Less than half of Poles, Slovaks and Hungarians think homosexuality should be accepted, study shows

Bratislava, Slovakia – Less than half of Poles, Slovaks and Hungarians believe homosexuality should be accepted by society, an international study by the Pew Research Centre shows.

Among V4 countries, the Czech Republic is the only one where a majority of respondents (59%) agree with the statement that homosexuality should be accepted by society, while 26% of Czechs think it shouldn’t.

Despite standing out as the most tolerant CEE country on the issue, this constitutes a sharp drop compared to the previous 2013 study, when as much as 80% of Czech respondents expressed their support in favour of homosexuality.

In contrast, only a minority of people in Hungary (49%), Poland (47%) and Slovakia (44%) thought that homosexuality should be accepted by society, according to the 2020 survey.

Contrary to the Czech Republic, acceptance towards homosexuality has grown in Poland compared to seven years ago (42%). A strong majority of Poles remain however opposed to both gay marriage and adoption of children by same-sex couples, local surveys have shown.

Hungary and Slovakia were not included in the 2013 survey. For more information, you can read our latest insight piece on the state of LGBT rights in both countries.

These results appear to confirm previous studies, which indicated a rising level of tolerance towards homosexuality in Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, and a drop in neighbouring Czech Republic.

Taking into account respondents who didn’t answer or didn’t know, people explicitly opposed to homosexuality being accepted by society also made up less than half of respondents among Slovaks (46%), Poles (42%) and Hungarians (39%) – with no clear majority emerging either way.

Generational divide remains an important faultline in all surveyed countries. In the Czech Republic (75%), Hungary (65%), Slovakia (61%) and Poland (60%), a majority of young respondents aged 18-29 thought society should accept homosexuality.

For more detailed results, you can see the full Pew Research Centre study here.