Bieszczady County

Bieszczady County (Polish: powiat bieszczadzki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) 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 80 kilometres (50 mi) south-east of the regional capital Rzeszów. The county covers an area of 1,138.17 square kilometres (439.4 sq mi). As of 2019 its total population is 21,799, of which the population of Ustrzyki Dolne is 9,097, and the rural population is 12,702. Its average population density of 19.0 persons per square kilometre (49 persons/mi2) makes it the least densely populated county in Poland. The county includes the greater part of Bieszczady National Park (Bieszczadzki Park Narodowy), and is within the Polish part of the UNESCO-designated East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve.