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Religious beliefs in Poland

Declared religiousness

The Polish public opinion research center CBOS states that universally declared belief in God is a durable attribute of Polish society. It has remained fairly stable in the recent years. Systematic research shows that, since the end of 1990s, over 90% of respondents (from 92% to 97%) describe themselves as believers, among them, 1/10th are strong believers. The proportion of people who identify themselves as partial or complete non-believers is relatively low (from 3% to 8%). It is noteworthy that since 2005, i.e. since the death of pope John Paul II, their number doubled, going from 4% to 8%. In the same period, the proportion of strong believers fell from 12% to 8%.

Source: "Changes in indicators of religiousness after John Paul II’s death", Polish Public Opinion, February 2015.
More information about this topic can be found in the CBOS report in Polish: "Changes in indicators of religiosity after the death of pope John Paul II", Polish Public Opinion, February 2015.

Belonging to religious denomination in Poland

Number  %
Total 1 510 100
Yes 1 423 94,2
No 67 4,4
No answer 8 0,5
Do not know 12 0,8

Source : 2008 European Value Survey

Religious beliefs in Poland

According to a research conducted by the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics and the Polish Central Statistical Office (GUS) in 1991 in Poland, 10% of the population declared being “deeply believing”, 80% “believing”, 6% “uncertain but attached to religious tradition”, 2% “indifferent” and 1% “unbelieving”. In 2015, the numbers did not change much for those who declared themselves “deeply believing”, but the proportion of “believing” diminished while the number of those “uncertain but attached to religious tradition”, “indifferent” and “unbelieving” grew in proportion.

Religious declarations in Poland in %

1991 2015
Deeply believing 10 10,5
Believing 79,9 69,6
Uncertain but attached to religious tradition 6 12
Indifferent 2,4 5,3
Unbelieving 1,3 2,6

Source: 1991 Polish Statistical Office, 2015 Institute for Catholic Church Statistics.

D 29 June 2016    AMichał Zawiślak AWojciech Sadłoń

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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