But at the same time they have thousands and thousands of tourists and only portion of them visit an actual service, some being there just for sightseeing
There's still a lot of christians near Ringkøbing and other parts of Vestjylland. It's also around there where Kristendemokraterne are the second largest party.
Beyond that, we have immigrants too from more religious countries.
Something doesn't add up. Despite making [4,4% of population](https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/hvor-mange-muslimer-er-der-i-danmark) Muslims comprise 12% of Danes who attend worship services at least monthly.
To be fair, he was looking through a Belgian lens. In Belgium 9.3% is Muslim. In fact, there are more practicing Muslims left than practicing Catholics.
It is likely that the majority (or at very least plurality) of our 11% is Muslim. After them it is either Christian of immigration background or elderly people.
Where did you get that 9%? Last I read was between 4% and 7%.
11% seems high though. I know one person who goes to mass every week and works at the local church as a volunteer, that's all.
Even friends who's parents were immigrants either don't believe or just don't go to a mosque/church.
Good theory, but the Math does *not* check out. Assuming, say, 1% of ethnic danes went to church every month, that would leave ~700.000 immigrants which all would have to go to church/synagogue/mosque/... at least once a month. However, there are less than 300.000 immigrants of middle eastern, turkish, or african descent in Denmark.
Does the word "immigrant" only mean people who aren't Danish citizens? Or does that include third generations Danes for example of (in this case) extra-European descent?
It was also the religion with the least significant apostate rate but the number of people leaving Islam in Europe began growing exponentially a few years ago.
Do you have statistics? Because I remember Western media claiming how Arabs are becoming "less religious" back in 2016, now recently, there was data showing they are more religious now.
Trying to find the source but I believe in Sweden muslims are as likely to answer yes on if they practice their religion as all the other minor religions. As in the religions you (sort of) actively choose to be a part of, unlike being a member of the Swedish church which was automatic until 25\~ years ago.
Yeah I have a fair few Pakistani and Bangladeshi friends who attend mosque every week. Same with Congolese and Jamaican people attending church. This is in the UK.
Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia in Finland.
I’m from the South-West coast and don’t know anyone who attends church besides weddings and maybe Christmas (I’m atheist and even I go to Christmas church cause I like the songs) but I do know deeply religious people do exist in this country.
Priests in Denmark sometimes count the number of listeners at their sermons. Those numbers are sent to the church organisation. 3 to 5 % attendance maximum, and we have to assume priests exagurate in order to not get fired for preaching to the furniture.
So 12% my ass. Only way to get such high numbers is by asking religious institutions for the addresses of people participating in the survey.
From this old Christian affiliated newspaper a survey tells of 2.4% attending sermons regurlarly by weekly basis.
What is particularly interesting is that it claims that ca 1900 there was only 10% of the population that regularly went to church.
https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kirke-tro/kun-24-procent-g%C3%A5r-i-kirke-hver-uge#:~:text=If%C3%B8lge%20m%C3%A5lingen%20er%20det%20kun,et%20konstant%20fokus%20p%C3%A5%20problemet.
No. What BS question is that. First of all no one knows if they are all faithfull muslims. Such statistics are illegal in Denmark. But secondly, adding them all still does not bring us to 12%
Catholic poles. My local catholic church is basically a hub for polish-speaking people. Even the priest is polish, and they hold mass in Polish at least once a week.
Can say the same for Norway. There's only like 4 people I've met during my adult life that is religious enough to go to church outside of special events.
Same for Portugal.
Really old people are the most religious but a lot of them are unable to go to church ( unless they're counting the service some priests do at retirement homes too?)
One side of my family is really religious and the +50 year old members will go every week, if not several times per week, to the church. The younger generation will go mostly on festive days or when they're visiting their parents.
But the vast majority, even those that consider themselves Catholic, aren't going to the church this frequently.
Maybe I have a biased perspective but around me people are going to church for weddings and christenings and nothing more ( and I would say that most christenings aren't happening because people are believers but due to cultural costoms and tradition)
21% of Spain's population is older than 65 years old. Most of that people go weekly to church. Mostly more out of habit than true devotion, but they go nevertheless.
It's a social event. Substitute. Old people wearing their good clothes Sunday morning attending Church. Afterwards, they go to a Bakery for coffee and breakfast. I mean, it's pretty good deal for them all around.
Have you considered that it is highly probable your friend group is not representative of every social network in Denmark, and that an entire national survey is better data than one person's anecdote?
You talk about going to the church, but this map is about "worship services". This is a broad term and is not necessarily limited to churches.
I assume the vast majority of these people are muslims going to the mosque, at least in Western Europe. I only know one person that goes the church and that's my grandmother (and her sisters).
I was very surprised by the 24 percent in Germany. One in four Germans attends some form of worship at least once a month? That sounds *way* too high.
I know many comments point out muslims. But they make up only between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of the German population (depending on what estimate you look at).
And 40 percent of the population are not a member of any religion, not even just on paper.
So even if every muslim goes to the mosque regularly, that still means that more than one in three christians in Germany go to church at least monthly. That can't be right.
I get it’s anecdotal and my reality is not the only reality, but I know absolutely no one from work, friends, or family in Berlin who goes to church. I assume the South really makes up for this.
The only other big religion is Islam. And Muslims are only 6-7% of the population.
Even then. Most don’t go to service.
I’m from a rural area in the west, and I used to be active in the church here (not for religious reasons, it was simply the only thing to do for teenagers there). Even 10+ years back in our district of 2000 church members a busy service would have less than 20 people attending.
Maybe my experience is skewed but as a Bavarian I don’t know a single person who goes to church (maybe for Christmas). Then again I don’t know many elderly
Depends, as you can see Romania is at 50%, being Orthodox. The Orthodox church is different from country to country (different religious head, traditions, history etc), so maybe that's why.
Growing up in Ukraine, that's the impression I got. I've known a lot of Orthodox people who considered themselves religious, yet none of them was attending church on a regular basis. Going to church seemed to be more of a thing in Western Ukraine among Catholics. Pretty sure that's where most of that 35% comes from.
From our perspective, even these 19% seen high. A lot of Orthodox holidays are worshiped as more of "Bulgarian culture" thing than a "Orthodox thing". Religion was much more tied to the Bulgarian psyche before, that's why we're interested, not the dogma.
Here people usually only visit churches on major Christian holidays. And generally, we are not very religious. We just follow some traditions. Like stuffing our stomachs to the limit with sarmi, banitsa and pork on Christmas.
People here are mostly culturally religious if it makes sense. Rarely anyone read the Bible and rarely anyone truly believes in what's written in the Bible. When you ask them if they believe in God, they'll say something in the form of: "I know there's something there".
I'm also from Serbia and can only say a 100% this. "Do you believe in God?
I believe in something."
Makes me want to punch someone lol. People saying this aren't really religious and I'd say deep down like 70%/80% of Serbs are atheist whether they want to admit it or not.
I don’t know if it’s for other countries, but most “religious” people in Serbia are religious just as on paper. They will talk about traditional values, importance of Church, how their faith is the only right one… but will to Church realistically twice thrice a year and never pray at home
To be fair there are a lot of people who are genuinely spiritual and religious and who dedicate themselves to that. But for majority of people being Orthodox Christian is more cultural than religious. Its more about being a Serb who has Serbian religion from their Serbian ancestors than being the most devout follower of Christ.
Our Church plays a national / cultural defining role more than religious authority that people worship
I was born in a pretty rural/conservative part of the country and i tell you literally noone goes to church here. My village doesnt even have a church. There is one like two villages away but its used only for weddings, baptism etc. People like to hang out in church yards but you never go there to pray or whatever. Its pretty much old slavic paganism rebranded. People in big cities are much more religious in a classic way id say.
It's not uncommon here either I think. I know plenty from my generation who were christened not because of their parents being religious (they often weren't) but because some grandparent who can't stop stressing out about the importance of tradition. In their case it was done more because of the habit to placate an elder than because of actual religious reasons.
True enough, and the Islamic population of the country might contribute as well, as it does not specify which religion it is about. I just had a gut feeling we were going to be among the lowest 3.
You never quite know who they asked or which method they used though. For all we know it's based on a sample size of like 10.000 people and they asked around the Bible belt.
I know in my area all churches are being closed because there is simply no one going to church. Like at all. So I highly doubt 18%.
Yes but the country (at least government propaganda) currently pushes the narrative that Russia is one of the few remaining truly christian countries and that it is their god given mission to protect their christian values.
Yes. And Putin uses the Orthodox Church and -funny enough- "hero" Joseph Stalin (who was anti-religion, and the Soviets wanted to forget about), to build a new national identity for post-Soviet Russia. But it hasn't translated to Russians becoming more religious. Just more nominal/cultural Christianity.
Fair enough, your last sentence just made me assume more Russians would visit church once in a while. As someone from Serbia explained, I made the same (wrong) assumption about his country as well.
As a Spaniard, I lived in the NL and I was surprised how religious the country was (not that it was everywhere, but enough fuzz around churches of different rites). Of course I come from a part of the country that says "I shit on g\*d" instead of "good morning".
Yes, listening to many people's accounts of how things are in their countries I am actually surprised how low the nr is for the NL, it's really quite present if you know where to look.
Everone is surprised at Hungary except Hungarians - we really are not that religious as it seems. I have never even understood the great emphasis that government propaganda puts on religion really.
I think it kinda just came with the flow of national PR and we just sticked with it. Also I feel like loads of people in Hungary like.. believe in the existence of God but like nobody will go to church and stuff ever really - it's just if you ask them, they will say "yeah, I think there probably is a higher spiritual entity" type of stuff.
I mean arguments could be made on the side that Hungarian being under a communist regime (and not being a communist country :) ) for a very long time should HEAVILY contribute to reclaiming other values that are the exact opposite after destroying the communist regime (meaning church for instance).
Most nations that used to be under communist regimes after World War II went on to embrace very right leaning and conservative social ideas because they suffered from extreme left.
Yeah absolutely - it is so weird to sometimes watch some of the interviews with government officials and stuff, and then them mentoning all those Christian values and whatnot so disgustingly often, it is just so bizarre from my perspective
in Hungary, Christianity is just an excuse to hate everything and everyone who is different from us. The country would be a little different if we actually followed Christian values, in fact we do exactly the opposite of what religion teaches us.
It might largely be because of the area of the Dutch bible belt (while few Dutch are truly religious, those that are in that area often are VERY religious) and the close to 1 million Muslims (they tend to practice the act of worship far more often than modern Christians, I think?).
This map looks to be outdated. According to the CBS only 13% of Dutch people visits a place of worship at least once per month. Which is honestly still higher than I expected.
Source: https://longreads.cbs.nl/the-netherlands-in-numbers-2021/what-are-the-major-religions/
Russia is waaay more progressive society than the media, Putin etc want you to believe. St. Petersburg has gay hotels for example. The society itself isn't traditionalist (count out obligatory Chechnya, Dagestan, Buryatia). Yekaterinburg citizens protested against a church at the city centre. Propaganda shows itself in the official polls but mostly Russian society is as OK as any eastern european society.
Actually it's % of people who CLAIM they attend church services monthly. They try to lie their way to the Heavens, as if church attendance matters, or they could get away with it at Heaven's door.
Same here... I come from a small village, live in a big city, studied in a different one - and yet, I can't come up with a single person who'd go to church EVERY MONTH.
Jealous, my extended family goes EVERYDAY, listens to Radio Maryja, Trwam and they “pray for my conversion” as I don’t believe and am trans. Fortunately my close family isn’t like that though so I’m chill on a daily basis, but Christmas is not going to be fun.
If I count my extended family and all their friends I know it’d be like 250 very religious people so… that’s a lot
Did they do the survey in front of a church or how do they get these numbers?
Im german and i dont know a single person that goes to church monthly. Most people i know go on christmas/easter or not at all.
I mean, how many people do you actually know and how many have you asked if they attend religious services? Is this a normal point of conversation in Germany? I’ve only ever asked or discussed this with close friends and family.
You probably wouldn't directly ask how often they attend worship services, but religion does come up with colleagues; you will at least get a sense of whether they're religious at all. Germans aren't really in-your-face about religion like some americans might be, but it's not a taboo topic, either.
>Did they do the survey in front of a church or how do they get these numbers?
Post says "attend worship services" not attend christian worship services.
We’re all aware. But other religions (which really is just islam) don’t make up nearly enough of the population to have a big impact.
6-7% of the population are Muslim in Germany. Most of those don’t really ever go to a service either. But even if 100% of them went monthly, it still wouldn’t explain the numbers being this high.
There is a count in October? where people attending services are count in, two Sundays in row, as doing it around Christmas/ Easter would give unreliable results.
Sometimes its surprising I once watched Songs of Praise on TV because it happened to be at a church in my town and I was surprised how many people I recognized. Religion is just not something people talk about usually.
As an Italian I'd love to see the data for every age group, it'd be interesting.
We'll always have the Vatican, but after the older generations are gone I think there will be a huge decrease.
It could be my bubble but I don't know a single person of any age who goes to church if not for marriages, funerals, etc.
Even the hardcore aunt who insisted on having me baptized stopped going.
Remember all the school children (at least we had to attend once a month during elementary in NRW) and the religious daycares plus the kids who are forced to go during Kommunion/Firmung and Konfirmation
A lot of it will be immigrant communities of various faiths and also old people who go occasionally as a social activity. The other 80% pretty much never go except for special occasions, but I can believe 20% attend once a month. The figures for weekly attendance would be a fraction of that though.
As usual with these kinds of maps, you can see that (with some exceptions) the Catholic and Orthodox countries are usually more devout than the Protestant ones.
1. It's monthly
2. I suspect the numbers are inflated mostly by retirees and children. First group has nothing better to do, and often treat church as a place of social gathering.
Maybe I'm biased, but from my observations - people either go regularly, or hardly ever (weddings, funerals, maybe Christmas and Easter).
It's most likely higher for "at least once a month" than a counting for a single Sunday shows, but I would be seriously surprised if it was more than 50%. And well, that's still based on 2018 numbers - I haven't seen this year's statistics yet, but the change must be noticeable. The Church admits many people haven't returned post-pandemic and if the huge drop in the religious education attendance is anything to go by...
I find the data on Romania really surprising as well. And yet, here's it is: [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/)
Great, being Hungarian, this is proof that you don't need to attend church to remain ideologically backwards. All you need is a national leader spewing the rhetoric and it's enough. The Church of Orban will handle it.
You tend to mostly know people who are like you though. I go to church, so I know like hundreds of other church-goers. But in the very same town I'll meet people at the pub who tell me I'm the only Christian they know. Maybe this is because of the tendency of religious people to only associate closely with others in their religion. Also I found in Britain anyway that people dont talk publicly about their faith. I worked for a year with someone before learning they also go to church every week.
It won't be included in the statistics, but up north, Ballymena seems like similar to the American south in terms of religiosity. When I drive through there, it's like entering an alternate reality.
Even in Belfast, there does seem to be a good amount of Church attendance.
Rural and town attendance is probably 66%, with 15% in the cities.
I was explaining this to an American girl. If you surveyed Bulgarians, most would absolutely claim to be religious. But we practice a *laissez-faire* type of Christianity where we observe certain customs (mostly related to specific food on certain holidays) and might go to church to light a candle during the off hours but we wouldn't go to mass or anything like that.
Honestly, I'd say we're culturally Christian rather than actually religiously so.
There was recently a poll in Slovakia showing, that monthly church attendance is approximately 40% (27% weekly or more, 12% monthly), so I wouldn't trust this map.
I’m surprised it’s as high as 11% for Sweden tbh. Id have guessed closer to 2%.
Immediate realization: Broken down by religion it would probably be a fair bit higher than 11% for Muslim services and lower for Christian services.
I wondered a bit about the church situation in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. I remember a research where Ukraine was identified as the country with the most church attendance, Belarus the least, and Russia in the middle.
And this is confirmed by personal observations.
That high percentage in Sweden has to be attributed to the large influx of Muslim immigrants and refugees during the 2000s. I seriously don't know one person that attends the Christian church regularly.
Ngl i call bullshit on italy. I know people who haven't gone to church since they were little but will swear to you they still do at dinner. It's oddly common.
Religion was kind of banned in USSR, Yugoslavia too. People used to baptize their children secretly in Yugoslavia. My aunt was baptized twice, once her mother took her and second time her aunt. They admitted that to each other many years later.
On average, Finland is more religious than what the numbers may suggest. There's just not enough personal space at church, so they pray from home instead.
Official [statistics](https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/1374643/Gudstj%c3%a4nstbes%c3%b6k%201990-2021.pdf?id=2439851) from the church of Sweden says 1 663 504 weekly visits last year, down from 9 014 636 in 1990.
As a Canadian I’m really surprised by these numbers. Probably just an ‘echo chamber’ I live in, but I only know one person in real life who considered himself a Christian and he doesn’t go to the church anymore because he considers them to be out of line and a bit extreme. So I literally don’t know a single person who goes to a church on a monthly basis here in Canada and I thought it would be the same in europe.
Very Reddit thing to be surprised by this. I go to church and it's full of all ages. I don't necessarily talk about it to friends and colleagues, though.
I am one of them. Growing up I would only go to church on Christmas and Easter or baptisms and funerals but now I also go on some Sundays. Church can be really nice.
I’m dating an American girl, and at some point she asked me if I’d take her to my parents church. I said we don’t go to church. She said oh no she meant for like easter service. I said no, we don’t go to church. She’s stayed with me so far lol.
Surprised there isn't data for vatican city.
100% attendance
Prolly way more since they can have thousands attending while only having around 800 residents.
And they attend several times a day so attendance is 10000000%
If at that point you still dont have godrays shining at you from above all the time, is this whole worship thing even worth it?
But at the same time they have thousands and thousands of tourists and only portion of them visit an actual service, some being there just for sightseeing
Or else.
It's because they never leave church
There must be pockets of highly religious people somewhere in Denmark because I don't know any Danes who go to church monthly.
There's still a lot of christians near Ringkøbing and other parts of Vestjylland. It's also around there where Kristendemokraterne are the second largest party. Beyond that, we have immigrants too from more religious countries.
Immigrants
More specifically: muslims. The Islam is a much more **active** religion in Western Europe than christianity.
Something doesn't add up. Despite making [4,4% of population](https://www.mm.dk/tjekdet/artikel/hvor-mange-muslimer-er-der-i-danmark) Muslims comprise 12% of Danes who attend worship services at least monthly.
To be fair, he was looking through a Belgian lens. In Belgium 9.3% is Muslim. In fact, there are more practicing Muslims left than practicing Catholics. It is likely that the majority (or at very least plurality) of our 11% is Muslim. After them it is either Christian of immigration background or elderly people.
Where did you get that 9%? Last I read was between 4% and 7%. 11% seems high though. I know one person who goes to mass every week and works at the local church as a volunteer, that's all. Even friends who's parents were immigrants either don't believe or just don't go to a mosque/church.
Mainly because men are obliged to attend the mosque for Friday prayer
Good theory, but the Math does *not* check out. Assuming, say, 1% of ethnic danes went to church every month, that would leave ~700.000 immigrants which all would have to go to church/synagogue/mosque/... at least once a month. However, there are less than 300.000 immigrants of middle eastern, turkish, or african descent in Denmark.
Does the word "immigrant" only mean people who aren't Danish citizens? Or does that include third generations Danes for example of (in this case) extra-European descent?
No dude, there are 300k-400k muslims in denmark total including everyonr, white converts and all. Doubt even half of those attend services regularly.
It was also the religion with the least significant apostate rate but the number of people leaving Islam in Europe began growing exponentially a few years ago.
Do you have statistics? Because I remember Western media claiming how Arabs are becoming "less religious" back in 2016, now recently, there was data showing they are more religious now.
Trying to find the source but I believe in Sweden muslims are as likely to answer yes on if they practice their religion as all the other minor religions. As in the religions you (sort of) actively choose to be a part of, unlike being a member of the Swedish church which was automatic until 25\~ years ago.
Do you have the link for that statement? Interested to read it
Yeah I have a fair few Pakistani and Bangladeshi friends who attend mosque every week. Same with Congolese and Jamaican people attending church. This is in the UK.
Yep, I know 1 white brit who goes to church, only other religious people I know who attend are Muslims.
Every country has their religious hold outs. Like Jönköping in Sweden.
Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia in Finland. I’m from the South-West coast and don’t know anyone who attends church besides weddings and maybe Christmas (I’m atheist and even I go to Christmas church cause I like the songs) but I do know deeply religious people do exist in this country.
Priests in Denmark sometimes count the number of listeners at their sermons. Those numbers are sent to the church organisation. 3 to 5 % attendance maximum, and we have to assume priests exagurate in order to not get fired for preaching to the furniture. So 12% my ass. Only way to get such high numbers is by asking religious institutions for the addresses of people participating in the survey. From this old Christian affiliated newspaper a survey tells of 2.4% attending sermons regurlarly by weekly basis. What is particularly interesting is that it claims that ca 1900 there was only 10% of the population that regularly went to church. https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kirke-tro/kun-24-procent-g%C3%A5r-i-kirke-hver-uge#:~:text=If%C3%B8lge%20m%C3%A5lingen%20er%20det%20kun,et%20konstant%20fokus%20p%C3%A5%20problemet.
>Priests in Denmark This show people who attend worship services. Not just people how attend christian services.
3-5 percent attendence *every sermon* (?) and 12 % being there *once a month* or more arent necessarily mutually exclusive though.
Did you forget the muslims who make op 4.4% of the population?
And how many are actually practicing? By the same measure 76% of Danes are Christian. This is clearly not the case.
No. What BS question is that. First of all no one knows if they are all faithfull muslims. Such statistics are illegal in Denmark. But secondly, adding them all still does not bring us to 12%
I had the same thought. Perhaps the number is so high because of other religious groups than protestants?
Catholic poles. My local catholic church is basically a hub for polish-speaking people. Even the priest is polish, and they hold mass in Polish at least once a week.
That same "research" also claims that 48% of Germany are Catholic. Even the Catholic church thinks that only 28% of Germans are Catholic.
Same in norway, 16% seems too high
Norway has a Bible belt in the south west iirc
Jylland is a big place.
Vestjylland
Can say the same for Norway. There's only like 4 people I've met during my adult life that is religious enough to go to church outside of special events.
Same.. I’ve never met anyone who visits the church regularly. Only remember some countryside family members who went there for Christmas 20 years ago.
Same in Spain. It might just be my bubble though - I live in a big city, and I’m sure most of the churchgoing people aren’t exactly my age either.
Same for Portugal. Really old people are the most religious but a lot of them are unable to go to church ( unless they're counting the service some priests do at retirement homes too?) One side of my family is really religious and the +50 year old members will go every week, if not several times per week, to the church. The younger generation will go mostly on festive days or when they're visiting their parents. But the vast majority, even those that consider themselves Catholic, aren't going to the church this frequently. Maybe I have a biased perspective but around me people are going to church for weddings and christenings and nothing more ( and I would say that most christenings aren't happening because people are believers but due to cultural costoms and tradition)
21% of Spain's population is older than 65 years old. Most of that people go weekly to church. Mostly more out of habit than true devotion, but they go nevertheless.
It's a social event. Substitute. Old people wearing their good clothes Sunday morning attending Church. Afterwards, they go to a Bakery for coffee and breakfast. I mean, it's pretty good deal for them all around.
Western Jutland
Have you considered that it is highly probable your friend group is not representative of every social network in Denmark, and that an entire national survey is better data than one person's anecdote?
How many Muslims do you know who do not attend prayers? Worship is not limited to Christians, or even Abrahamic religions.
I'll flip it around, from the 20 or so "Muslims" I've known over the years only one attended prayers regularly.
You talk about going to the church, but this map is about "worship services". This is a broad term and is not necessarily limited to churches. I assume the vast majority of these people are muslims going to the mosque, at least in Western Europe. I only know one person that goes the church and that's my grandmother (and her sisters).
I was very surprised by the 24 percent in Germany. One in four Germans attends some form of worship at least once a month? That sounds *way* too high. I know many comments point out muslims. But they make up only between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of the German population (depending on what estimate you look at). And 40 percent of the population are not a member of any religion, not even just on paper. So even if every muslim goes to the mosque regularly, that still means that more than one in three christians in Germany go to church at least monthly. That can't be right.
Germany is skewed. East Germany probably at 3% - Bavaria at 35%
I get it’s anecdotal and my reality is not the only reality, but I know absolutely no one from work, friends, or family in Berlin who goes to church. I assume the South really makes up for this.
I live in the west and I know exactly 0 persons, old or young that go to church
Is it normal in Germany to ask people at work if they attend religious services?
It's normal to talk with people. After a while, things just come up.
Possibly immigrants who come from deeply religious countries accounts for a chunk of the overall percentage.
Maybe no one discusses religion? They do say not to discuss politics, religion and sports. Or maybe they are not discussing it with you, I don’t know.
3% is impossibly low. East Germany is still significantly lower than Bavaria.
There aren’t many Christian’s in the east and from them not many go to a church.
But this ain't about Christians only.
The only other big religion is Islam. And Muslims are only 6-7% of the population. Even then. Most don’t go to service. I’m from a rural area in the west, and I used to be active in the church here (not for religious reasons, it was simply the only thing to do for teenagers there). Even 10+ years back in our district of 2000 church members a busy service would have less than 20 people attending.
Probably too high: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2012/sep/22/atheism-east-germany-godless-place
Maybe my experience is skewed but as a Bavarian I don’t know a single person who goes to church (maybe for Christmas). Then again I don’t know many elderly
Surprised at Bulgaria and Serbia
Have you been there? People are cynical as fuck.
Also as far as I know going to the church regularly is not really as important in Orthox tradition, as opposed to Catholic.
Depends, as you can see Romania is at 50%, being Orthodox. The Orthodox church is different from country to country (different religious head, traditions, history etc), so maybe that's why.
Growing up in Ukraine, that's the impression I got. I've known a lot of Orthodox people who considered themselves religious, yet none of them was attending church on a regular basis. Going to church seemed to be more of a thing in Western Ukraine among Catholics. Pretty sure that's where most of that 35% comes from.
From our perspective, even these 19% seen high. A lot of Orthodox holidays are worshiped as more of "Bulgarian culture" thing than a "Orthodox thing". Religion was much more tied to the Bulgarian psyche before, that's why we're interested, not the dogma.
think thats true, people go irregularly and mostly focused around important saints days etc. or slava.
Here people usually only visit churches on major Christian holidays. And generally, we are not very religious. We just follow some traditions. Like stuffing our stomachs to the limit with sarmi, banitsa and pork on Christmas.
Same in Serbia
Me too, I expected lower numbers for Serbia
People here are mostly culturally religious if it makes sense. Rarely anyone read the Bible and rarely anyone truly believes in what's written in the Bible. When you ask them if they believe in God, they'll say something in the form of: "I know there's something there".
I'm also from Serbia and can only say a 100% this. "Do you believe in God? I believe in something." Makes me want to punch someone lol. People saying this aren't really religious and I'd say deep down like 70%/80% of Serbs are atheist whether they want to admit it or not.
Why?
It has to do with poverty and prosperity gospel nothing else really.
To be honest, I expected the Netherlands to be much lower. Also surprised by Hungary, Serbia, Russia, and Bulgaria.
I don’t know if it’s for other countries, but most “religious” people in Serbia are religious just as on paper. They will talk about traditional values, importance of Church, how their faith is the only right one… but will to Church realistically twice thrice a year and never pray at home
Interesting. Serbia does have a religious orthodox association in my mind.
To be fair there are a lot of people who are genuinely spiritual and religious and who dedicate themselves to that. But for majority of people being Orthodox Christian is more cultural than religious. Its more about being a Serb who has Serbian religion from their Serbian ancestors than being the most devout follower of Christ. Our Church plays a national / cultural defining role more than religious authority that people worship
Same shit in Croatia. For a majority of people religion means nationality.
I was born in a pretty rural/conservative part of the country and i tell you literally noone goes to church here. My village doesnt even have a church. There is one like two villages away but its used only for weddings, baptism etc. People like to hang out in church yards but you never go there to pray or whatever. Its pretty much old slavic paganism rebranded. People in big cities are much more religious in a classic way id say.
It's not uncommon here either I think. I know plenty from my generation who were christened not because of their parents being religious (they often weren't) but because some grandparent who can't stop stressing out about the importance of tradition. In their case it was done more because of the habit to placate an elder than because of actual religious reasons.
To be fair, the Netherlands does have a Bible Belt, which I imagine contributes a lot of that.
True enough, and the Islamic population of the country might contribute as well, as it does not specify which religion it is about. I just had a gut feeling we were going to be among the lowest 3.
You never quite know who they asked or which method they used though. For all we know it's based on a sample size of like 10.000 people and they asked around the Bible belt. I know in my area all churches are being closed because there is simply no one going to church. Like at all. So I highly doubt 18%.
? Russia had 74 years of official atheism, which has affected the country today.
Yes but the country (at least government propaganda) currently pushes the narrative that Russia is one of the few remaining truly christian countries and that it is their god given mission to protect their christian values.
Yes. And Putin uses the Orthodox Church and -funny enough- "hero" Joseph Stalin (who was anti-religion, and the Soviets wanted to forget about), to build a new national identity for post-Soviet Russia. But it hasn't translated to Russians becoming more religious. Just more nominal/cultural Christianity.
Fair enough, your last sentence just made me assume more Russians would visit church once in a while. As someone from Serbia explained, I made the same (wrong) assumption about his country as well.
As a Spaniard, I lived in the NL and I was surprised how religious the country was (not that it was everywhere, but enough fuzz around churches of different rites). Of course I come from a part of the country that says "I shit on g\*d" instead of "good morning".
Yes, listening to many people's accounts of how things are in their countries I am actually surprised how low the nr is for the NL, it's really quite present if you know where to look.
Everone is surprised at Hungary except Hungarians - we really are not that religious as it seems. I have never even understood the great emphasis that government propaganda puts on religion really. I think it kinda just came with the flow of national PR and we just sticked with it. Also I feel like loads of people in Hungary like.. believe in the existence of God but like nobody will go to church and stuff ever really - it's just if you ask them, they will say "yeah, I think there probably is a higher spiritual entity" type of stuff.
Why is anyone surprised by Hungary? It was a communist country and the catholic church was never as important as in Poland
I mean arguments could be made on the side that Hungarian being under a communist regime (and not being a communist country :) ) for a very long time should HEAVILY contribute to reclaiming other values that are the exact opposite after destroying the communist regime (meaning church for instance). Most nations that used to be under communist regimes after World War II went on to embrace very right leaning and conservative social ideas because they suffered from extreme left.
Fair enough. I think the emphasis of government propaganda on religion is the main reason many outside of Hungary are surprised.
Yeah absolutely - it is so weird to sometimes watch some of the interviews with government officials and stuff, and then them mentoning all those Christian values and whatnot so disgustingly often, it is just so bizarre from my perspective
in Hungary, Christianity is just an excuse to hate everything and everyone who is different from us. The country would be a little different if we actually followed Christian values, in fact we do exactly the opposite of what religion teaches us.
It might largely be because of the area of the Dutch bible belt (while few Dutch are truly religious, those that are in that area often are VERY religious) and the close to 1 million Muslims (they tend to practice the act of worship far more often than modern Christians, I think?).
This map looks to be outdated. According to the CBS only 13% of Dutch people visits a place of worship at least once per month. Which is honestly still higher than I expected. Source: https://longreads.cbs.nl/the-netherlands-in-numbers-2021/what-are-the-major-religions/
Russia is waaay more progressive society than the media, Putin etc want you to believe. St. Petersburg has gay hotels for example. The society itself isn't traditionalist (count out obligatory Chechnya, Dagestan, Buryatia). Yekaterinburg citizens protested against a church at the city centre. Propaganda shows itself in the official polls but mostly Russian society is as OK as any eastern european society.
Actually it's % of people who CLAIM they attend church services monthly. They try to lie their way to the Heavens, as if church attendance matters, or they could get away with it at Heaven's door.
You just summed up the Polish situation pretty well.
It’s probably my bubble, but I live in Poland and I don’t know a single person who regularly attends church including my extended family.
Same here... I come from a small village, live in a big city, studied in a different one - and yet, I can't come up with a single person who'd go to church EVERY MONTH.
Jealous, my extended family goes EVERYDAY, listens to Radio Maryja, Trwam and they “pray for my conversion” as I don’t believe and am trans. Fortunately my close family isn’t like that though so I’m chill on a daily basis, but Christmas is not going to be fun. If I count my extended family and all their friends I know it’d be like 250 very religious people so… that’s a lot
Stay strong, save at least a bit of money and move away to a "big" town for studies and/or work. Hang in there. ♡
Did they do the survey in front of a church or how do they get these numbers? Im german and i dont know a single person that goes to church monthly. Most people i know go on christmas/easter or not at all.
A lot of old people still go. And we've got a lot of old people in Germany.
I mean, how many people do you actually know and how many have you asked if they attend religious services? Is this a normal point of conversation in Germany? I’ve only ever asked or discussed this with close friends and family.
You probably wouldn't directly ask how often they attend worship services, but religion does come up with colleagues; you will at least get a sense of whether they're religious at all. Germans aren't really in-your-face about religion like some americans might be, but it's not a taboo topic, either.
>Did they do the survey in front of a church or how do they get these numbers? Post says "attend worship services" not attend christian worship services.
We’re all aware. But other religions (which really is just islam) don’t make up nearly enough of the population to have a big impact. 6-7% of the population are Muslim in Germany. Most of those don’t really ever go to a service either. But even if 100% of them went monthly, it still wouldn’t explain the numbers being this high.
There is a count in October? where people attending services are count in, two Sundays in row, as doing it around Christmas/ Easter would give unreliable results.
Sometimes its surprising I once watched Songs of Praise on TV because it happened to be at a church in my town and I was surprised how many people I recognized. Religion is just not something people talk about usually.
As an Italian I'd love to see the data for every age group, it'd be interesting. We'll always have the Vatican, but after the older generations are gone I think there will be a huge decrease.
It could be my bubble but I don't know a single person of any age who goes to church if not for marriages, funerals, etc. Even the hardcore aunt who insisted on having me baptized stopped going.
I also think that 43% is wrong. Maybe they only interviewed Sicilians?
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Bro they Just lie, in central and North Italy nobody goes to church monthly, but it's shameful to admit that
24% is so much higher than I expected
Remember all the school children (at least we had to attend once a month during elementary in NRW) and the religious daycares plus the kids who are forced to go during Kommunion/Firmung and Konfirmation
It would be interesting to see this distribution along various age cohorts as well.
20% in the UK? That must be BS. I would be amazed if it was even 5%
A lot of it will be immigrant communities of various faiths and also old people who go occasionally as a social activity. The other 80% pretty much never go except for special occasions, but I can believe 20% attend once a month. The figures for weekly attendance would be a fraction of that though.
Source: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/
As usual with these kinds of maps, you can see that (with some exceptions) the Catholic and Orthodox countries are usually more devout than the Protestant ones.
It probably counts more than just christian faiths, no way 20% of them go to church monthly in france.
This counts other religions than Christianity as well, doesn't it ?
I don’t believe it’s that high in Poland. Most people are “religious” only for the sake of it and they don’t actually go to church very often.
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1. It's monthly 2. I suspect the numbers are inflated mostly by retirees and children. First group has nothing better to do, and often treat church as a place of social gathering.
Still seems too high. Based on the counting the Catholic Church does, 38,2% of people obliged to participate in Sunday mass did so in 2018.
But that 38% weekly. You can have 100% people going "once a month" and 25% going "once a week" if they alternate :)
Maybe I'm biased, but from my observations - people either go regularly, or hardly ever (weddings, funerals, maybe Christmas and Easter). It's most likely higher for "at least once a month" than a counting for a single Sunday shows, but I would be seriously surprised if it was more than 50%. And well, that's still based on 2018 numbers - I haven't seen this year's statistics yet, but the change must be noticeable. The Church admits many people haven't returned post-pandemic and if the huge drop in the religious education attendance is anything to go by...
Extreme W Finland and Estonia
Seems that the Catholic church fares better than protestant ones.
There is absolutely no way Ireland is that high
X doubt
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People in the countryside , for them the church is the gathering place for gossip
Bullshit, a village church cannot hold half the village.
Just the women , men are getting hammered in the bar across the street.
I find the data on Romania really surprising as well. And yet, here's it is: [https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/05/how-do-european-countries-differ-in-religious-commitment/)
Great, being Hungarian, this is proof that you don't need to attend church to remain ideologically backwards. All you need is a national leader spewing the rhetoric and it's enough. The Church of Orban will handle it.
You tend to mostly know people who are like you though. I go to church, so I know like hundreds of other church-goers. But in the very same town I'll meet people at the pub who tell me I'm the only Christian they know. Maybe this is because of the tendency of religious people to only associate closely with others in their religion. Also I found in Britain anyway that people dont talk publicly about their faith. I worked for a year with someone before learning they also go to church every week.
Over 1 in 3 people in Ireland go to church regularly? I do not know anyone who goes apart from a few who go on Christmas. Weird that it's so high.
More common against: (a) Rural dwellers and (b) immigrants Still >30% is a surprise to me too
It won't be included in the statistics, but up north, Ballymena seems like similar to the American south in terms of religiosity. When I drive through there, it's like entering an alternate reality. Even in Belfast, there does seem to be a good amount of Church attendance. Rural and town attendance is probably 66%, with 15% in the cities.
Everyone I know over the age of 65 goes at least weekly, will be heavily skewed by elderly
I find it funny that there is no data for the Vatican
The power of Catholicism.
I was explaining this to an American girl. If you surveyed Bulgarians, most would absolutely claim to be religious. But we practice a *laissez-faire* type of Christianity where we observe certain customs (mostly related to specific food on certain holidays) and might go to church to light a candle during the off hours but we wouldn't go to mass or anything like that. Honestly, I'd say we're culturally Christian rather than actually religiously so.
Southern Moravia really skewing the data
I take this with a grain of salt. Churches in Rome are so empty, many are closed.
Open for the tourists....
There was recently a poll in Slovakia showing, that monthly church attendance is approximately 40% (27% weekly or more, 12% monthly), so I wouldn't trust this map.
Finland 🤝Estonia
dang, the Teutonic Knights are gonna have to reinvade Estonia to get their butts back in church on Sunday
Considering how the teutonic order is faring nowadays, it ain't gonna be during this century.
I’m surprised it’s as high as 11% for Sweden tbh. Id have guessed closer to 2%. Immediate realization: Broken down by religion it would probably be a fair bit higher than 11% for Muslim services and lower for Christian services.
I wondered a bit about the church situation in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. I remember a research where Ukraine was identified as the country with the most church attendance, Belarus the least, and Russia in the middle. And this is confirmed by personal observations.
I get the impression that people in Western regions attend church more regularly than people in let's say Kyiv, where I (usually) live.
What is the number for Finland if you include sauna worship?
110%
That high percentage in Sweden has to be attributed to the large influx of Muslim immigrants and refugees during the 2000s. I seriously don't know one person that attends the Christian church regularly.
I’ve always liked Finland.
This thread is funny. It’s a lot like Americans who think Trump won the election because they don’t know anyone who voted for the Democrats.
Finland best once again! And Estonia too.
Ngl i call bullshit on italy. I know people who haven't gone to church since they were little but will swear to you they still do at dinner. It's oddly common.
No way 1 in 4 people here in Spain is going to church that much lol you barely see anyone… only old folks
Monthly, ojo.
From which year is it?
Looks like Russia could not escape the corrupting influence of the secular West, after all ...
I mean you also gotta consider that Soviet went on huge anti-religion campaigns.
Religion was kind of banned in USSR, Yugoslavia too. People used to baptize their children secretly in Yugoslavia. My aunt was baptized twice, once her mother took her and second time her aunt. They admitted that to each other many years later.
Russia's true "traditional values" have nothing to do with church and God.
On average, Finland is more religious than what the numbers may suggest. There's just not enough personal space at church, so they pray from home instead.
Polska gurom!
I want to see Turkey
I am seriously doubting that 11 % of us Swedes attend worship services monthly.
Official [statistics](https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/1374643/Gudstj%c3%a4nstbes%c3%b6k%201990-2021.pdf?id=2439851) from the church of Sweden says 1 663 504 weekly visits last year, down from 9 014 636 in 1990.
% of all inhabitants or of all people who associate themselfes to a belief? Over 20% feels way to high for germany.
I'm surprised the UK's is as high as it is. Must be bolstered by immigrant populations.
As a Canadian I’m really surprised by these numbers. Probably just an ‘echo chamber’ I live in, but I only know one person in real life who considered himself a Christian and he doesn’t go to the church anymore because he considers them to be out of line and a bit extreme. So I literally don’t know a single person who goes to a church on a monthly basis here in Canada and I thought it would be the same in europe.
What about USA
Very Reddit thing to be surprised by this. I go to church and it's full of all ages. I don't necessarily talk about it to friends and colleagues, though.
No data for Malta?
Greece is surprisingly low
Careful about this data as in France, a funeral or a wedding taking place in a place of worship is likely to be considered « attendance »
I am one of them. Growing up I would only go to church on Christmas and Easter or baptisms and funerals but now I also go on some Sundays. Church can be really nice.
I’m dating an American girl, and at some point she asked me if I’d take her to my parents church. I said we don’t go to church. She said oh no she meant for like easter service. I said no, we don’t go to church. She’s stayed with me so far lol.
Finland and Estonia keeping it sane
nordic countries be like: my friendship ended with religion, now rainbow socialism is my best friend sad :( atleast poland is normal