People in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Sweden are more interested in “spirituality” than in “religion”. A global survey shows that China and Indonesia have a great interest in religion.
A church in Barcelona (Spain). Camille Minouflet (Unsplash, CC)
Europe is a secularised continent and the interest in religion is much lower than in the rest of the world. This has been confirmed again by a major “Global Trends” survey.
Ipsos Mori asked 18,000 people in 23 countries about many of areas of life, including the use of technology, personal health, the way environmental protection is perceived and how they see the future.
Desire for more spirituality in daily life. / Ipsos MoriClick here to see full-size graph.
When asked about faith, 84% of respondents from China said they agreed with the statement: “I am interested in having a more spiritual dimension in my daily life.”
Eight in ten people in Indonesia, South Africa and Peru did also express this longing for more spirituality.
Importance of religion. / Ipsos MoriClick here to see see full-size graph.
Another question was about the people’s practice of religion. Countries like Indonesia (93%), South Africa (88%), India (78%) and Turkey (77%) had many respondents saying they agreed with the statement: “My religion / faith is very important to me.”
According to the study, based on answers given in September-October 2016, the interest in religion has grown and become a majority worldwide. In 2014, less than half agreed with the sentence “my religion / faith I very important to me” in the same survey. Now, 53% did so.
EUROPEANS MORE “SPIRITUAL” THAN “RELIGIOUS”
Participants from European countries Germany, Belgium, Poland, Great Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Sweden, Russia and Turkey took part in the survey.
When asked about their view of faith, respondents in these conutries generally ranked below respondents from the other continents (except in the case of Turkey).
My faith is very important to me | More spirituality daily life
Turkey 77% (up since 2014) | 71%
Poland 60% (up) | 37%
Russia 58% (up) | 63%
Italy 52% (up) | 53%
Germany 38% (up) | 34%
Spain 33 % (up) | 58%
France 30% (up) | 40%
GB 30% (up) | 40%
Sweden 29% (up) | 31%
Belgium 27% (down) | 35%
EUROPEANS MORE OPEN TO FAITH THAN in 2014
The interest in spirituality was higher than the appreciation of religion in most of the countries.
And, except for Belgium, there is an increased interest in faith in all European countries surveyed, when the numbers are compared to 2014.
Read the full “Global Trends” report on the Ipsos Mori's website.
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