72% of respondents consider themselves Orthodox, 18% either do not consider themselves to be of any religion, or are atheists. 40% say that religion plays an important role in their lives, 45% consider themselves religious people – their share has decreased slightly over the year. One tenth of the respondents attend religious services at least once a month.
The assessment of the role of religion in the personal life of respondents has not changed in two years: 40% say that it plays an important role in their lives (14% – very important, 26% – quite important). At the same time, the majority – 59% – claim that religion either does not have a very important place in their lives (33%), or does not play any role (26%). Respondents 55 years and older are more likely to note the important role of religion in their lives: 43% of them are like that, the respondents 18-24 years old (34%) are less than the rest.
The share of respondents who consider themselves religious has decreased over the year. Thus, 45% call themselves religious (in April 2022 – 53%): 7% – very religious (in April 2022 – 9%), 38% – to some extent religious (in April 2022 – 44%). 54% of respondents identify themselves as not too religious or completely atheist. The majority of respondents who define themselves as religious are represented among those over 55 (48%), the least among respondents aged 18-24 (38%).
Since last year, the distribution of responses according to the frequency of attendance at religious services has practically not changed. Just like in April 2022, 43% of respondents do not attend services, 12% attend services relatively regularly (at least once a month) (in April 2022 – 8%).
The vast majority (82%) of respondents celebrated Easter this year, including painting eggs (70%) and buying or baking cakes (39% and 29%, respectively). 5% of respondents attended the service. At the same time, the share of those who do not celebrate this holiday at all has tripled in a quarter of a century – from 6-7% to 18%.
72% of respondents identify themselves as Orthodox, 5% as Muslims and about 3% as other religions (primarily Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism). Another 13% of respondents do not consider themselves to be of any religion and 5% define themselves as atheists.
83% of respondents are baptized, in October 2020 there were 79% of them. 42% of respondents became godparents (in April 2014 – 26%).
METHODOLOGY
The survey by the Levada Center was conducted October 20 – 26 2023, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample was comprised of 1623 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The distribution of responses is given as a percentage of the total number of respondents.
The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:
3.4% for indicators around 50%
2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%
2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%
1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%
The ANO Levada Center is included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.