16% in 2014, Polish ecommerce increased by 20%.

Justyna Skorupska from Deloitte talks about the new gen of Polish consumers: demanding, pre-researching and mobile.

6. Poland is an Eldorado for business growth

As McKinsey’s research claims, Poland has a great potential as a business of the future leader, i.e., in a service sector for companies. In Poland it grows twice as fast as in India.

It’s also the fastest growing branch of the Polish economy.

7. The only European country that escaped the crisis

This surprising fact drew the attention of many foreign commentators. Poland became a sanctuary for investors.

This fashion of describing our country choose e.g. John Derrick (Why We Invest Heavily in Poland) or Frank Holmes. The latter indicates permanent continuity of Polish development in Business Insider article: post-communist country becomes one of the wealthiest in Europe, next to UK, France, Germany and Spain.

8. Fastest economics improvement in EU

Let’s take a look at some facts: in the last 10 years, Polish economy grew constantly, and never reached negative value. It outrun all participating countries every time – says Frank Holmes.

The chart below pictures dynamics of Polish economics growth compared to the other EU countries.

source: Business Insider

9. One of the most interesting places to visit

Tourists love Poland! Cracow was named one of the prettiest cities of the world by CNN. In turn, Lonely Planet reveals, that attractive cities’ budget destroying crisis didn’t affect Poland.

With improved transportation infrastructure, Poland becomes a more-and-more desirable destination for faraway travelers!

Poland has a great potential! First of all – as a place for new technologies development that is caused by our high education level, dozens of great programmers and optimal environment of business growth and foreign investors attraction, and last, but not least – economic growth.

What would you add to the list?