Europe is Losing its Religion - The Data

A bit dry this one but confirmation on what I have long suspected that most of Europe is following the same path as the United Kingdom and slowly ascending into the beautiful heaven of irreligious sanity!

To support my work go to:

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[George]

Atheism: Belief in no higher power.
Does your "God" believe in a higher power? No??
If it is good enough for a god it is good enough for me.

[DutchJoan]

About Germany. The "Gemeindezentrum" in villages and towns is often church owned. Everything is done there that is significant for the community and the government provide services there. At least it was that way up to 20 years ago.

Whereas in the Netherlands, where I live, community centers are government owned. Sometimes the government can use space in a church for specific things like a polling station, but they are not allowed to provide regular services through church accomodations.

This connection between church and government services might explain the difference in the graphics.

[truszkovsky]

I think in Poland there's a rise of young non-believers. I'm an atheist myself and the more people i meet (I live in Poland) of my age (16) are atheist. The older people though are really religious. This is my experience alone though. Also parents are usually very concerned with their children's believes and often kids have to believe

[junkfoodvegan]

If I should take a guess what it is with germany, I would say it was the reunion we had in the 1990`s and with it the resettlement of former german families who were deported far into the east of the UdSSR. The so called "Russland-Deutsche" who started coming back after 1990 were mostly highly religious and surpressed for it under the communist regime (on top of being surpressed for beig german). And this religiousity can also be seen in the generation of their childern, althought some of them just proclaim it because the think they need to in order to keep their parents happy.

[richardlbowles]

"The Rise of the Nuns" I'd pay good money to watch that film.

[LividImp]

The Czech data doesn't shock me. I knew people that still attended church in the US, but were in fact open atheists. They did it because church was so ingrained in the local culture that it was more the weekly social event, rather than a religious event.

[Muldini]

The atypical development for „Germany“ is easily explained, and it’s neither WW2 nor migrants – it’s the reunification.

East Germany during the GDR times has become probably the most atheist region in the world.

A 2012 study from the University of Chicago in 30 predominantly Christian countries found that the category „strong atheist“ was 0, 1% in the Phillipines (last place), „Germany, West“ came out at rank 17 with 4, 6%, and the Czech Rep landed on rank 2 with 26%. Number one was „Germany, East“ with a distant 46, 1%.

Looking at people aged under 28, 71, 6% of East Germans said that they have never believed in a God.

A survey on Germany as a whole does not incorporate the strong divide between both parts of the country.

[lyndawilliams]

Cant happen soon enough for me, Im tired of 'policy' being influenced by what some shamen saw in a drug fueled haze five thousand years ago.

[MrAntiKnowledge]

Europe is Losing its Religion? Thank God!




....wait, not that.

[iamgoddard]

A fascinating relation is between _religiosity_ and _fertility._ Over time they appear to decline in tandem with the least religious societies falling below the replacement rate. And there is also a 'dose response' such that cohorts with greater religiosity have greater fertility in the same society at the same time. The data on that are very consistent. Wealth of nations also reduces fertility, so other factors are at play. But suppose the religiosity relation reflects a causal factor (uncertain from correlation alone but the 'dose response' is suggestive), it might be relevant to the question of why religions have been so pervasive across human history... they promote fertility.

[Texnodias]

20% of young Estonian being christians seems high

[burke]

I love that overlay on screen at 10:45. Nice work, Noel, especially since you clearly had to do a lot of moving data around!

[perkalov]

The difference in graph one and two is likely young people going to church with the family (who are religious or do it out of tradition) or they go with their religious

I am an lifelong atheist at age of 44 and I can say I go to church less then once a year, but never? Nahh... My father tends to drag me to church once in a while, not because he is believes but to him its a tradition that needs to be kept.


Also, I had my daughter singing with the local church choir when she was about 5, that had me going to mass a couple of times a year to watch her perform.


You are pointing out that which was already known, not everyone that visit the church is theists. This isn't anything new. There are simply "secular" reasons to visit church, aside from marriage, baptism and funerals.

[smelkus]

That's Europe in the corner losing it's religion

[Tscottmorey]

Great analysis. Thanks for taking the time & making the effort to look at the numbers.

[dmac]

I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of these young people who don't believe but still attend church do it for the community connection...good thing we're working harder and harder everyday in the secular world to provide this sort of service...slow but steady

[Ghost-pbts]

Japan and China almost have 90% non religious people
Their religions are bit different from traditional religion
But technically they aren't religious

[engineeredlifeform]

On the Germanic anomaly, and the data flattening out, .... aren't our Germanic cousins taxed to fund the Church? Maybe it cultural resignation.

[ChilledfishStick]

I'm pretty sure that the data about Israel is misleading. The vast majority of atheists in Israel will identify as Jewish, so they're asking the wrong question.
As you've said in the beginning, the answer to whether you believe in a God, is not the same as whether you associate yourself with a religion.

[davidmurphy]

Fascinating and heartening. Thanks for that.