Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Being Christian in Western Europe
In several Western European countries, recent declines in Christian identity
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- Being Christian in Western Europe
- In most Western European countries, non-practicing Christians are largest group
- Majorities across Western Europe identify as Christian
- Christian identity in Europe remains a religious, social and cultural marker
- Most non-practicing Christians in Europe believe in God, but not necessarily as described in the Bible
- Most religiously unaffiliated Europeans say science makes religion unnecessary
- Christians more likely than religiously unaffiliated to say government should support religious values and beliefs
- Majorities of non-practicing Christians say churches and other religious organizations play an important role in helping poor and needy
- Christians more likely than ‘nones’ to say Islam is incompatible with national values % who say, “Islam is fundamentally incompatible with our country’s culture and values”
- Non-practicing Christians more likely than unaffiliated to favor reducing immigration levels
- Both church-attending and non-practicing Christians more likely than unaffiliated to link national identity with ancestry
- In Western Europe, both church-attending and non-practicing Christians are more likely than unaffiliated to say their culture is superior
- Unaffiliated adults and non-practicing Christians generally favor legal abortion, same-sex marriage
- Catholics more likely than Protestants to express negative views of Muslims
- In Western Europe, net losses for Christians are largely matched by gains for religiously unaffiliated
- In several Western European countries, recent declines in Christian identity
- Share of ‘nones’ in Western Europe ranges from 15% in Ireland, Italy and Portugal to 48% in the Netherlands
- Substantial shares across the region say they are atheist, agnostic or have no particular religion
- Many unaffiliated adults in Western Europe were raised Christian
- Most Western Europeans who stopped identifying with a religion ‘gradually drifted away,’ among other reasons
- Religiously unaffiliated adults who were raised as Christians are more accepting of Muslims as neighbors
- Roughly three-in-ten unaffiliated people report believing in some higher power
- A majority of unaffiliated believers agree they have a soul as well as a physical body
- Most unaffiliated adults say science makes religion unnecessary in their life
- Compared with U.S. adults, relatively few Western European Christians and religiously unaffiliated people are religiously observant
- In contrast with U.S., Western Europeans tend to describe themselves as neither spiritual nor religious
- Most Western Europeans continue to identify as Christians, though few regularly attend church