Religion in Finland - Features of Finnish Religiosity

Features of Finnish Religiosity

Since World War II, secularisation has taken an increasingly strong hold in all the Nordic countries, and there is a clear demarcation between the sacred and the profane. Values based on religion have lost status in society, and have been replaced by new sets of values and morals that have only tenuous links with religion and the church.

According to the 2008 ISSP data 8% people consider themselves "highly religious", and 31% "moderately religious". . In the same survey 28% reported themselves as "agnostics", and 29% as "non-religious". In all World Values Surveys between 1981 and 2005 there have been some 3% considering themselves atheists. Even among those belonging to no religious community, there is a substantial proportion of religious people.

Commitment to Church doctrines has declined among Finns. This is apparent, for example, among the numbers of those claiming to believe in a life after death and in the long term also among those claiming to believe in God "in the way the Church teaches". Half of Finns believe in angels and Heaven, every third in the Devil and every fourth in Hell.

However, since the mid 1970s there has hardly been any change in the number of those believing that some sort of God exists; only the number of those believing in God the way the Church teaches has decreased. The share of those who do not believe in any god at all, nor in any spirit or life force, has remained below ten percent.

By European standards Finns are passive in their participation in divine services or other regular religious occasions arranged by the parishes. Only 14% participate in religious occasions at least once a month. Of these less than half (6%) are extremely active, attending weekly or several times a week. The extremely active are generally women (60%). A typical Finnish churchgoer attends divine service a few times a year, particularly on the big feast days. Religious participation is complemented by an interest in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters as presented by the media. Half of the Finnish population read a Christian periodical at least once a year. Religious television programmes and radio broadcasts are watched or listened to by a great number of Finns.

Church rituals related to the life-cycle of the individual and the family have a firm position. Nearly all funerals are Christian and a great majority of children are baptised as infants and confirmed at the age of 15.

Finns are rather active in private religious practices and there has been no notable change in the Finns' prayer activity in the past twenty years. One out of four Finns is very active in praying, while about the same number never pray. From the perspective of the private practice of religion there is no indicator of a decline of religion.

All in all Finnish religiosity is characterized by slight religious participation in public, but by the private practice of religion, which is more active than the European average.For the Finns, religion is a private matter.The typical Finn practices religion, praying, for example, but not participating regularly in any religious events. Failure to attend religious events, however, may not be taken to indicate that religion does not occupy a prominent place in an individual's life. Traditionally only a small number of Finns could have been described as "irreligious". The number of Finns who describe themselves as nonreligious, however, has been on a rise, with roughly 18% of Finns now claiming no religious affiliation, compared to 8% in 1980.

Certain demographics are less religious than others: young people, men (especially young men) and the metropolitan area, i.e.the part of southern Finland where Helsinki, the capital, is situated, tend to be least religious. For young people, religion tends not to occupy the same position of authority as for the older population. In the metropolitan area commitment to religious organisations, doctrinal beliefs and religious observance is weaker than in the rest of Finland. However, religious ceremonies still occupy a strong position in the metropolitan area too.