Which country has the largest population of Polish descent outside Poland?

The United States has the largest population of people of Polish descent outside Poland.

Polish migration to the United States occurred in several major waves. Economic migrants arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially from territories then ruled by the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires. After the Second World War and during the Cold War, political refugees and later family-based migrants added to the community.

Polish Americans became especially concentrated in the industrial Midwest and Northeast. Chicago developed one of the most prominent Polish communities outside Poland, while substantial populations also formed in Detroit, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York, and parts of Pennsylvania and New England.

The wording refers to ancestry, not simply people born in Poland or Polish citizens living abroad. Census results depend on whether respondents report Polish ancestry alone or alongside another background, so totals vary by definition. That is why country comparisons can produce different estimates even though the United States is the standard answer.