English: On 1 January 1973, an administrative reform reintroduced the previously abolished gminas (rural communes), taking over the role played 1954-1972 by the significantly smaller gromadas. Altogether 2365 gminas were created, along 836 sepaarte urban units (cities or miasta). Since then, many units (both rural and urban) have been abolished. The map shows all of them, superimposed on the administrative division of 49 voivodeships introduced somewhat later, on 1 June 1975, which lasted until 31 December 1998.

• Red fields denotes communes abolished and never again restitued. The year of abolishment is displayed below the unit's name.

• Yellow fields denote communes abolished temporarily. The years of abolishment and restitution are displayed below the unit's name.

• An asterix by the year of abolishment means that the latter took place prior to or after the depicted administrative division remained in force.

• Hyphenated year spans are used for abolished units that were not created on 1 January 1973 but at a later date. Since these units overlap with pre-existing abolished units, they are displayed in separate inset maps.

• An (m) after the name denotes an urban unit (m = miasto; i.e. city)

The depicted area coverage of particular units is as of the time of abolishment and may have changed significantly after restitution (where applicable).