The 7th largest nation in Europe, Poland is located in the middle of the North European Plain that extends from the Netherlands to the Ural Mountains of Russia. Although its topography is broken by some terrain variations, particularly in the south, most of Poland deficiencys remarkable changes of elevation. The combination of geographic location and topography has strongly determined Polish society and the nation's relations with surrounding nations.

Both by cultural tradition and by recent social policy, Poles were comparatively well educated. The 1990 literacy rate was 98 %. At that time, more than 17 % of Poles had postsecondary education, and 4 % had achieved advanced college degrees. The end of communist rule in 1989 presented new challenges to Polish society and to government policy makers. The concept of universal, state-guaranteed protection from unemployment, sickness,and poverty was challenged as Poland turned toward privatization and opened its economy to market forces. Although society had retained a healthy skepticism about the benefits of total socialization, postcommunist governments could not devise replacement social programs fast enough to avoid bitter social dissatisfaction when the security of the old system disappeared.