The real number, listed by the census, is 9.3 million. Given natural increase
and an annual (legal) immigration from Poland of 25,000-30,000, ten million
is a nice round number.
Estimates of 12 million, 40 million, 60 million, or 6 million are fantasies.
There is only one reliable mode of data collection on ancestry--the census
long form.
I would be curious to know where the 6 million number comes from. Certain
individuals in Polonia are given to wild exaggeration and fantasy. (E.g.
Poles invented baseball, a Pole discovered America, etc. Many of these
stories can be traced back to Artur Waldo.) However, I've never seen anyone
estimate low.
--John Radzilowski
