Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s economy did not become the 20th largest in the world last year – and is not expected to reach that position until 2028 – new figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicate.
Last October, the IMF’s regularly published World Economic Outlook forecast that the size of Poland’s economy would reach €1.04 trillion by the end of 2025, overtaking Switzerland’s (€1.00 trillion) to become the world’s 20th largest.
However, the IMF’s latest figures indicate that, while Poland’s GDP did reach $1.036 trillion in 2025, that was slightly lower than Switzerland’s $1.044 trillion.
The IMF forecasts that Switzerland’s economy will remain larger than Poland’s in 2026 and 2027, but that Poland will then overtake it in 2028. However, Poland will remain significantly behind the 18th and 19th largest global economies, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.
Poland and Switzerland’s GDP (source: IMF)
Those data relate to the overall size of a country’s economy and do not take into account population size. Switzerland, with a population of around 9 million, will continue to have a much larger GDP per person than Poland, with a population of around 37 million.
In terms of GDP per capita, Poland ranks 47th in the world ($31,340), according to the IMF’s estimate for 2026.
That places it just ahead of Slovakia ($31,240) and Croatia ($30,030) and behind Portugal ($35,430), Japan ($35,700), Lithuania ($36,540), Estonia ($37,720) and the Czech Republic ($39,800).
When the IMF last year forecast that Poland would in 2025 join the world’s top 20 economies, it drew enormous attention, with many media outlets and politicians treating it as an established fact rather than a prediction.
The figure also led to renewed calls for Poland to be granted membership of the G20, a group of leading global economies. Membership of the G20 is not, however, decided by whether a country ranks among the world’s 20 largest economies.
This year, Poland will attend the G20 summit as a guest after being invited by the United States, which is hosting the event. After the IMF’s latest update to its figures, finance minister Andrzej Domański told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that it does not change Poland’s ambition to become a full G20 member.
The US has invited Poland to attend next year’s G20 summit in Miami, saying it has earned a place there after recently joining the world’s 20 largest economies.
G20 member South Africa, meanwhile, will not be invited amid ongoing tensions with Washington https://t.co/3imjZ4VsJg
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 4, 2025
Regardless of Poland’s position in the ranking, however, the IMF’s figures confirm that the country is continuing to enjoy rapid economic growth and that its economy last year surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time.
The IMF notes that the Polish economy grew 3.6% in 2025. That was the fourth-highest rate in the European Union, behind Ireland (12.3%), Malta (4.0%) and Cyprus (3.8%). Ireland’s growth figure, however, is distorted by the activities of multinational companies, while Malta and Cyprus both have relatively small economies.
The IMF forecasts that Poland’s economy will grow 3.3% in 2026, well above the figure of 1.3% for Europe as a whole.
Figures released by Eurostat last month showed that Poland’s economy has moved closer than ever to the European Union average. Its GDP per capita adjusted for differences in cost of living (so-called purchasing power standard, or PPS) reached 81% of the EU-wide figure in 2025.
Poland’s economy has moved closer than ever to the EU average, new @EU_Eurostat data show.
Its GDP per capita, adjusted for cost of living, reached 81% of the EU average in 2025. That is Poland's highest ever figure, and up from 44% three decades ago https://t.co/DCTyps6uDT
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 26, 2026
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Jakub Żerdzicki/Unsplash
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
