Religious belonging and religious demography

Selected religious organisations in Poland in 2012
(Listed in order of the decreasing number of adherents and the faithful)

Source: Central Statistical Office, Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Poland 2012, Warsaw 2012

* including, among others, parishes, congregations, religious communities and centres
** churches associated in the Polish Ecumenical Council
a - until 2010 - Community of Christ Churches in Poland
b - data from 2008
c - proclaimers
d - including 71 priests of the Military Ordinariate of the Polish Army
e - among which 8 women
f - baptised persons

D 19 November 2013    AKatarzyna Więcek

A decrease of the number of vocations can be noticed during the recent years, although in some dioceses (Bielsko-żywiecka, Elbląska, Gliwicka, Kielecka, Krakowska, Legnicka, Opolska, Świdnicka) the number of seminarists in the diocesan seminaries increased in 2010 compared to the previous year. In some dioceses (Katowicka, Krakowska, Lubelska, Poznańska i Przemyska) the number of seminarists rises up to over 100 or even 200 (Tarnowska).

Legend: * diocesan seminarists, ** religious seminarists

Source: Institute of Statistics of Catholic Church SAC (in Polish).

Bishop Marek Solarczyk (Delegate of the Polish episkopate for vocations) stated that the total number of Polish clercs probably amounts to 25% of the total number of clercs in Europe.

Source: Catholic agency of information for Poland (KAI) (in Polish)

D 20 November 2013    AKatarzyna Więcek

Portray of the believers

Religious faith is a fairly constant attribute of the Polish society. For the last 20 years it has changed little and remained very high. According to regular CBOS surveys, since the late-1990s over 90% of respondents (between 93% and 97%) describe themselves as believers. Within this group, about one-tenth (lately one in eleven or one in twelve) describes his or her faith as strong. The proportion of people who describe themselves as moderate or strong non-believers remains on a relatively low level (3%-7%); however, since 2005 this group has become more numerous.
The level of religious practice was relatively stable in 1997-2005, and declined afterwards. Since 2005, the proportion of respondents attending religious service at least once a week fell from 58% to 51%, while the number of people who never go to church rose from 9% to 12%. More people attend religious service irregularly (increase from 33% to 37%).

As far as gender is concerned, women prevail among strong believers (64% of them are women and 36% are men), while among non-believers the proportions are almost exactly opposite (37% are women and 63% are men).

*Aggregated data from four national surveys conducted in the period April-July 2013 allow for characterising the people who describe themselves as non-believers and comparing them with strong believers and believers. Aggregated random samples representative for adult population of Poland. Total N= 4266.

Source: "Non-believers: who they are, what are their norms and values", Polish Public Opinion, 134, October 2013.
More information about this topic can be found in the CBOS report in Polish: "Non-believers: who they are, what are their norms and values", Polish Public Opinion, 134, October 2013. Fieldwork for national sample: April-July 2013.

Non-believers in Poland

When age is taken into account, the non-believers are predominantly young. Over two-fifths are in the age 18-34 years. In contrast, over half of people whose faith is strong are at least 55 years old.

The majority of people admitting to having no religious faith are residents of big cities (of at least 100,000 residents). The reverse is true about the believers and strong believers: three-fifths live in villages and small towns.

People declaring no religion are also characterised by their level of education. Three-quarters of non-believers have at least secondary education, whereas about half of believers and strong believers have primary or basic vocational education.

Life conditions and religious faith

Education is related to the material living conditions of the respondents. Non-believers evaluate them better than believers.

Source: "Non-believers: who they are, what are their norms and values", Polish Public Opinion, 134, October 2013.

More information about this topic can be found in the CBOS report in Polish: "Non-believers: who they are, what are their norms and values", Polish Public Opinion, 134, October 2013. Fieldwork for national sample: April-July 2013.

An analysis of religious belief and national belonging in Central and Eastern Europe (May 2017) is available on the Pew Research Center website (full report available as a pdf document).

D 30 June 2016    AMichał Zawiślak