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A powiat (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (LAU-1 [formerly NUTS-4]) in other countries. The term " powiat" is most often translated into English as "county" or "district" (sometimes "poviat"). In historical contexts, this may be confusing because the Polish term hrabstwo (an administrative unit administered/owned by a hrabia (count) is also literally translated as "county".
A powiat is part of a larger unit, the voivodeship (Polish language województwo) or province.
A powiat is usually subdivided into (in English, often referred to as "communes" or "municipality"). Major towns and cities, however, function as separate counties in their own right, without subdivision into gminas. They are termed "city counties" ( powiaty grodzkie or, more formally, miasta na prawach powiatu) and have roughly the same status as former in the UK. The other type of powiats are termed "land counties" ( powiaty ziemskie).
As of 2018, there were 380 powiat-level entities: 314 land counties, and 66 city counties. For a complete alphabetical listing, see "List of Polish counties". For tables of counties by voivodeship, see the articles on the individual voivodeships (e.g., Greater Poland Voivodeship).
In the 19th century, the powiats continued to function in the part of Poland that had been incorporated into the Russian Empire and in the confederated "Congress Kingdom of Poland"—the equivalent of the Russian uyezd–and, in the German-governed Grand Duchy of Poznań, as the Polish equivalent of the German language Kreis.
After Poland regained independence in 1918, the powiats were again the second-level territorial units.
Powiats were abolished in 1975 in favour of a larger number of voivodeships but were reintroduced on 1 January 1999. This reform also created 16 larger voivodeships.
Sometimes, a powiat has its county seat outside its territory. For example, Poznań County ( powiat poznański) has its offices in Poznań, although Poznań is itself a city county, and is therefore not part of Poznań County.
Powiats have relatively limited powers since many local and regional matters are dealt with either at gmina or voivodeship level. Some of the main areas in which the powiat authorities have decision-making powers and competences include:
There is more than one way to render such names into English language. A common method is to translate the names as "(something County)", as in the examples above. (This system is the standard used in Wikipedia.) Thus in most cases, the English name for a powiat consists of the name of the city or town which is its seat, followed by the word County.
Different counties sometimes have the same name in Polish, since the names of different towns may have the same derived adjective. For example, the counties with their seats at Grodzisk Wielkopolski and Grodzisk Mazowiecki are both called powiat grodziski, and those with seats at Brzeg and Brzesko are both called powiat brzeski. In English, this ambiguity either does not occur (Brzeg County and Brzesko County) or can be avoided by using the complete name of the seat (Grodzisk Wielkopolski County and Grodzisk Mazowiecki County).
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