Religion statistics in Sweden?

Question

What are the accurate statistics of faith among the Swedish population? State your source, if possible.

I've heard that Sweden is a very secular nation, and up to 85% of the population are irreligious...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion

Can anyone verify this?

Also, being an official member of the Church of Sweden does not necessarily imply that one believes in a god/is religious, does it?

Answer 1

Statistics say what you want them to say, no matter what the numbers are... there's a unique historical aspect to the numbers for Sweden in particular though.

Until quite recently the government administered and collected a church tax for the churches, and all registered members of the church paid it. It wasn't a government tax, but the tax department has the infrastructure to administer and collect it, while the church did not (and didn't need it, as long as the govt did it for them) an example of Swedish pragmatism at work.

Anyway, this tax covered several things, but one of them was graveyard maintenance etc, and if you hadn't ever paid it, you can't be buried in a church graveyard. Obviously most people simply paid it, because it wasn't much money and most people don't want to risk not being allowed to be buried, or landing their family in a big pile of red tape after their death.

This had two important results for the statistics:

1) Previously, unless you said otherwise or both your parents were registered to another church, you were entered as a member of the Lutheran church at birth - so most Swedes were registered as members of the church by default only, and didn't bother to unregister, even if they never stepped foot in one once in their entire life, because if they didn't, they couldn't have a proper funeral - a matter of tradition for most, rather than religion.

2) The only way to avoid paying it used to be to change church, and then you'd have to pay it to your other church. The only way to not pay it, was to 'change church' to atheist.

#1) managed to greatly inflate the numbers of swedes officially listed as lutherans, while #2) managed to at the same time greatly inflate the numbers of swedes officially listed as atheists. In reality, a great deal of both numbers are more properly member of the church of 'meh, don't really care'.

Since you no longer have to decide a church or register to one at birth, this generation of children will no longer be counted (my daughter born 1999 is not a member of the church of Sweden, my daughter born 1990 is, on paper at least).

The taxes still exist, and are still collected by the government with annual income taxes, but you can opt-out right on your tax declaration without having to go and register yourself as an atheist to do so.

So.. lies, damned lies, and the Swedish religious statistics, if you know what I mean.

Answer 2

Today about 75% of Swedes belong to the Church of Sweden, but the number is decreasing by about 1% every year, and Church of Sweden services are sparsely attended (hovering in the single digit percentages of the population). There are now some 92,000 Roman Catholics and 100,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians living in Sweden. Due to immigration, Sweden also has a significant Muslim population. As many as 500,000 are Muslims by tradition and between 80,000 - 400,000 of these are practising Islam.

According to the most recent Eurostat "Eurobarometer" poll, in 2005, 23% of Swedish citizens responded that "they believe there is a god", whereas 53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 23% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force". Sweden ranks aside with France and Russia on having a large minority of its citizens who have no religion. Independent of these statistics, it is generally known that Swedish society, collectively, is comparatively secular and non-religious.

Answer 3

Just to clarify what answerers 1 and 2 said, The Church of Sweden is a Lutheran Church, just like the Church of England is Anglican.

Answer 4

94% Evangelical Lutheran
3% Other
2% Roman Catholic
1% Pentecostal

Answer 5

I think the main religion over there is Lutheranism, common amongst Scandinavian nations.

Answer 6

nicely, we've faith in such distinctive distinctive issues in recent times, do not we? some human beings have faith in a god, some have faith in themselves, some have faith in an idol of a few style, some have faith interior the government, some have faith interior the gadget, some have faith in exchange, some have faith that they suspect not something ... is all sorts of perception seen faith? because of the fact i don't think of that folk Believing is declining ... human beings believing interior the classic religions and gods, nevertheless, could be declining. in step with possibility there should not be as lots room for that immediately, whilst there is merely lots ... else.

Answer 7

Generally, European countries are more educated and aware of their surroundings, hence why they are less religious.