Generation No-Religion: what the data really shows about youth religiosity
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Charlotte Hobson on the complexities of measuring religious affiliation, belief and practice among young people.
Research published by Professor Stephen Bullivant of St Mary’s University, London, reveals that a large proportion of 16–29-year olds across 22 countries identify as having ‘no religion’.
Exact percentages vary greatly – 83% of young people in Poland identify as Christian, 98% in Israel belong to non-Christian religious groups and 91% in the Czech Republic have no religion. However, out of the 22 countries studied, young people self-identifying with a religion are the majority in 8 and the minority in 14.
The UK is evidence of the latter; 30% of young people here are religious (22% Christian and 8% non-Christian) and 70% are nonreligious, according to Bullivant’s statistics.
In recent weeks these figures have captured the attention of UK national news–media. Articles outlined findings from this ‘new shock study‘ and used them to describe a ‘widespread rejection of Christi...
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