Mateusz Gołąb/WBJ

Poland is considered a relatively religious, conservative country by European standards, but that doesn't mean that Poles view the Church as having the greatest influence in their lives.

In a survey recently conducted by GfK Polonia for Rzeczpospolita daily, 42 percent of those polled said that the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) had the greatest effect on their lives. The National Heath Fund (NFZ) placed second.

“This result does not surprise us, because ZUS accompanies a person throughout his life,” ZUS spokesperson Przemysław Przybylski told the daily.

Others agreed. "It is not surprising at all that Poles perceive ZUS and the NFZ as the two institutions having the greatest impact on their lives," Bartosz Marczuk, a social policy expert at the Sobieski Institute, told WBJ.pl.

People around the country depend on insurance systems such as ZUS and KRUS (the pension system for farmers) for matters related to their day-to-day lives, Mr Marczuk explained. “In Poland, 9.8 million people receive some kind of pension every month. Many of these have families,” he said. “We can therefore assume that every day about 20 million people live on what these systems pay them.”

ZUS beat NFZ (40 percent), the Catholic Church (38 percent) and the tax office (34 percent). Just 20 percent said that the police force had the most influence in their lives, while nine percent said the army. Survey participants could choose five institutions.