Katowice (German: Kattowitz, Silesian: Katowicy, officially Miasto Katowice) is a city in southwestern Poland and the center of the Silesian Voivodeship, with a population of 399,803 as of 2015.
Katowice is a center of science, culture, industry, business, trade, and transportation in Upper Silesia and southern Poland, and the main city in the Upper Silesian Industrial Region. Katowice lies within an urban zone, with a population of 3,613,160 according to Eurostat, and also part of the wider Silesian metropolitan area, with a population of 7,057,294 according to the European Spatial Planning Observation Network. Today, Katowice is emerging metropolis. The whole metropolitan area is the 16th most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union with an output amounting to £297.694 billion pounds.
Katowice has been the capital of the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1920. Previously it was the capital of the Province of Upper Silesia in Germany.
