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POZNAN – Not too long ago, Poland was grappling with the rationing of essential commodities like sugar and flour, and its citizens earned a mere fraction of what their neighbors in West Germany received. Fast forward to today, and Poland finds itself at a remarkable economic milestone, having surpassed Switzerland to secure its place as the world’s 20th largest economy, boasting an impressive annual output of over $1 trillion.
This monumental economic shift from the post-Communist challenges of 1989-90 to its current standing as Europe’s growth leader offers valuable insights into how prosperity can be brought to the average citizen. This transformation has garnered attention not only from economists but also from the Trump administration, which advocates for Poland’s inclusion in the upcoming Group of 20 summit of leading economies.
The impact of this transformation is vividly illustrated through individuals like Joanna Kowalska, an engineer hailing from the bustling town of Poznan, nestled between Berlin and Warsaw. After spending five years in the United States, Kowalska chose to return to her roots in Poland.
“People often ask me if I regret coming back to Poland,” Kowalska remarked. “In truth, I feel we’ve surpassed the United States in many respects.”
Kowalska is part of the team at the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, where Poland’s technological advancements are on full display. The center is pioneering the nation’s first artificial intelligence factory, which is set to be integrated with a quantum computer—one of just ten across Europe funded by a European Union initiative.
Kowalska worked for Microsoft in the U.S. after graduating from the Poznan University of Technology in a job she saw as a “dream come true.”
But she missed having a “sense of mission,” she said.
“Especially when it comes to artificial intelligence, the technology started developing so rapidly in Poland,” Kowalska added. “So it was very tempting to come back.”
Multiple factors in breaking out of poverty
The guest invitation to the G20 summit is mostly symbolic; no guest country has been promoted to full member since the original G20 met at the finance minister level in 1999, and that would take a consensus decision of all the members. Moreover, the original countries were chosen not just by GDP rank, but by their “systemic significance” in the global economy.
But the gesture reflects a statistical truth: In 35 years — a little less than one person’s working lifetime — Poland’s per capita gross domestic product rose to $55,340 in 2025, or 85% of the EU average. That’s up from $6,730 in 1990, or 38% of the EU average and now roughly equal to Japan’s $52,039, according to International Monetary Fund figures measured in today’s dollars and adjusted for Poland’s lower cost of living.
Poland’s economy has grown an average 3.8% a year since joining the EU in 2004, easily beating the European average of 1.8%.
It wasn’t simply one factor that helped Poland break out of the poverty trap, says Marcin Piątkowski of Warsaw’s Kozminski University and author of a book on the country’s economic rise.
One of the most important factors was rapidly building a strong institutional framework for business, he said. That included independent courts, an anti-monopoly agency to ensure fair competition, and strong regulation to keep troubled banks from choking off credit.
As a result, the economy wasn’t hijacked by corrupt practices and oligarchs, as happened elsewhere in the post-Communist world.
Poland also benefited from billions of euros in EU aid, both before and after it joined the bloc in 2004 and gained access to its huge single market.
Above all, there was the broad consensus, from across the country’s political spectrum, that Poland’s long-term goal was joining the EU.
“Poles knew where they were going,” Piątkowski said. “Poland downloaded the institutions and the rules of the game, and even some cultural norms that the West spent 500 years developing.”
As oppressive as it was, communism contributed by breaking down old social barriers and opening higher education to factory and farmworkers who had no chance before. A post-Communist boom in higher education means half of young people now have degrees.
“Young Poles are, for instance, better educated than young Germans,” Piatkowski said, but earn half what Germans do. That’s “an unbeatable combination” for attracting investors, he said.
An electric bus ride to success
Solaris, a company founded in 1996 in Poznan by Krzysztof Olszewski, is one of the leading manufacturers of electric buses in Europe with a market share of around 15%. Its story shows one hallmark of Poland’s success: entrepreneurship, or the willingness to take risks and build something new.
Educated as an engineer under the Communist government, Olszewski opened a car repair shop where he used spare parts from West Germany to fix Polish cars. While most enterprises were nationalized, authorities gave permission to small-scale private workshops like his to operate, according to Katarzyna Szarzec, an economist at the Poznan University of Economics and Business. “These were enclaves of private entrepreneurship,” she said.
In 1996, Olszewski opened a subsidiary of the German bus company Neoplan and started producing for the Polish market.
“Poland’s entry to the EU in 2004 gave us credibility and access to a vast, open European market with the free movement of goods, services and people,” said Mateusz Figaszewski, responsible for institutional relations.
Then came a risky decision to start producing electric buses in 2011, a time when few in Europe were experimenting with the technology. Figaszewski said larger companies in the West had more to lose if switching to electric vehicles didn’t work out. “It became an opportunity to achieve technological leadership ahead of the market,” he said.
An aging population is still a challenge
Challenges still remain for Poland. Due to a low birth rate and an aging society, fewer workers will be able to support retirees. Average wages are lower than the EU average. While small and medium enterprises flourish, few have become global brands.
Poznan Mayor Jacek Jaśkowiak sees domestic innovation as a third wave in Poland’s post-socialist economic development. In the first wave, foreign countries opened factories in Poland in the early 1990s, taking advantage of a skilled local population.
Around the turn of the millennium, he said, Western companies brought more advanced branches, including finance, IT and engineering.
“Now it’s the time to start such sophisticated activities here,” Jaśkowiak says, adding that one of his main priorities is investing in universities.
“There is still much to do when it comes to innovation and technological progress,” added Szarzec, the Poznan economist. “But we keep climbing up on that ladder of added value. We’re no longer just a supplier of spare parts.”
Szarzec’s students say more needs to be done to reduce urban-rural inequalities, make housing affordable and support young people starting families. They say Poles need to acknowledge that immigrants, such as the millions of Ukrainians who fled the Russian invasion in 2022, contribute to economic development in an aging population.
“Poland has such a dynamic economy, with so many opportunities for development, that of course I am staying,” said Kazimierz Falak, 27, one of Szarzec’s graduate students. “Poland is promising.”
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McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany.
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