How much alimony is awarded in Poland? Court averages for 2015–2025

Where these numbers come from

Each year the Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on final support rulings: how many cases conclude, how they most often end, and what amounts courts award. Leksio pulls this data straight from the government open-data service and turns it into the charts and takeaways below - no retouching, no cherry-picking.

Courts award support in two tracks: in divorce cases, where a regional court decides, and outside divorce - in family cases before a district court. The two streams differ in both volume and amounts, which is why the charts keep them separate.

Where the data comes from and how Leksio computes it

The foundation is the Ministry of Justice dataset “Alimony - final rulings in alimony cases in district and regional courts” at dane.gov.pl. Leksio retrieves and normalises both resources and computes the court-data values. The average is the “average support awarded per case” reported in the source, not a quotient recomputed by Leksio.

Price context comes from Statistics Poland annual-average CPI and wage context from its annual average monthly gross wage series for the national economy. All indices use 2015=100. Real amounts are expressed in 2025 prices by multiplying each year’s amount by the ratio of the cumulative 2025 price level to that year’s price level.

“Cases in total” is the sum of the four reported outcomes: two award categories and two settlement categories. Gaps marked “x” in the source are excluded from calculations, and any takeaway missing its data is simply not shown. The amount chart adds amounts stated in final rulings issued in a given year; it is not a total of payments or an annual support bill. The report describes statistics, not an individual situation - it is not legal advice.

Did support really “double” within a decade?

A nominal amount is what the ruling recorded in the money of its year. The increase is striking on that basis, but it does not yet show how much the purchasing power of support changed. We first compare the two court tracks and their pace of growth, then adjust earlier amounts for prices.

The gap between divorce and family cases does not mean that the same beneficiary would receive a different amount solely because of the track. The datasets cover different case populations, and a single case may concern different numbers of people.

After inflation, growth remains large but is no longer a “doubling”

To separate a higher amount from the changing value of money, Leksio expresses earlier awards in the final year’s prices. It then gives support, consumer prices and the average wage the same starting point. This compares their rates of change even though the series are not directly comparable monetary amounts.

The wage series is context only: it shows whether average rulings changed faster or more slowly than a nationwide wage indicator. It does not describe either party’s income and creates no legal ratio between salary and support.

Fewer cases than there used to be

Rising average amounts accompany a fall in finally concluded support cases outside divorce. The measure counts completed proceedings, not children needing support or new claims filed.

The series establishes the direction of change but not its cause. It cannot separate demography, settlements made outside court, the number of applications and the pace of court work.

Who files for support

The claimant structure shows what cases outside divorce concern. The dominance of children does not mean minors conduct proceedings on their own: they usually act through a legal representative. Parents, spouses and claims joined with paternity findings are reported separately.

The highest average covers a spouse and children together

Support awarded in divorce cases is on average higher than in family cases. The highest averages concern support awarded jointly for a spouse and children. One case can therefore cover several beneficiaries, so this value is not an amount per person.

Settlement instead of judgment

Not every case ends with a judgment. In family cases a significant share ends in a settlement: the parties agree on an amount and the court approves it. For divorce cases the source reports zeros in the settlement columns for 2021–2024 but marks them “x” in 2025. “x” means no measurement, not a confirmed zero.

In 2025, 35% of 46,800 support cases outside divorce ended in a settlement rather than a judgment.

The total value of rulings is rising, but it is not the amount paid

The final chart adds the amounts stated in final rulings issued in each year across both tracks. It therefore combines rulings covering different numbers of beneficiaries and does not show how many months payments were due.

The total conveys the scale of amounts covered by court decisions. It is neither Poland’s annual support bill nor a measure of money actually received by beneficiaries.

An award is not the same as payment

External research helps explain this report’s limitation but does not replace its data. The 2026 Institute of Justice report “Child-maintenance non-payment in Poland” uses interviews with judges, lawyers and bailiffs to describe barriers between an award and enforcement. It is qualitative research: it identifies mechanisms and professional experience, but does not estimate the nationwide share of unpaid maintenance.

A case-file study published in “Law in Action” in 2017 likewise examined enforcement proceedings in which enforcement had been ineffective. It is therefore not a sample of all maintenance cases. Both sources support keeping amounts awarded separate from amounts recovered, but neither permits the rulings charts to be converted into a payment-success rate.

Datasets - dane.gov.pl

• dane.gov.pl - dataset 236

  Primary open-data source from which the figures and charts in this report are computed. Individual files, reporting years, transformations and missing measurements are documented in the expanded methodology.

Datasets - GUS

• GUS BDL - średnioroczny wskaźnik cen towarów i usług konsumpcyjnych

  Primary open-data source from which the figures and charts in this report are computed. Individual files, reporting years, transformations and missing measurements are documented in the expanded methodology.

• GUS - przeciętne miesięczne wynagrodzenie w gospodarce narodowej w latach 1950–2025

  Primary open-data source from which the figures and charts in this report are computed. Individual files, reporting years, transformations and missing measurements are documented in the expanded methodology.