Survey results: Russia 'most pious nation in Europe'

[biro]

A recent survey provided some interesting results on religious life in Russia. The project was administered by the Public Opinion Foundation and the organization Sreda.

From the article:

A record 82 percent of respondents acknowledged that they believe in God, according to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation and an obscure religious research group called Sreda.

But only 50 percent said they belonged to the Russian Orthodox Church, said the poll, which was released this week by Interfax. The church usually puts the figure around 70 percent.

[Asteriktos]

What a mixed bag... Those numbers regarding belief in God (whichever one is accurate) is better than I thought it'd be, but some of the other stuff (e.g. the 4% bit in last paragraph)... not so much... 

[bogdan]

Considering the country was officially atheist until 20 years ago, I say praise God even if it's "only" 50 percent. And even if only 4% observe the faith daily, that's some 5.7 million people—about 7 times the total number of Orthodox in the US, pious or otherwise. 5.7 million pious Orthodox will have an impact in the long term.

Personally I think the 50-70% discrepancy is between those who are baptized Orthodox and those who self-identify as Orthodox. I could see having a 20% difference there.

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