According to the national law, settlement units or localities (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

: ''miejscowość'') are broadely classified in Poland as one of the following:Główny Urząd Statystyczny - Bank Danych Lokalnych: "Miejscowość statystyczna"
/ref> :a) a principal locality ''(miejscowość podstawowa)'' - an independent locality, e.g. a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

or a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

, all of them are always principal localities, and :b) a part of a locality ''(część miejscowości)'' - an officially named, non-independent integral part of a city/town, a village or other principal locality, distinguished from other parts of the principal locality by a separate name or type - e.g. a quarter ( dzielnica), always an integral part of a city or a town Some of the types, namely a

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fina ...

, a

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

, a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural are ...

and a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

, can be either a principal locality (rural only) or a part of a locality, the latter within any rural or urban principal locality in the case of a

, within a city/town or a village in the case of a

and a

, or within a village only in the case of a

Statistics by type

In 2015 there was 103,086 official names of localities and their parts, including (23 types): * 915 names of cities and towns ''(miasto)''; see ''

list of cities and towns in Poland This is a list of cities and towns in Poland, consisting of four sections: the full list of all 107 cities in Poland by size, followed by a description of the principal metropolitan areas of the country, the table of the most populated cities and ...

'' for their subtypes, : 6,710 names of parts of cities or towns ''(część miasta)'', usually quarters ( dzielnica) or neighbourhoods ( osiedle), sometimes also settlements (''osada miejska'') or colonies (''kolonia miejska''); other locally defined types are also allowed in cities and towns along those named in the national law, through these are rare, * 43,069 names of villages ''(wieś)'', : 36,262 names of parts of villages ''(część wsi)'', : 520 names of settlements of villages ''(osada wsi)'', : 974 names of colonies of villages ''(kolonia wsi)'', : 224 names of forest settlements of villages ''(osada leśna wsi)'', : 5 names of neighbourhoods of villages ''(osiedle wsi)'', : 4,619 names of hamlets of villages ''(przysiółek wsi)'', * 5,132 names of settlements ''(osada)'', : 10 names of parts of settlements ''(część osady)'', : 3 names of settlements of settlements ''(osada osady)'', : 6 names of colonies of settlements ''(kolonia osady)'', : 56 names of hamlets of settlements ''(przysiółek osady)'', * 2,203 names of colonies ''(kolonia)'', : 200 names of parts of colonies ''(część kolonii)'', : 0 names of settlements of colonies ''(osada kolonii)'', : 11 names of colonies of colonies ''(kolonia kolonii)'', : 41 names of hamlets of colonies ''(przysiółek kolonii)'', * 1,966 names of forest settlements ''(osada leśna)'', * 5 names of neighbourhoods ''(osiedle)'', * 133 names of hamlets ''(przysiółek)'', * 22 names of tourist refuges ''(schronisko turystyczne)''. Thus, there are 53,445 of independent localities, called principal localities (8 types: " urban" - cities/towns, "

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

" - villages, settlements, colonies, forest settlements, neighbourhoods, hamlets and tourist refuges) and 49,641 of non-independent localities which are integral parts of principal localities (15 types: "urban" - parts of cities and towns, "rural" - parts of villages, settlements of villages, colonies of villages, forest settlements of villages, neighbourhoods of villages, hamlets of villages, parts of settlements, settlements of settlements, colonies of settlements, hamlets of settlements, parts of colonies, settlements of colonies, colonies of colonies and hamlets of colonies). A

statistical Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...

locality ''(miejscowość statystyczna)'' is a separated collection of several localities (out of all 23 types) for statistical purposes, for which statistical data are collected and compiled together. In a special case, the team may contain only one locality. There are two types of statistical localities: : I - city/town ''(miasto)'' including one "urban" principal locality and their integral parts, and : II - rural locality ''(miejscowość wiejska)'' including at least one "rural" principal locality and their integral parts. In 2011 there was 42,490 of statistical localities.Ludność w miejscowościach statystycznych według ekonomicznych grup wieku. Stan w dniu 31.03.2011 r.
/ref> Thus, a large number (approx. 11,000) of the "rural" principal localities is taken together under the statistical localities (however, this data do not stipulate how many of tham are fully uninhabited).

References

{{Reflist Types of populated places Rural geography