The Church Research Institute published a study on Thursday 31 October entitled Kirkko epävarmuuksien ajassa. Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko 2020–2024 (Church in a time of uncertainty. Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland 2020–2024).

The study confirms the picture of a divergence between the religiosity and values of young women and young men.

“Young women are currently clearly distancing themselves from Christianity”, said Hanna Salomäki, Director of The Church Research Institute, at the launch event.

According to the Gallup Ecclesiastica survey for the study, only 11% of women under 30 said they believed in the God of Christianity. The same proportion said they believed that Jesus atoned for people's sins with his death.

Women's commitment to Christianity declines in a linear fashion, with the younger the age group, the weaker the belief in Christian doctrines.

“Beliefs of young women are very different from that of older women”, Salomäki said.

By contrast, among men under 30, the proportion of those who believed in the God of Christianity was 18%. 27% of them said they believed in the atoning death of Jesus. For men, the shift in religiosity from older to younger age groups is less drastic than for women.

Moreover, the change is non-linear, with belief in God being more common in the under-30 age group than in the 30-50 age group of men.

“There is a certain degree of strengthening in religiosity – and specifically in interest in Christianity – among young men. But we are not talking about any large scale. The majority of young men are liberals. But there is a smaller group who are clearly finding Christianity and committing themselves to it”.

Atheism is now more popular among young women than men

A new finding highlighted by the study is that not only is irreligiousness growing among young women, but more and more are adopting atheism as their identity.

31% of women under 30 considered themselves atheists, compared with 26% of men in the same age group.

“Young men have tended to identify themselves as atheists. Now the proportion of women has risen ahead of men. This is very exceptional”, said Hanna Salomäki.

At the same time, she pointed out that the religiousness of both young women and young men is diverse. Young women quite commonly (54%) believe that some kind of higher force exists.

Almost one in three (31%) believe in reincarnation. Men also hold these beliefs, although to a slightly lesser extent than women (46% and 23% respectively).

“Under no circumstances should all young women or young men be lumped into a particular group and given a stigmatising label”.

In addition to religion, young women and men have different values.

“Women are moving more in a left-wing and liberal direction. For men, the same shift is much less pronounced. For both women and men, the religious are a step further to the right and a step more conservative than the rest of the age group”.

Three highlights from a new study

1. Secularisation continues, prayers fade away

The survey has asked Finns about their religious identities. Although 57% of Finns still identify themselves as Christians, the proportion has fallen by 16 percentage points in twenty years. At the same time, the proportion of atheists, agnostics and irreligious people has increased.

19% of Finns said they believed in the God of Christianity. Twenty years ago, the figure was 36%.

Statistics on Christian devotion also point downwards. Only 19% of Finns say they pray at least once a week. In 2011, the corresponding figure was 30%.

2. The proportion of born-again Christians has remained the same

In a recent survey, 6% of Finns identified themselves as born-again Christians. This proportion has remained more or less unchanged over the last twenty years. In 2004, the proportion was 7%.

By contrast, the proportion of those identifying themselves as believers has fallen from 38% to 24% in twenty years.

3. Born-again Christians feel they belong to a minority

Survey asked respondents about their experience of belonging to a minority because of their religious or non-religious beliefs.

The experience of being in a minority was highest among born-again Christians. Of these, 36% considered themselves to belong to a minority. Among religious conservatives, 22% felt they belonged to a minority.

The proportion of those who identified themselves as religious was 19.2%, 19.1% among pagans, 19% among non-religious and 18.7% among atheists.

Differences were found between age groups in minority identification among those who identified themselves as religious. While only 15% of believers aged 70 and over considered themselves to be in a minority, the corresponding figure for those aged under 30 was 32%.