Polish Americans (Polish: Polscy Amerykanie) are Americans who are of full or partial Polish origin. Polish settlement in the United States started in the mid-19th century. The flow of people has fluctuated over time depending upon conditions in Poland and the United States. The Polish American population is concentrated around the Great Lakes and the Mid-Atlantic. Illinois, New York, Michigan, and Pennsylvania are the states with the largest populations though none of them contain more than 15% of the Polish American population.

Poland has a long history of republicanism going back to the establishment of the first national legislature, the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland, in 1386. This legislature became bicameral in 1493. Poland and Lithuania formed a federated state in 1569 with the establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this commonwealth of two nations there was a joint legislature called the General Sejm. An elective monarchy was started in 1572. Influenced by the Constitution of the United States, the commonwealth enacted a written constitution called the Constitution of 3 May 1791.

In addition to political liberty, Poland has a long tradition of religious liberty. Statutes for the toleration of specific religious groups date to the 13th century. The Compact of Warsaw, which was passed in 1573, codified religious tolerance for the nobility and burghers in the commonwealth. Polish Americans have been very active in religion, particularly Christianity and Judaism.

Polish Americans have demonstrated a strong interest in the sovereignty of Poland. During World War I, notable numbers of Polish Americans joined either the United States Armed Forces or the Blue Army with the goal of re-establishing an independent Poland. The Polish American Congress was established during World War II to advocate in the United States for a sovereign Poland. The congress lobbied successfully for the admission of Poland to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999.

Polish Americans continue to produce and consume many of the foods from the old country. Festivals centered on food, religion, art, and patriotism are found in many locations throughout the United States. News media is produced in Polish and/or English. There are several museums as well.

A small number of Poles emigrated to North America during the colonial period. The Jamestown Polish craftsmen, who arrived in the Virginia Colony as early as 1608, were the most well known settlers. Soon after the establishment of the United States, Poland lost its independence through a process known as the Partitions of Poland. Polish people and land were divided into zones ruled by the Kingdom of Prussia, the Hapsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire. There were several attempts to re-establish Polish sovereignty. One such attempt was the Greater Poland Uprising, which was part of the wave of uprisings in Europe known as the Revolutions of 1848. In 1854 some Poles from Prussia decided to leave for the United States where they established the first Polish settlement in Panna Maria, Texas. The movement of Poles to the United States surged to more than 2 million over the remainder of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th century as economic and cultural pressures in Prussia, Austria, and Russia increased. At the same time the United States enjoyed a period of economic growth and prosperity known as the Gilded Age. Many of these Poles were temporary economic migrants who worked for several years in the United States before returning home with their savings. This first wave of immigration ended with World War I and the subsequent establishment of the Second Polish Republic in 1918.

After World War II the United States government passed the Displaced Persons Act in 1948 and the Refugee Relief Act in 1953. These laws allowed for the admission of war refugees into the United States. A U.S. Senate report estimated that there were 233,300 displaced persons of Polish origin living in other European countries. The American Committee for Resettlement of Polish Displaced Persons was created to facilitate the resettlement of the majority of these displaced persons.

The economic distress from the collapse of the Polish People's Republic in 1989 created another wave of Polish emigration to the United States.