In Poland, as in the whole EU, the percentage of households with children has been systematically decreasing since the beginning of the last decade. In the case of Poland, it fell from 34% in 2010 to 26% in 2023 (compared to the fall from 27% to 24% in the EU in the same period). In 2023, Poland was ranked sixth in the EU in terms of the highest percentage of households with children (in 2010, fourth).

About half of all the households with children are those with one child, but their share decreased compared to the beginning of the last decade (from 54% in 2010 to 49% in 2023). The share of households with two children grew (from 35% in 2010 to 40% in 2023). There was no significant change in the percentage of households with three or more children (on average, in every tenth household with children three or more children were brought up).

The falling number of families¹ (defined as two or more people who are a wife and a husband, cohabiting partners of opposite sexes or a parent and a child), including families with children, has been accompanied by a change in the family model. In a decade (from 2011 to 2021), the number of families in Poland fell by 3% (from 11.0 million to 10.6 million), and the number of families with children by 4% (from 8.1 million to 7.8 million)² . The traditional family model with children has been partly replaced by other family types. Despite the fact that children are most often brought up by married couples, the ratio of this kind of families to the total number of families with children shrank (from 67% in 2011 to 60% in 2021). In connection with the fact that the total number of married couples decreased, and couples more often decided to live together and bring up children without legalising their relationship, children were increasingly often brought up by parents in informal relationships. The ratio of families with children where parents were in an informal relationship to all families with children grew during the 2011-2021 decade from 2% to 7%. In the same decade, the number of children brought up in single-parent families increased, both in those with lone fathers and those with lone mothers. Within this type of family, the vast majority are lone mothers (over 85% of all single-parent families).

The size of families also changes. Poles less often decide to have children, but those who become parents increasingly often have three or more children. Third- or later-born children constituted 22% of all births in 2023, compared to 15% in 2010. The percentage of second-born children grew in 2010-2017 (from 35% to 40%), but started falling in 2018 and reached 33% in 2023 (i.e. a lower level than in 2010). Since 2010, the share of first-child births among all births has systematically decreased and in 2023 it amounted to 45% (compared to 50% in 2010).

1) This definition of a family has been prepared by UNECE and EUROSTAT for the purpose of national population and housing censuses in the Central-Eastern Europe region.
2) On the basis of data from the National Census.

* The lack of data for 2018 is due to changes made to the child's birth card, which led to doctors misinterpreting the records. This resulted in incorrectly entering information about the child's birth order.

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The care and upbringing of children who are fully or partly deprived of the support from their biological families is carried out in the framework of foster care in Poland. Its aim is to provide a safe environment for children to develop in the situation where they do not have appropriate care from their natural parents. In the years 2010–2023, the number of children and young adults (aged 0-24 years¹) in foster care in Poland fluctuated between 72,000 and 77,000 a year, i.e. on average one in a hundred children were in foster care.

There are two types of foster care: family foster care (which encompasses foster families and foster homes) and institutional foster care. In 2010-2023, on average 76% of all children in foster care remained in family foster care, whereas 24% were cared for in institutions. The percentage of children in family foster care increased from 74% in 2010 to 77% in 2023.

1) In foster families the data for 2010–2011 concerns children aged 0-17 years, whereas from 2012 on relates to children and young adults aged 0-24 years.

* In foster families, data for 2010-2011 concerns children aged 0-17, from 2012 - children and young adults aged 0-24

According to the law on family support and foster care system, since 2012, family foster care in Poland has been performed by foster families and foster homes. A foster family provides temporary care for children in a family environment, whereas a foster home is an organised institution run by qualified carers for a larger number of children. In line with this law, foster families are classified as: related (where grandparents or siblings take care of children), not-professional foster families (run by farther relatives of the children or people not related to them who are entitled to the reimbursement of the cost of the children’s upbringing) and professional foster families (run by people who are not grandparents or siblings of the child, and who, apart from the reimbursement of the costs of the children’s upbringing are paid salaries for performing foster care). The latter can function as specialized professional foster families and professional foster families performing the function of emergency family house. The largest share of children living in foster families are those in related foster families. However, in connection to the changes introduced to types of foster families, the percentage of children in related foster families decreased from over 74% in 2010–2011 to 59% in 2012. In the subsequent years, it stayed on approximately the same level (in 2023, it totalled 58%). On the other hand, the share of children brought up in professional foster families has been constantly growing – it increased from 5% in 2012 to 10% in 2023. In 2012–2023, on average about 30% of all children in foster families were taken care of in not-professional foster families (in 2010–2011, this percentage stood at 14%). In the analysed period, there were no significant changes in the number of children brought up in specialized foster families (1% on average) and in professional performing the function of a family emergency house (3% on average).

* In foster families, data for 2010-2011 concerns children aged 0-17, from 2012 - children and young adults aged 0-24

In the framework of institutional foster care, a large majority of children (98% in 2023) remain in the care and education centres, which provide 24-hour or temporary care and upbringing for children. Care and education centres comprise socialization, family, intervention and specialist therapy centres, plus those that perform several of the above functions combined. Increasing numbers of children remaining in institutional foster care have been placed in socialization centres (in 2010, it was 45% of all children in institutional foster care; in 2023, this percentage grew to 66%). The percentage of children in family centres, on the other hand, shrank in the same period (from 12% to 8%), as did the share of children remaining in combining tasks centres (from 41% to 17%). Fewer than 10% of all children in institutional foster care were brought up in intervention and specialist therapy centres. The remaining 1% of children were taken care of in regional care and therapy centres (these were the children who, due to health conditions, required special care and rehabilitation, and thus could not be placed in family foster care or care and education centres), and in intervention pre-adoptive intervention centre (where care is taken of children below or ages one, waiting for adoption).

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Adoption is acknowledging that a child with whom the adoptive parent has no biological ties is their own. As a result of adoption, a person or a couple are granted full parental rights. In the last decade, the number of adoptions slightly fell in Poland. In 2010, there were 3,300 adoptions, while in 2023, their number went down to 2,500. In addition to demographic and cultural changes taking place in the country, this situation – according to the Supreme Audit Office – is caused by the fact that there are many more potential parents than children eligible for adoption. The potential adoptive parents point to long adoption procedures and complicated regulations as significant barriers to adoption.

In the last several years, children aged 0–3 were adopted most often. They constituted on average 38% of all adoptions in the period of 2011–2023 (in 2011–2015, it was over 40%, and this percentage gradually shrank over the subsequent years). As a child grows older, his or her chances of being adopted are decreasing. Teenagers (children aged 13–17) are adopted most rarely, but in recent years, the percentage of adopted teenagers grew over two-fold (from 7% in 2011 to 15% in 2023).

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In the years 2010-2020, there were significantly fewer juveniles against whom educational or correctional measures, or penalties for punishable l acts were validly adjudicated. Their number dropped from 23,000 to 7,000. The vast majority in this group were boys (75%-80%), but the share of girls in juvenile delinquency is growing (from 20% in 2010 to 25% in 2020). Among the most common crimes committed by juveniles are those against property (thefts, burglaries and destructions of property). The percentage of this type of crimes committed by juveniles, however, decreased in the last years (from 55% in 2010 to 51% in 2020). Offences against health and life involving beatings and physical violence are the second most frequently committed crimes by children and adolescents. In 2010-2020, out of the total number of juvenile delinquents, 22-24% were involved in the above-mentioned crimes; as a result, educational or correctional measures, or penalties were validly adjudicated in common courts against these young offenders. The percentage of juveniles who committed crimes against freedom, freedom of conscience and religion, sexual freedom or decency increased from 7% in 2010 to 12% in 2020.

Different types of juvenile facilities play a key role in the system of care and upbringing of children and adolescents who, for various reasons, struggle with functioning in the society. Among them there are youth education centres and youth social therapy centres, functioning under the Ministry of Education, as well as district educational centres (operating since 1st September 2022), shelters for detained juveniles and juvenile correctional centres (under the administration of the Ministry of Justice). The largest number of troubled adolescents are under the care of youth education centres (which focus on the upbringing and re-socialisation of young individuals struggling with serious behavioural problems) and youth social therapy centres (dedicated to children and adolescents who are at risk of social maladjustment resulting from developmental disorders, learning difficulties and disorders in social functioning, and who require specially organised education, methods of work, upbringing, psychological and academic support, and socio-therapy). In the case of the former facilities, the percentage of their students remained at a similar level (47% on average) in the years 2010-2023. However, the percentage of those attending youth social therapy centres increased (from 36% in 2010 to 54% in 2023). At the same time, the percentage of individuals under the care of juvenile correctional centres decreased significantly: from 13% in 2010 to 3% in 2023. The percentage of those in shelter for detained juveniles (serving a temporary function for youth suspected of committing a crime) also dropped (from 4% to 1%).

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