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Żywiec County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (
) in
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...
, southern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, on the
Slovak border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the
Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is
Żywiec, which lies south of the regional capital
Katowice
Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
.
The county covers an area of . As of 2019 its total population is 152,877, out of which the population of Żywiec is 31,194 and the rural population is 121,683.
The county includes part of the
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...
known as
Żywiec Landscape Park.
Neighbouring counties
Żywiec County is bordered by
Cieszyn County to the west, the city of
Bielsko-Biała
Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...
and
Bielsko County to the north,
Wadowice County to the north-east, and
Sucha County to the east. It also borders
Slovakia
Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...
to the south.
Administrative division
The county is subdivided into 15
gmina
The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...
s (one urban and 14 rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zywiec County
Land counties of Silesian Voivodeship