The State of Religion in Russia | ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

Rome, February 16, 2014 (Zenit.org) Father John Flynn, LC | 1496 hits

With the Winter Olympics, Russia has attracted attention on a variety of issues, among them religion. On Feb. 10 Pew Research published a report, “Russians Return to Religion, but Not to Church.” It compared the results from three sets of data (1991, 1998 and 2008) taken from the International Social Survey Programme.

The results showed a dramatic shift, in that between 1991 and 2008, the share of Russian adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%. In the same time span the share of Russia’s population that does not identify with any religion dropped from 61% to 18%.

According to the report there was a modest increase in the numbers of those identifying with other religions, such as Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism.

Religious belief has also increased in the period 1991-2008, with the proportion of Russian adults who said they are somewhat religious rising from 11% to 54%. Those who say they believe in God went from 38% to 56%. This last piece of data reveals the curious situation where while 72% identify as Orthodox Christians only 56% affirm they believe in God. Church attendance remains very low. All three surveys show that the number of those who attend at least once a month went from 2% in 1991 to only 7% in 2008.

See full report on the survey here:
The State of Religion in Russia | ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome