A large majority of Poles see God as important in their lives, while over half also say the same for prayer, according to an international study on religious belief by the Pew Research Center. The survey finds Poland to be among Europe’s most religious countries.
The data also show, however, that the strength of religious belief in Poland has declined significantly over the last three decades, and also that most Poles do not see believing in God as being necessary for someone to be a good person.
The polling, conducted last year and published this week, found 69% of Poles saying that God plays an important role in their life. That represents the second highest figure among the 13 EU countries surveyed, behind only Greece (82%). In Europe as a whole, only Turkey (89%) was higher.
Just over half (56%) of Poles said that prayer is an important part of their daily life – again behind Turkey (89%) and Greece (73%), but also Italy (57%). However, previous research by Pew has found that only 27% of Poles say they actually do pray daily.
At the opposite end of Europe’s religiosity scale were Sweden (where only 21% say God plays an important role in their lives), the Czech Republic (24%) and France (31%).
While Poland – where over 90% of people identify as Catholic – remains among the continent’s most devout countries, like others it has seen declining religious adherence.
The same questions asked by Pew in 1991 found 83% of Poles saying that God was important to them, and 71% saying the same for daily prayer.
Previous research by Pew has found Poland to have the highest level of religious attendance in Europe, with 61% saying that they attend services at least monthly. Almost two thirds (64%) of Poles say that it is important to be Christian to truly hold national identity.
But the research centre’s findings also show that Poland is the country that has recorded the biggest decline in religiosity between the oldest and youngest generations. Meanwhile, the proportion of Poles saying that religion is important in their lives has fallen from 82% in 2007 to 69% last year.
Poland has the biggest decline in religiosity from the older to the younger generation among any of the countries surveyed by @pewresearch https://t.co/oAA9tBfSr4
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 18, 2019
A recent study by Statistics Poland, a government agency, found that, while 60% of Poles display “religious commitment”, only 5.5% of them are “strongly committed” to their faith.
State pollster CBOS finds that the proportion of school leavers in Poland who declare themselves to be believers has dropped from 81% to 63% within a decade, while the number of young Poles who say they never attend church has overtaken those who say they attend every Sunday.
Do you need to believe in God to be a good person?
The new Pew study also asked people whether they think that belief in God is necessary to be moral and have good values. In Poland, just over one in three people (36%) agreed that it is, whereas 62% said that it is not necessary.
Here, Poland was close to the European average. Among the nations that more strongly felt belief in God to be necessary in order to be a good person were Turkey (75%), Greece (53%), Bulgaria (50%), Ukraine (50%), Slovakia (45%), Russia (37%) and Germany (37%).
In its polling, which covered 34 countries across the world, Pew found that this sentiment is correlated to GDP: the wealthier a country is, the less likely its people are to agree that belief in God is necessary to be moral.
That link is found within countries too: in Poland, 29% of those with high income link belief in God to morality, whereas 43% of those with low income do. Among less educated Poles, the figure is 40%, while among the better educated it is 26%.
The relationship also correlated in with age in all countries surveyed, including Poland, where it was held by 25% among those aged 18-29, 28% for 30- to 49-year-olds, and 46% among those over 50.
Poland also showed a particularly strong relationship with political views. Among those who identified as having left-wing views, only 19% saw belief in God as necessary to be moral, whereas for those on the right the figure was 53%.
This difference of 34% between the two sides of the political spectrum in Poland was the second largest among all countries surveyed, behind only the United States (39%).
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
