Gdynia is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 246,348, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in the Pomeranian Voivodeship after Gdańsk. Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity with around 800,000 inhabitants.
Historically and culturally part of Kashubia and Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia for centuries remained a small fishing village. By the 20th-century it attracted visitors as a seaside resort town. In 1926 Gdynia was granted city rights, after which it enjoyed demographic and urban development, with a modernist cityscape. It became a major seaport city of Poland. The violent 1970 protests in and around Gdynia contributed to the rise of the Solidarity movement in nearby Gdańsk.
The port of Gdynia is a regular stopover on the cruising itinerary of luxury passenger ships and ferries travelling to Scandinavia. In 2013, Gdynia was ranked by readers of The News as Poland's best city to live in, and topped the national rankings in the category of "general quality of life".