Dutch religiousness did not decline during Covid lockdowns
Church going has not much suffered from the pandemic, new numbers show. Photo ANP, Jeroen Jumelet
Western Europe
There are no signals that the Covid pandemic has led to a decline in the religious involvement of the Dutch population.
That is shown by new statistics from the Dutch Centraal Bureau Statistiek (Central Office of Statistics) on Friday.
In general, people tend to become less religious, but that “decline fits within a longer trend”, CBS writes in its report called “Religious Involvement in The Netherlands.” However, it seems that Covid did not accelerate that trend, the Dutch daily Reformatorisch Dagblad reports.
Religious service
In 2022, about 43 per cent of the population older than 15 years said to belong to a church or a philosophical group. Approximately 12 per cent attended a religious service regularly. In 2019, the number of people belonging to religion was still 46 per cent. That year, 14 per cent went to church regularly.
Of the respondents that indicated that they belong to a religious group, 18.2 per cent called themselves Roman Catholic. They make up the most prominent religious group. Protestants follow with 13.2 per cent; after that, Muslims make up another 5.6 per cent.
Trust
CBS also surveyed the online engagement of people with church services. The study shows that 12 per cent of the population regularly follows services online but rarely sees the broadcast as a natural alternative to attending a service in a church or mosque. Those who watch live streams are often loyal churchgoers or mosque visitors already.
Another conclusion of the study is that the trust in the institute of the church is very low. Only 29.6 per cent trusts the church quite much to really much. With that, it is the institution with the lowest trust in the country, CBS says.
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