Institute for Catholic Church Statistics: Poles’ religiosity is stable

The Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church in Poland presented today (January 7) in Warsaw, “Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesia in Polonia AD 2020” contains the results of the research of the Institute for Catholic Church Statistics in Poland SAC carried out in 2019 and includes data for 2018.

The dominicantes index regarding the participation of obliged Catholics in the Holy Mass in 2018 differs by 0.1% in comparison with a year before. In 2018, in Sunday Eucharist participated 38.2% of obliged Catholics, instead in 2017 – 38.3%.

The communicantes index, that is concerning people receiving Holy Communion, differs by 0.3% in comparison with a year before. In 2018 the Holy Communion was received by 17,3%, instead in 2017 – 17%.

The highest level of participation of obliged Catholics in the Sunday Mass was traditionally registered in the dioceses of Tarnów (71.3%), Rzeszów (64.3%) and Przemyśl (60.4%).

According to „Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesia in Polonia AD 2020”, there are 10,356 Catholic parishes in Poland, in which over 20,500 priests fulfil their ministry. There are almost 25,000 priests in total, while 2,200 seminarians in 2018 were preparing for ordination.

The number of female religious communities is 2,200, in which serve 17,600 nuns. The number of male religious and members of apostolic societies in 2018 amounted to 11,400.

In 2018, over 386,000 people were baptized. Over 400,000 people received the First Holy Communion. The sacrament of confirmation in the Latin rite was received by nearly 300,000 persons, by 3.5% more than in 2017. The sacrament of marriage was granted to 133,000 couples.

In the 2018/2019 school year, 88% of pupils attended religion classes in educational establishments.

Press Office of the Polish Bishops’ Conference