A voivodeship (/ˈvɔɪvoʊdʃɪp/ VOY-vohd-ship; Polish: województwo [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfɔ] ⓘ; plural: województwa [vɔjɛˈvut͡stfa]) is the highest-level administrative division of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries.

[1] The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999, reduced the number of voivodeships to sixteen.

Administrative authority at the voivodeship level is shared between a government-appointed governor called a voivode (wojewoda), an elected assembly called a sejmik, and an executive board (zarząd województwa) chosen by that assembly, headed by a voivodeship marshal (marszałek województwa).

According to the argument, such a prowincja (for example, Greater Poland) cannot consist of a number of subdivisions ("województwa", the plural of "województwo") that are likewise called "provinces".

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it first appeared in 1792, spelled "woiwodship", in the sense of "the district or province governed by a voivode."

[4][5] Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode (governor), the sejmik (regional assembly) and the marshal.

The executive (zarząd województwa), headed by the marszałek drafts the budget and development strategies, implements the resolutions of the sejmik, manages the voivodeship's property, and deals with many aspects of regional policy, including management of European Union funding.

After World War II, the new administrative division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 (+2) voivodeships, then 17 (+5).

This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of local government reform acts of 1973–1975.

The three smallest voivodeships—Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź—had the special status of municipal voivodeship; the city president (mayor) was also provincial governor.