Well-educated city dwellers: one in three Swiss citizens does not belong to any religion

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As the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) announced Tuesday, the population group without religious affiliation was 32 percent in 2021, almost as large as the Roman Catholic group at 33 percent. This was followed by the Evangelical Reformers group with 21 percent.

The proportion of irreligious people in Switzerland has increased steadily since the 1970s. In 2000, about ten percent of the Swiss population said they had no religion. However, in a European comparison, the one-third figure isn’t particularly high, according to the BFS. For example, the rate of non-religious people in France is more than half.

According to the FSO, people without any religious affiliation in Switzerland are usually young, educated and live in the city. They also increasingly live in western Switzerland. In the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Neuchâtel, more than half said they were not religious.

Spiritual practices are not excluded

According to the FSO, some of these people left their religious community, while others did not belong to any religion. However, people without specific beliefs also engaged in spiritual or religious practices. In fact, almost a third of this group stated that they were more or less spiritual or religious.

According to the BFS, practices for self-awareness and self-improvement are particularly popular with non-religious people. For the study, at least 200,000 people aged 15 and over living in Switzerland were interviewed.

(SDA)

Source : Blick