Finland's youth are increasingly irreligious, according to the newest Youth Barometer survey.
A total of just over a fifth of all 15-29-year-olds consider themselves believers, with around half of those people saying they are very religious.
Some 60 percent of respondents said that they are not religious at all, while six percent said they regard themselves as non-religious, but spiritual.
The majority of young people do not see religion in their daily lives at all, according to Tomi Kiilakoski of the Youth Research Society, which conducts the annual Youth Barometer survey.
"Religiosity has become a minority position or subculture, when it has long been thought that it is the dominant position to be religious in some way or at least to be familiar with the customs of a particular religion," said Kiilakoski. "That kind of picture is disappearing, young people's lives are increasingly irreligious."
For example 62 percent of respondents said that they never visit churches or religious events outside of weddings, funerals, christenings or school visits.
Religious people feel like a minority
The biggest changes in religious convictions among the young have taken place since 2000. In 2006 the Youth Barometer suggested that some 41 percent of young people regarded themselves as religious, but that has now dropped to 22 percent in the 2023 edition of the survey.
The survey suggests that those who do believe now increasingly feel like they are in a minority.
Of all respondents, some 17 percent said they felt like a minority because of their ideological beliefs, while 12 percent said they felt the same because of their religious convictions.
Just six percent of the non-religious respondents said they felt like a minority. That means more than half of devout youth felt like a minority, while only around one in ten non-believers felt the same way.
"The barometer shows that there has been a tipping point in young people's world," says Kiilakoski. "We have moved to a situation where an irreligious way of life or identity is the assumption. This has been talked about before, but the barometer gives it a statistical basis."
Religious youth more satisfied with life
The barometer has been conducted every year since 1994, and it includes some questions that remain the same every time. Satisfaction is measured on a scale of 4-10.
Over those thirty years, young people's satisfaction with their own lives has dropped a little. In the latest survey the majority of youth reported reasonable satisfaction levels, while a significant portion are doing great.
Some 80 percent of phone interview respondents gave a life satisfaction ration of at least eight, while the proportion of online respondents doing the same was slightly smaller.
The decline does not bother Kiilakoski as much as the minority of young people giving very low ratings.
"There are more youths that give a rating of four, five or six than before," he said. "That is the most important thing to me, how we follow this in the future."
Religious youth, on the other hand, reported greater satisfaction levels. The reasons for that are not clear.
"If you are actively religious, you belong to religious communities and actively participate in them, you are surrounded by the same kinds of people, which surely supports your wellbeing," said Kiilakoski.
"Then there are existential questions; that is, is there something in religious teachings that itself increases well being?"
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