Are you a number and stats person? Between the two of us, we like looking at survey outcomes and statistics from time to time even though we realize there is bound to be a margin of error with these.
The University of Chicago just published the results of a survey on religious believes across the globe. Their recent survey focused on the US but they compared their outcomes with various intentional studies.
I took some time to look through their findings on Eastern Germany - believe it or not, many studies consider Eastern and Western Germany separately because the culture is still very different in the two parts of the country.
Here are some numbers:
In a 1997 study, 59.7% of Eastern Germans said they do not believe in any God- far more than in any other country involved in the survey!
In a 1998 study, 68.7% of Eastern Germans said they are not part of any religion and 82.4% of people under 30 said they have no religious preference and only 7.3% in this age group said they believe in God without a doubt.
In a 1999 study, only 5.6% of Eastern Germans said they attend a church service weekly - and only 2.3% of under 30 year olds. 15.1% of youth under 30 believe in life after death.
Overall, articles concluded that faith in Eastern Europe is on the rise. That is encouraging and we hope to hear the same become true for Eastern Germany one day.
We appreciate your prayer and support as we plan to minister in this part of the world!
No comments:
Post a Comment