## 4 Discussion  
The results show that the level of education and the place of residency have consequently an impact on the assessment of the state of the natural environment in Poland, \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**[PERSON]’s Rank Correlation** & **Total Points Obtained** \\ \hline Assessment of the state of the environment in Poland and in Rybnik & Correlation coefficient & \(-0.34\) \\ \hline Assessment of the state of the natural environment in Poland and in Rybnik & Relevance (bilateral) & \(<0.001\) \\ \hline Assessment of the state of the natural environment in and around Rybnik & Correlation coefficient & \(-0.27\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 16: Relationship between the level of environmental knowledge and the assessment of the state of the natural environment in Poland and in Rybnik. [PERSON]’s rank correlation coefficient values. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Study Group** & **M** & **SD** & **F** & \(p\) \\ \hline Teachers + other staff & 29.3 & 7.09 & & \\ Parents & 28.5 & 9.28 & 6.71 & 0.002 \\ Social care home employees & 22.9 & 7.64 & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
M—mean, SD—standard deviation, F—statistic for ANOVA test, \(p\)—significance level.  
\end{table} 
Table 14: Evaluation of the level of environmental knowledge in the sub-groups of respondents. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**[PERSON]’s Rank Correlation** & **Total Points Obtained** \\ \hline \hline
**Age** & Correlation coefficient & \(-0.15\) \\  & Relevance (bilateral) & 0.068 \\ \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Place of residence} & Correlation coefficient & 0.17 \\  & Relevance (bilateral) & 0.047 \\ \hline Educational level (Social care & Correlation coefficient & 0.33 \\   home employees only) & Relevance (bilateral) & 0.058 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 15: Relationship between age, place of residence, level of education, and level of environmental knowledge. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient values. and the level of environmental, organic, and nutritional knowledge. It is similar to the results from the Tracking Survey on Ecological Awareness and Behaviour of Polish Citizens (Analysis for the Ministry of the Environment, 2018) [21]  
There was a statistically significant correlation between the level of education of the Social Care Home employees and the assessment of the state of the natural environment in Poland. Even thought correlation analysis showed no statistically significant relationships between age, level of education and awareness and the level of knowledge of environmental, agricultural and health problems, respondents providing a higher number of correct answers and rated the state of the environment in Poland and in Rybnik lower. Probably, it is connected to the data presented by the 2020 Study on awareness and ecological behaviour of Polish citizens [30] stating that respondents with secondary and higher education are more likely to learn about environmental issues from the media and the Internet than those with primary and lower secondary education. The level of environmental and nutritional knowledge of the respondents was found to be correlated most with the place of residence. Respondents living in the larger towns scored higher. This finding follows the results presented in other publications differentiating the level of knowledge between rural and urban residents [31], and improvements on their nutritional intake [32] and some environmental action [33]. In Silesian research, the rural inhabitancy was particularly associated with higher obesity risk [34]. Diet of Polish students from the rural areas was also demonstrated to be less healthy than the students from the cities [35]. The study on the environmental awareness and attitudes of Polish farmers suggested designing a model for life-long learning, including formal education and adult education for the rural population to shape enduring pro-environmental attitudes [36].