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The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, similar to a
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminas include cities and towns, with 302 among them constituting an independent urban gmina ( pl, gmina miejska) consisting solely of a standalone town or one of the 107 cities, the latter governed by a city mayor (''prezydent miasta''). The gmina has been the basic unit of territorial division in Poland since 1974, when it replaced the smaller
gromada Gromada is a Polish word meaning "gathering", "group", or "assembly". In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the term referred to a village organization which embraced all the inhabitants of a village and acted as a local authority, as well a ...
(cluster). Three or more gminas make up a higher level unit called
powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powia ...
, except for those holding the status of a
city with powiat rights A city with powiat rights ( pl, miasto na prawach powiatu) is in Poland a designation denoting 66 of the 107 cities (the urban gminas which are governed by a city mayor or ''prezydent miasta'') which exercise also the powers and duties of a Powiat, ...
. Each and every powiat has the seat in a city or town, in the latter case either an urban gmina or a part of an urban-rural one.


Types

There are three types of gmina: #302 urban gmina ( pl, gmina miejska) constituted either by a standalone town or one of the 107 cities, the latter governed by a city mayor (prezydent miasta), including 66
cities with powiat rights A city with powiat rights ( pl, miasto na prawach powiatu) is in Poland a designation denoting 66 of the 107 cities (the urban gminas which are governed by a city mayor or ''prezydent miasta'') which exercise also the powers and duties of a county ...
#638 mixed urban-rural gmina ( pl, gmina miejsko-wiejska) consisting of a town and surrounding villages and countryside; other than
Gmina Nowe Skalmierzyce __NOTOC__ Gmina Nowe Skalmierzyce is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Ostrów Wielkopolski County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. In 1999 the administrative seat of the gmina was moved from the town of Nowe Ska ...
, seat of an urban-rural gmina is almost always located in the town #1537 rural gmina ( pl, gmina wiejska) consisting only of villages and countryside (occasionally of just one village). Some rural gminy have their seat in a
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 ...
which itself is outside of the gmina's territory. For example, the rural
Gmina Augustów __NOTOC__ Gmina Augustów is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Augustów County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Augustów, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina. The gmina cov ...
is administered from the town of
Augustów Augustów (; lt, Augustavas, formerly known in English as ''Augustovo'' or ''Augustowo'')" is a city in north-eastern Poland with 29,729 inhabitants as of December 2021. It lies on the Netta River and the Augustów Canal. It is situated in the ...
, but does not include the town, as Augustów is an urban type gmina in its own right. 107 urban gminas constitute cities, distinguished from towns through being governed by a city mayor (''prezydent miasta'') instead of a town mayor (burmistrz), the status awarded automatically to all urban gminas over 100,000 inhabitants or those with a status of a city with powiat rights, with some others allowed to retain the earlier awarded title due to historical reasons. 66 among the 107 cities (including all voivodeship seats and all cities over 100,000 inhabitants) have the special status of city with powiat rights (miasto na prawach powiatu). Such a city exercises also powers and duties of a powiat while not belonging to any; nevertheless, it may still be a seat of a regular powiat, albeit without belonging to it administratively (such powiat thus being often ″doughnut-shaped″). In such cities, the roles of the powiat organs are fulfilled by the ones of the urban gmina. ''For a complete listing of all the gminy in Poland, see
List of Polish gminas Poland has a three-tier administrative division since 1999. On the first level, Poland is divided into 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (Polish: ''województwa'', singular – ''województwo''). These are sub-divided in 380 List of counti ...
.''


Government

Polish gminas operate under a mayor-council government. The legislative and oversight body of each gmina is the elected municipal council (''rada gminy''), in an urban-rural gmina called the town and gmina council (''rada miasta i gminy''), while in an urban gmina it is called the town/city council (''rada miasta''). Any local laws considered non-compliant with the national ones may be invalidated by the respective
voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...
, whose rulings may be appealed to an administrative court. Decisions in individual cases may in turn be appealed to quasi-judicial bodies named , their ruling subject to appeal to an administrative court. Executive power is held in the municipality by a directly elected official, called ''
wójt Wójt is a Polish senior civil administrative officer and the highest representative of the government of a ''rural gmina'', i.e., of a commune (''gmina'') comprising only villages. (Heads of towns and cities are called "burgomaster" (Polish: ''bur ...
'' in rural gminy, a town
mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...
(''burmistrz'') in urban-rural and most urban gminas which contain towns, or a city mayor (''prezydent miasta'') in the 107 urban gminas containing cities, the status awarded automatically to all urban gminas over 100,000 inhabitants or those with a status of a city with powiat rights, with some others allowed to retain the earlier awarded title due to historical reasons. A town or city mayor may be scrutinized or denied funding for his/her projects by the council, but is not politically responsible to it and does not require its confidence to remain in office; therefore,
cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not married, usually couples, live together. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become increas ...
is not uncommon. In a
city with powiat rights A city with powiat rights ( pl, miasto na prawach powiatu) is in Poland a designation denoting 66 of the 107 cities (the urban gminas which are governed by a city mayor or ''prezydent miasta'') which exercise also the powers and duties of a Powiat, ...
, the city mayor additionally has the powers and duties of a powiat executive board and a
starosta The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. Th ...
, while the city council has the powers and duties of a powiat (county) council; both nevertheless being elected under the municipal election rules rather than those applicable to county elections. A
recall referendum A recall election (also called a recall referendum, recall petition or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a referendum before that official's term of off ...
may be triggered either in respect to the wójt/town mayor/city mayor or to the municipal council through a petition supported by at least 1/10 of eligible voters, but the turnout in the recall referendum must be at least 3/5 of the number of people voting in the original election in order for the referendum to be valid and binding. In addition, elected bodies of any municipality may be suspended by the
Prime Minister of Poland The President of the Council of Ministers ( pl, Prezes Rady Ministrów, lit=Chairman of the Council of Ministers), colloquially referred to as the prime minister (), is the head of the cabinet and the head of government of Poland. The responsibi ...
in case of persisting law transgressions or
negligence Negligence (Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate and/or ethical ruled care expected to be exercised amongst specified circumstances. The area of tort law known as ''negligence'' involves harm caused by failing to act as a ...
, resulting in such case in the municipality being placed under
receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
. A gmina may create auxiliary units (''jednostki pomocnicze''), which play a subordinate administrative role. In rural areas these are called sołectwa, in towns they may be dzielnice or osiedla and in an urban-rural gmina, the town itself may be designated as an auxiliary unit. The only gmina which is statutorily obliged to have auxiliary units is
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, which is divided since 2002 into 18 boroughs exercising some devolved powers, though not considered separate entities.


Administrative tasks and objectives

Each gmina carries out two classes of tasks: * own tasks – public tasks exercised by gmina as its inherent exclusive competence and financed by its own means, which serve to satisfy the needs of the community. * commissioned tasks – tasks of the central government, delegated entirely or partially to gminas, along with an appropriate mandatory government subvention to support them The tasks can be also divided into another two categories: * compulsory – where the municipality cannot abstain from carrying out the tasks, and must set up a budget to carry them out in order to provide the inhabitants with the basic public benefits * optional – where the municipality can carry them out in accordance with available budgetary means, set out only to specific local needs (on the gmina's own responsibility and budget).


Own tasks

Own tasks include matters such as spatial harmony, real estate management, environmental protection and nature conservation, water management, country roads, public streets, bridges, squares and traffic systems, water supply systems and source, the sewage system, removal of urban waste, water treatment, maintenance of cleanliness and order, sanitary facilities, dumps and council waste, supply of electric and thermal energy and gas, public transport, health care, welfare, care homes, subsidised housing, public education, cultural facilities including public libraries and other cultural institutions, historic monuments conservation and protection, the sports facilities and tourism including recreational grounds and devices, marketplaces and covered markets, green spaces and public parks, communal graveyards, public order and safety, fire and flood protection with equipment maintenance and storage, maintaining objects and devices of the public utility and administrative buildings, pro-family policy including social support for pregnant women, medical and legal care, supporting and popularising the self-government initiatives and cooperation within the commune including with non-governmental organizations, interaction with regional communities from other countries, etc.


Commissioned tasks

Commissioned tasks cover the remaining public tasks resulting from legitimate needs of the state, commissioned by central government for the units of local government to implement. The tasks are handed over on the basis of statutory by-laws, charters and regulations, or by way of agreements between the self-government units and central-government administration.


Overall number of gminy by type

Abbreviations used for voivodeships:
LS: Lower Silesian Voivodeship, KP: Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, LBL: Lublin Voivodeship, LBS: Lubusz Voivodeship,
ŁD: Łódź Voivodeship, LP: Lesser Poland Voivodeship, MS: Masovian Voivodeship, OP: Opole Voivodeship,
SK: Subcarpathian Voivodeship, PD: Podlaskie Voivodeship, PM: Pomeranian Voivodeship, SL: Silesian Voivodeship,
ŚWK: Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, WM: Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, GP: Greater Poland Voivodeship, WP: West Pomeranian Voivodeship.


Largest and smallest gminy


References


Official report from the Central Statistical Office of Poland
dated January 1, 2006, (pages 49–151, in Polish)


External links

{{Authority control Subdivisions of Poland Local government in Poland
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...