About the project and method

What it is

“Poland: A Self-Portrait” (“Polek i Polaków Portret Własny”) is a bilingual (polska.tkm.cc / poland.tkm.cc) infographic document in the style known from Visual Capitalist: a dozen or so chapters, several dozen charts, each with a source. It is addressed both to readers in Poland and to foreigners who have heard little about the country, or only half-century-old stereotypes. The aim is to show what Poland and its people are positively known for — their economic, scientific and cultural achievements — without omitting the dark sides, but without dramatising them either: against the world, Poland remains an oasis of social calm and relative prosperity.

Where the numbers come from

Every chart carries its source with a link and a date. We prefer primary and official sources: Statistics Poland (GUS), Eurostat, the IMF, the World Bank, the OECD, the National Bank of Poland, CBOS, NATO, UN agencies, and the institutes behind the rankings (IEP, RSF, Transparency International, WJP, Brand Finance, OSIS). Where a number comes from a secondary source or could not be confirmed in the original, we say so in a footnote under the chart. Where two sources give different values (e.g. public debt by Eurostat and by the national definition, defence spending by NATO and by the government), we give both with an explanation.

The figures were collected in August 2026 and checked in two independent passes (collection, then adversarial verification of each value against its source). Errors remain possible — every correction is visible in the project repository's history.

How the charts are made

The charts are generated automatically from one data file per chart (data, sources, descriptions in both languages), in a uniform visual style. The working version of each graphic is a simple, legible chart; for some of them polished illustrations are produced. Every chart can be downloaded as SVG (button under each chart) and the whole document as a PDF.

What is not here

This is neither an encyclopaedia of Poland nor an academic report. The choice of topics and indicators is the authors' own; we leave out what cannot be reliably measured or documented. We do not use numbers without a source, we do not round in favour of a thesis, and we do not hide data revisions.

Contact and rights

The project is run independently (tkm.cc) and will keep growing. Comments, corrections and suggestions for new threads: [email protected] — ideally with the figure number (e.g. "Fig. 15.4") and a link to the source. Texts and charts may be quoted with attribution; the underlying data remain the property of their publishers.