Bieszczady County


Bieszczady County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in the extreme south-east of Poland, on the border with Ukraine. It takes its name from the Bieszczady mountain range. The county was created on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. In 2002 the western part of the county was split off to form Lesko County. The only town in Bieszczady County is now Ustrzyki Dolne, the county seat, which lies south-east of the regional capital Rzeszów.
The county covers an area of. As of 2006 its total population is 22,213, of which the population of Ustrzyki Dolne is 9,478 and the rural population is 12,735. Its average population density of 19.5 persons per square kilometre makes it the least densely populated county in Poland.
The county includes the greater part of Bieszczady National Park, and of the Polish part of the UNESCO-designated East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.

Neighbouring counties

Bieszczady County is bordered by Lesko County to the west and Przemyśl County to the north. It also borders Ukraine to the east and south.

Administrative division

The county is subdivided into three gminas. These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.

Rural landscape picture