Atlas

Area codes
of Poland

A Polish number is nine digits dialled whole, and the first two are the zone: 22 is Warsaw, 12 Kraków, 61 Poznań, 58 Gdańsk. There are forty-nine, and they are the forty-nine voivodeships of 1975 to 1998, which the zones outlived: when the map of Poland was redrawn in 1999 the numbering stayed where it was. This map draws each zone on the gminas of its old voivodeship, coloured by the first digit.

Grouping
12 — Kraków13 — Krosno14 — Tarnów15 — Tarnobrzeg16 — Przemyśl17 — Rzeszów18 — Nowy Sącz22 — Warsaw23 — Ciechanów24 — Płock25 — Siedlce29 — Ostrołęka32 — Katowice33 — Bielsko-Biała34 — Częstochowa41 — Kielce42 — Łódź43 — Sieradz44 — Piotrków Trybunalski46 — Skierniewice48 — Radom52 — Bydgoszcz54 — Włocławek55 — Elbląg56 — Toruń58 — Gdańsk59 — Słupsk61 — Poznań62 — Kalisz63 — Konin65 — Leszno67 — Piła68 — Zielona Góra71 — Wrocław74 — Wałbrzych75 — Jelenia Góra76 — Legnica77 — Opole81 — Lublin82 — Chełm83 — Biała Podlaska84 — Zamość85 — Białystok86 — Łomża87 — Suwałki89 — Olsztyn91 — Szczecin94 — Koszalin95 — Gorzów Wielkopolski12Kraków13Krosno14Tarnów15Tarnobrzeg16Przemyśl17Rzeszów18Nowy Sącz22Warsaw23Ciechanów24Płock25Siedlce29Ostrołęka32Katowice33Bielsko-Biała34Częstochowa41Kielce42Łódź43Sieradz44Piotrków Trybunalski46Skierniewice48Radom52Bydgoszcz54Włocławek55Elbląg56Toruń58Gdańsk59Słupsk61Poznań62Kalisz63Konin65Leszno67Piła68Zielona Góra71Wrocław74Wałbrzych75Jelenia Góra76Legnica77Opole81Lublin82Chełm83Biała Podlaska84Zamość85Białystok86Łomża87Suwałki89Olsztyn91Szczecin94Koszalin95Gorzów Wielkopolski

How to read the map. Each patch is a zone and the numeral on it is the two digits every landline there begins with, named beneath for the city the zone is called after. The colour is the first digit, which the plan handed out by region in 1975: 1 is the south-east from Kraków to Przemyśl, 2 Mazovia around Warsaw, 3 Silesia, 4 Łódź and the centre, 5 the north from Bydgoszcz to Gdańsk, 6 Greater Poland and Lubusz, 7 Lower Silesia and Opole, 8 the east from Lublin up to Białystok and Olsztyn, 9 West Pomerania. Since 2005 there is no trunk 0 and the two digits are simply the start of the number.

Where the lines come from. The zones are the voivodeships of 1975 to 1998, one code each, and no boundary file has those any more. Polish Wikipedia's article on each old voivodeship links every gmina it had and lists its towns, so each zone is drawn as those gminas on today's boundaries. A gmina name that occurs in several places goes to the zone whose other gminas are nearest; a gmina no article names — merged or renamed since 1998 — takes the code of the nearest gmina that one does, and the build counts them. Where the regulator has since moved a gmina between zones, which it has done a few times to tidy the 1999 counties, the map is a year or two behind.

Sources. Codes: Wikipedia, Telephone numbers in Poland — the forty-nine zones and the cities they are named for. Zone composition: Wikipedia (Polish), the articles on the forty-nine voivodeships of 1975–1998, for the gminas and towns of each. Geometry: geoBoundaries, Poland ADM3 (simplified), gminas from OpenStreetMap under CC BY-SA; dissolved by zone and by region.