From the end of the 1990s to 2019, the percentage of Poles identifying as believers and strong believers exceeded 90% in total. It fell below this threshold in the first year of the pandemic and has been declining visibly since then. This is due to the decreasing percentage of moderate believers, as the share of strong believers has remained at the level of 8% to 9% for the last 15 years. At the same time, the percentage of Poles who are mostly or completely non-believers is growing significantly, from 8% in 2019 to 14% currently.

Declared religious faith:

The percentage of people practicing regularly (i.e. once a week) changed very slowly from the late 1990s to 2019. Until 2009, it fluctuated around 50%, and for the next decade it remained at around 45%. After 2019, the share of weekly practitioners decreased more rapidly: at the beginning of the pandemic it was 39% (2020), in 2021-2023 it fluctuated between 36% and 37%, and now it has dropped to 34%. This is the lowest result in the history of our measurements, although it should be remembered that the data for this year only cover the months from January to April.

Participation in religious practices such as Holy Mass, other services or religious meetings

A typology of Poles' religiosity emerges from the combination of declarations of faith and religious practices. The majority of respondents are believers and practitioners (regularly or irregularly), and a minority are non-practitioners or non-believers. Analysing the data from the beginning of the measurements, we can see two periods of stabilization and two periods of decline in religiosity. Until 2005, the share of respondents who believed and practiced was 57% to 58%, and the share of non-believers and non-practitioners was 3%. In the period 2006–2014, the share of the first group decreased to 50%, and the share of the second group increased to 6%. During this time, there was also a slight increase in the number of people who believed and practiced irregularly (from 32% to 35%).

In the years 2015–2018, the sizes of these groups again remained almost unchanged, but recent years have again shown a decline in religious involvement, now more rapidly. The share of believers and regular practitioners dropped in the first year of the pandemic to 45% (down 5 percentage points compared to 2018), and then by another 6 points over a relatively short period, down to 39% now. However, the percentage of believers and non-practitioners increased from 7% throughout almost the entire second decade of the 21st century to 13% in the second year of the pandemic. From 2022 onwards it has been 10% to 11%, which may indicate that this indicator has stabilized. The proportion of non-believers and non-practitioners has more than doubled: from 5% in the years 2011 to 2017 to 11% today. The percentage of non-believers who nevertheless practice religion remains at the constant level of 2%.

Declarations of faith and religious practices

The decline in the level of religiosity, especially in its practice, is uneven: it is fastest among the youngest (aged 18–24), residents of big cities and the better educated. Among the reasons for moving away from the Church, respondents mention primarily the lack of need to practice, indifference or loss of interest. Secondly, they express their critical attitude towards the Church as an institution: they point out its involvement in politics, hypocrisy, outdated teaching, and criticize its representatives, priests and bishops.

Almost nine out of ten adult inhabitants of Poland still declare their affiliation with the Roman Catholic Church (88.8%). The second most frequently chosen answer is not belonging to any religion, selected by 7.3% of respondents. Almost 2% did not want to state what religion they identify with, and other religions or denominations were chosen by less than 1% of respondents.

What is your confession?
Percentages do not add to 100 due to rounding.