Today, Poland’s economy is the 20th largest globally, 6th in the European Union, and first in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), with a 37% share of the CEE region’s total GDP ($2.7 T in 2025). As McKinsey & Company notes in the Poland 2030 report, Poland’s economic development over the past few decades has been impressive. In fact, the country has shown unique economic performance since the 1990s. Since the transformations that began after the end of the Cold War, Poland’s economy has grown continuously, becoming the largest contributor to the European Union’s GDP in the CEE region.

This economic transformation is also clearly visible in the country’s GDP growth graph spanning 1980 to 2030. Over this period, Poland has risen from just a few thousand dollars in GDP per capita to over $45,000 on a purchasing power parity basis (World Bank, 2024), or as high as $59,800 according to IMF estimates for 2026, a divergence reflecting standard methodological variations in basket pricing between the two institutions. These figures reflect far more than numerical progress. They represent new infrastructure, expanding cities, increasing wages, and a nation that has rapidly redefined its position within Europe’s economic landscape.

Source: World Bank (WDI), OECD, IMF – via Trading Economics (LinkedIn)

As the historical trend shows, Poland’s GDP per capita (PPP) has surged from post-transition levels, reflecting a fully mature economy that no longer needs to chase European champions but charts its own development path. Estimates from major global financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and Statista, confirm Poland’s continued ascent on the world stage. Driven by expanding industrial output and high-value service exports, Poland’s nominal GDP reached $980 billion in 2025. As shown in the chart below, this milestone firmly places Poland in the global top tier, just ahead of Switzerland and steadily narrowing the gap with economies such as Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

Source: Statista

In recent years, like the rest of the world, Poland’s economy was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but it handled global crises exceptionally well. Poland was the only EU country to avoid recession during and after the 2007–2009 financial crisis, and as McKinsey & Company notes (download the full report here), Poland was one of the fastest-growing economies worldwide pre-crisis and the fastest-growing economy in post-crisis Europe.

A similar view is presented in the recent ING report. In the mid-1990s, Poland’s GDP per capita (PPP) was less than 44% of the EU average. By the time it joined the European Union in 2004, it had risen to nearly 52% of the EU27 average, and by 2024, it had reached almost 80%. This reflects a significant narrowing of the development gap between Poland and more advanced economies such as the Czech Republic and Spain, which Poland was clearly lagging behind two decades ago.

Source: Engines of Polish economic growth: Concerns and postulates of businesses | ING Report

The same applies to the COVID-19 crisis. Poland’s GDP in 2020 fell by the smallest amount in Europe (-2.0%), followed by 6.8% growth in 2021 and 4.9% growth in 2022; the Polish economy once again proved its outstanding resilience. In 2023, GDP growth declined across the European Union, with Poland registering 0.2% growth, slightly below the Eurozone average of 0.4%. Also, KPMG projections suggest that Poland’s real GDP is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 2.2% from 2023 to 2050.

Source: Investment in Poland, KPMG

Poland’s economic progress since the end of the 20th century is reflected not only in publicly available statistics but also in many international rankings. As early as 2014, Bloomberg ranked Poland as the best country for business in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Four years later, in 2018, Bloomberg ranked Poland No. 4 in the world among the most attractive emerging markets, and in 2021, after analyzing 111 countries, the same broadcaster introduced Poland as the 23rd most innovative economy in the world (for more details, download the Invest in Digital Poland report here). Furthermore, in 2020, the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute placed Poland among the top 33% of the world’s most entrepreneurial and digital countries.

Three years later, Deloitte published its 2023 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Survey. The consultancy surveyed companies in six industries (retail, energy, technology, healthcare, financial services, and public services) about service centers, which global firms use to outsource tasks such as accounting, human resources, and IT. Poland was the second most popular location for companies to establish service centers. The only other European countries in the top ten were Spain and Portugal, in 9th and 10th, respectively.

A year later, CEOWORLD magazine ranked Poland in the Top 10 in its World’s Best Countries To Invest In Or Do Business For 2024. Poland ranked 3rd among all European countries.  It is even more important that CEOWORLD magazine experts ranked and analyzed 80 countries according to their business and investment environment – the survey was based on 11 different factors, including corruption, freedom (personal, trade, and monetary), workforce, investor protection, infrastructure, taxes, quality of life, red tape, and technological readiness.

Good global ratings for Poland’s economy are based, among others, on the fact that Poland has become ever more modern and advanced over time. As Bloomberg points out, “traditional economy" industries and banks that have previously dominated the stock market index of the twenty largest companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange are gradually losing their weight. Meanwhile, tech companies in sectors such as telecoms, gaming, IT, and e-commerce are growing in strength.

The increasingly innovative nature of Poland’s economy – together, of course, with its increasingly solid foundations – means, as we have already mentioned, that Poland is coping much better than many other countries with challenges such as the crisis caused by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. Moreover, according to the World Bank, the Polish economy was not only more resistant to the COVID pandemic than other countries in the region but also benefited from the crisis (see NFP’s article here). Many global manufacturing and service companies are seeking additional savings as a result of the crisis, e.g., by moving some of their operations to countries with lower employment costs (see, for example, the decisions by Alstom, Santander, Netflix, or Volvo, which we cover in our News section).

The IT industry is one of the best examples. The pandemic has confirmed that remote work can be implemented much more broadly than previously thought, stimulating cooperation with contractors from different countries and continents. Therefore, the COVID-19 impact on the Software House industry in Poland report (available to download here) notes, among other things, the fast development of outsourcing from the second half of 2020 (which is a kind of repeat of the years 2000 and 2009) and states that the Polish IT sector will surely be a beneficiary again. This thesis is confirmed by the data from the report The IT/ICT Sector in Poland – report 2023, which shows that the total number of companies operating in the ICT sector in Poland after 2021 exceeded 100 000. The value of telecommunications and IT services provided to foreign partners, either by Polish companies themselves or foreign entities registered in Poland, reached a historic high of nearly EUR 10 billion in 2021. This is an almost 90% increase when compared to 2017 figures.

Another Tech industry in Poland that has not been affected by the COVID-19 crisis is GameDev. According to The Game Industry of Poland – report 2025, this industry has continued to grow in recent years and currently employs 15,000 people – this is the best result in the entire European Union. Poland exports 97% of its production, with many game titles achieving global sales of more than one million copies. As a result, the Polish GameDev industry’s revenues grew by 250% over the last five years and continue to grow.

Poland also remains one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business (given all the factors involved). This is manifested, for example, in the growing number of newly created startups, including those with high innovation potential. According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022, Poland’s economic growth and talented entrepreneurs indicate that the country has a strong foundation for powerful startup ecosystems. In the newest report, Poland’s startup ecosystem ranks 34th globally. Poland ranks 12th for R&D branches from major tech firms like IBM and Intel, and 14th in the capitalization of tech public companies.

This trend is difficult to stop, even amid global crises, since, as shown by the European Business and Innovation Center Network, scenario analyses by economic institutions and organizations at the continental level point to a possible future progression of the Polish startup ecosystem. Examples of this trend are easy to find, among others, in the Digital Champions CEE Report 2026, which states that almost one in two companies in the ranking of the 100 largest innovative technology companies in the CEE region comes from Poland. The Polish cohort is dominated by leaders in Enterprise Software (SaaS), E-commerce solutions, and Game Development, making Poland a booming hub for the ICT industry.

Source: Digital Champions CEE 2024

The same trend is evident in the growing number of new branches by international companies, which gain savings and other important operational benefits by locating their operations in Poland. These benefits are not as readily available in other parts of the world popular with investors. As Reuters reported, while service centers in Asia can offer lower costs, Central and Eastern Europe offers geographical and time-zone proximity to Western Europe and North America, with a deep pool of multilingual workers. Poland offers the highest familiarity and proximity to Western Europe, along with a deep cultural connection with the U.S. Combined with EU legal protection, this makes Poland a safer investment destination with less perceived risk.

Of course, the IT industry is no exception in this regard – for foreign investors, it remains one of the most attractive sectors due to its strong position, international reputation, and the location of R&D activities in the region by global corporations such as Google, Samsung, Microsoft, or Netflix. According to Emerging Europe’s IT Landscape: Future of IT report from 2026, Poland is home to the most competitive IT sector of all 23 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and “a leading player in the region”. The country ranks 3rd in Emerging Europe’s IT Competitiveness Index, leading the region in ICT employment, ICT value-added, and exports. Moreover, investments in remote engineering teams in Poland are further supported by a large number of people with high-quality STEM competencies and the strong reputation of Polish IT professionals (for more details, go here). Additionally, Poland is an ideal location for IT companies that want to leverage a local branch to run sales across the European Union and process data in a country with the required data protection and privacy regulations (GDPR). Consequently, the Polish economy offers a highly conducive environment for growth for international Tech companies, whether major players or those planning to expand into global markets.