How many religious associations, churches and believers are there in Poland? This research is carried out in our country by the Central Statistical Office. It is true that a lot of surveys are carried out that include questions about religion, but this type of research does not provide sufficient knowledge about the number of members of particular beliefs. They only allow us to estimate a reasonable percentage of Catholics, sometimes they also reveal fractions of percentage of declarations by Orthodox, Protestants or Jehovah's witnesses.
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The Central Statistical Office has more detailed information from population and housing censuses. The question about religion was asked in both the census conducted in 2011 and 2021. However, it was voluntary. In the 2011 census, as many as 87 percent of the general population declared their affiliation to the Catholic denomination. In 2021, this percentage dropped to 71%.
However, it is not the census that the Central Statistical Office draws its data on the number of believers from. In 1990, a team of several people was established at the office to deal with statistics of religions and nationalities. During the work, a methodology for research on religions was developed. The principle adopted is that a relatively narrow but possibly most reliable scope of information will be obtained. A statistical survey was introduced and completed by individual denominations on a voluntary basis. These surveys serve as the information base for the Central Statistical Office.
Number of churches and religious associations
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Central Statistical Office
Number of denominations
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Central Statistical Office
The report “Religious denominations in Poland in 2022-2024” prepared on their basis shows that there are currently 213 Churches and religious associations in Poland. They started to grow in 1990, when religious law was liberalized. In the years 1990-1999, as many as 117 new challenges appeared. Since 2000, a clear stabilization in this respect has been observed. Every year since then, only a few new denominations have appeared, and there were also years, such as 2012 or 2023, when no relationship was registered.
Currently, there are 213 churches and religious associations in Poland.
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Ten religious associations in five years
Data from the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, which is responsible for the registration of religious associations in Poland, show that the number of applications submitted each year is not high. In 2021, seven unions applied for entry into the register, in 2022 and 2023, four, in 2024, six, and in 2025, ten.
— Within five years, after the completion of administrative proceedings, the Ministry of the Interior and Administration issued ten decisions on entry in the register – six of which concerned applications submitted before 2021 – say representatives of the ministry.
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Christian unions at the forefront
According to the Central Statistical Office data, as many as There are 143 Christian unions, including 105 Protestant ones. The next places in terms of number are taken by: new religious movements (18), Buddhism (19, including: Korean, Japanese, Tibetan, Chinese, Vietnamese), Hinduism (nine), Judaism (six), Islam (five), other religions (four: Karaimism, Baha'i, Taoism, Sikhism).
Most of them are in Poland Catholics — 27.1 million. It is the most numerous denomination after the Roman Catholic one Orthodoxy. According to data from the Central Statistical Office, it has 504,000 people. faithful. The next group are Jehovah's witnesses 115 thousand, Evangelical-Augsburg Church — nearly 60 thousand people, Pentecostals — 27 thousand and Muslim League — 15 thousand
Minimum 100 people to register
The possibility of registering a religious association appeared under the Act of May 17, 1989 on the guarantees of freedom of conscience and religion. Responsibilities in this respect have been entrusted to the Ministry of Interior and Administration. To submit an application, you must collect at least 100 signatures. They can be submitted by Polish citizens with full legal capacity. The signature must include: name and surname, date of birth, place of residence, type, series and number of the identity document and PESEL number. The list must be notarized. The application must contain information about the basic goals, sources and doctrinal principles, and religious rituals.
Applicants may elect at least a five-person founding committee from among themselves to represent them in the proceedings regarding entry in the register. If a founding committee is elected, the application for entry into the register should also include the committee's election protocol signed by the applicants, specifying the date and place of the elections.
Refusal to register a religious association
The Ministry of Interior and Administration may refuse to enter the register. This happens if, during the proceedings, the ministry finds deficiencies or omissions or the application contains provisions that are inconsistent with the provisions of laws protecting public safety and order, health, public morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of other persons.
He has been trying unsuccessfully to register a religious association since 2012. Polish Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The Ministry of Interior and Administration refuses because, based on expert opinions, it believes that the purpose of the Church is not to spread religious faith, but to parody other faiths. The followers of the Spaghetti Monster like beer, celebrate every Friday, do not take themselves too seriously, love paradoxes and believe that pirates were peaceful and noble explorers, and only because of competition propaganda they now have the reputation of bandits.
After several refusals to register, the Monster's followers took the case to court. The Supreme Administrative Court agreed with the Ministry of Interior and Administration. In 2019, Monster's followers filed a complaint against the Supreme Administrative Court's judgment to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
However, the register includes many different denominations and churches. There are: the Natural Church, the Church of the Sun, the Rosicrucians, the Religious Association “I believe in the Good of Man”. The Natural Church is convinced that every action that happens to a person affects his inner world. A human being is not a collection of data or a number in a register, but a living being with a soul, history, wounds, dreams and dignity that is sacred. The Church of the Sun, on the other hand, proclaims that people are part of the Sun on Earth. “From this comes our great responsibility for the world that has been entrusted to us. The gift we receive every day – the energy of the sun – should be accepted by us with gratitude, used wisely and shared with others,” we read on the Church's website.
How much is it?
Religious associations in Poland are maintained mainly from voluntary donations and sacrifices of the faithful. They can also get money from the Church Fund. In 2026, you will be able to receive PLN 200,000 from it at one time. zloty. In 2025, over PLN 275 million was transferred from the state budget to the Church Fund, almost PLN 20 million more than last year. In 2026, PLN 272 million will be transferred.
The state budget also covers the salaries of catechists in schools. It amounts to approximately PLN 1.5 billion annually. That is why there is more and more talk about the need to liquidate the Church Fund and teaching religion in schools in order to relieve the state budget of these expenses.
