Polish citizenship in numbers

How many foreigners become Polish citizens

The number of new Polish citizens is growing: in 2025 it was 57% higher than in 2023. You will find data on the exam and on foreigners in Poland in the overview of our reports.

* The percentage change is a calculation by the editorial team based on MSWiA numbers, rounded to whole percentages.

Which countries the new citizens come from

In 2025, almost nine in ten new citizens came from Ukraine or Belarus. The remaining countries together are about one eighth.

* The number for "other countries" and the percentage shares are a calculation by the editorial team: the difference between the number of all new citizens and the sum of Ukrainian and Belarusian citizens.

Karta Polaka in numbers

According to NIK and MSZ data, more than 206 thousand Karta Polaka cards have been granted to date, and about 15 thousand are issued per year. The Karta Polaka requires at least a basic knowledge of Polish, which – if you do not have a Polish school certificate or a certificate – is assessed by the consul or the voivode in an interview. It is not a requirement of level B1.

We describe how to prepare for the interview in our guide to the Karta Polaka interview.

What Polish is needed for citizenship

For recognition as a Polish citizen, a certificate of knowledge of Polish at least at level B1 is required, or a certificate of completing school in Poland or a school abroad with Polish as the language of instruction. From 1 July 2025, a post-secondary school certificate is no longer enough. The act provides for different periods of residence depending on the situation – in simplified form:

The full conditions are in Article 30 of the Polish Citizenship Act. We describe the language requirements in more detail in our guide to Polish for citizenship, and separately the route from the Karta Polaka to citizenship.

The rules may change, but for now they have not changed. The President's bill amending the Citizenship Act (print no. 1759) was referred on 4 November 2025 for first reading in Sejm committees, and work on it continues. The MPs' bill (print no. 1888) was rejected by the Sejm at first reading on 9 January 2026. The outline of new regulations announced by MSWiA has not reached the Sejm (as at 3 October 2026).

Conclusions for people planning citizenship

This is our interpretation of the data: the statistics do not show what document new citizens used to confirm their knowledge of Polish. From the regulations and the numbers, however, a few practical conclusions can be drawn.

• The B1 certificate is a constant element of the road to citizenship. Anyone who did not finish school in Poland needs a certificate of at least B1 for recognition as a citizen – so it is worth planning the exam in advance. We show the numbers of candidates in the report “The Polish exam in numbers”.
• The Karta Polaka is only the beginning. A basic knowledge of Polish is enough for the Karta, but for recognition as a citizen after a year of permanent residence a B1 certificate is already needed.
• Most new citizens are people who speak Ukrainian or Russian. We describe the difficulties typical of them in our guides for people who speak Ukrainian and Russian.

It is worth planning the exam well in advance – book a trial lesson, and the teacher will assess your level and suggest a realistic date.

Methodology

The report is based on public data, as at 3 October 2026. The numbers of new citizens come from MSWiA and we know them from press publications that cite the ministry; the data on the Karta Polaka come from NIK and MSZ. The data do not distinguish the route by which citizenship was obtained, so we do not give it. The percentage changes, shares and the number for "other countries" were calculated by the editorial team. We checked the legal status in the texts of the acts in the Internet System of Legal Acts (ELI) and in Sejm data.