Abstract. We analytically study the relation between quark confinement and spontaneous chiral-symmetry breaking in QCD. In terms of the Dirac eigenmodes, we derive some formulae for the Polyakov loop, its fluctuations, and the string tension from the Wilson loop. We also investigate the Polyakov loop in terms of the eigenmodes of the Wilson, the clover and the domain wall fermion kernels, respectively. For the confinement quantities, the low-lying Dirac/fermion eigenmodes are found to give negligible contribution, while they are essential for chiral symmetry breaking. These relations indicate no direct one-toone correspondence between confinement and chiral symmetry breaking in QCD, which seems to be natural because confinement is realized independently of the quark mass.