Apples, Church, Video Games -- These Polish Things

Poland goes to the polls on Sunday with the governing right-wing party expected to come out on top AFP PHOTO / Wojtek RADWANSKI

Poland, which holds a general election on Sunday, boasts more than 1,000 years of history. It was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II, then spent decades under communism. Today it is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Here are five things to know about this central European country of 38 million people:

Non-stop growth

Poland has posted continuous economic growth since the 1989 fall of communism and is currently the seventh biggest economy in the EU, which it joined in 2004.

Poland is Europe's largest producer of apples, poultry, raspberries and potatoes -- and is also an EU international transport giant AFP / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

It is Europe's largest producer of poultry, apples, raspberries and potatoes. The country is also an industrial giant, notably thanks to cheap labour. About a third of the EU's international transport is carried out by Polish firms.

Poland has also made a name for itself in the video game industry, with hits like "The Witcher," "Dying Light," and "This War of Mine." Next year's release "Cyberpunk 2077" has already been crowned the "most wanted game" by gamers around the world.

The Catholic church still wields influence with more than 90 percent of the nation professing the faith -- even if only one in three people attend Sunday mass AFP / Wojtek RADWANSKI

Majority Catholic

More than 90 percent of Poles declare themselves Catholic, but only 38 percent attend Sunday mass. The Church is still going strong in rural areas but is losing its appeal in big cities.

Clergy sex scandals have recently tainted its image, though the Church still enjoys close ties with the governing conservatives. Both called LGBT rights a threat to the traditional family ahead of the general election.

By 1939, there were some three million Jews living in Poland -- but after the Holocaust what was once Europe's largest Jewish community now numbers just a few thousand AFP / WOJTEK RADWANSKI

Migration

The governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party rejected the EU's migrant quotas, but the country has welcomed Ukrainians and other foreign workers.

After around two million Poles emigrated to the West after Poland joined the EU in 2004, some 1.2 million Ukrainians came to replace them. The services industry relies heavily on the foreign workforce.

Making it through 50 years of marriage in Poland is worth not just a flute of champagne but a presidential medal, with tens of thousands awarded each year despite rising divorce rates AFP / JANEK SKARZYNSKI

According to estimates from an employer's association, Poland will require a total of five million foreign workers by 2050. Facing a shortage of skilled workers it already surpassed the United States in 2017 as the top temporary labour migration destination, according to the OECD.

Jewish history

Poland was for centuries considered a safe haven for Jews chased out of Western Europe. By 1939, there were 3.3 million of them living in the country, or around 10 percent of the entire Polish population. It was Europe's largest Jewish community at the time.

But Poland's 1,000-year Jewish history was cut short by Nazi Germany. During World War II, six million Poles died, half of them Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Of the few who remained, most emigrated, with the last wave taking place after the communist regime orchestrated an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968.

Today, an estimated 8,000-12,000 Jews live in Poland.