The :Category:Polish historical regions|Polish historical region that encompasses Lublin, and approximates Lublin Voivodeship as it was before the Partitions of Poland, is known as Lubelszczyzna. Provinces centred on Lublin have existed throughout much of Poland's history; for details see the section below on [|Previous Lublin Voivodeships]. The region was, before World War II, one of the world's leading centres of Judaism. Before the middle of the 16th century, there were few Jews in the area, concentrated in Lublin, Kazimierz Dolny, and perhaps Chełm; but the founding of new private towns led to a large movement of Jews into the region to develop trade and services. Since these new towns competed with the existing towns for business, there followed a low-intensity, long-lasting feeling of resentment, with failed attempts to limit the Jewish immigration. The Jews tended to settle mostly in the cities and towns, with only individual families setting up businesses in the rural regions; this urban/rural division became another factor feeding resentment of the newly arrived economic competitors. By the middle of the 18th century, Jews were a significant part of the population in Kraśnik, Lubartów and Łęczna. By the 20th century, Jews represented greater than 70% of the population in eleven towns and close to 100% of the population of Laszczów and Izbica. From this region came both religious figures such as Mordechai Josef Leiner of Izbica, Chaim Israel Morgenstern of Puławy, and Motele Rokeach of Biłgoraj, as well as famous secular authors Israel Joshua Singer. Israel's brother, the Nobel prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, was not born in Biłgoraj but lived part of his life in the city. The "Old Town" of the city of Lublin contained a famous yeshiva, Jewish hospital, synagogue, cemetery, and kahal, as well as the Grodzka Gate. Before the war, there were 300,000 Jews living in the region, which became the site of the Majdanek concentration camp and Bełżec extermination camp as well as several labour camps. This was once one of the biggest forced labour centres in occupied Europe, with approximately 45,000 Jewish prisoners. As well, the Sobibór extermination camp was located in the Lublin Voivodeship. After the war, the few surviving Jews largely left the area; today there is some restoration of areas of Jewish historical interest, and a surge of tourism by Jews seeking to view their families' historical roots.
Cities and towns
The voivodeship contains 42 cities and towns. These are listed below in descending order of population (according to official figures for 2006:
Administrative division
Lublin Voivodeship is divided into 24 counties : 4 city counties and 20 land counties. These are further divided into 213 gminas. The counties are listed in the following table.
Protected areas
s in Lublin Voivodeship include two National Parks and 17 Landscape Parks. These are listed below.
The Gross domestic product of the province was 18.5 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 3.7% of Polish economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 14,400 euros or 48% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 54% of the EU average. Lublin Voivodship is the province with the lowest GDP per capita in Poland.
Lublin Voivodeship was one of the administrative regions of the interwar Second Polish Republic. In early 1939 its area was and its population was 2,116,200. According to the 1931 census, 85.1% of its population was Polish, 10.5% Jewish, and 3% Ukrainian.
Lublin Voivodeship 1945–1975
Lublin Voivodeship was an administrative region of Poland between 1945 and 1975. In 1975 it was transformed into Chełm, Zamość, Biała Podlaska, Tarnobrzeg and Siedlce Voivodeships and a smaller Lublin Voivodeship.
Lublin Voivodeship 1975–1998
Lublin Voivodeship existed as one of Poland's 49 voivodeships from 1975 until 1998, when it was incorporated into the current Lublin Voivodeship.
