Fewer Dutch Christians and more Muslims, but the question is whether it will remain that way

Hi guys, I've used Google translate to translate this article from English and did a little formatting because I think it's a good fit for this sub. For some of you it might be nice to know you're living in a country where secularism is the norm and still rising.

Fewer Dutch Christians and more Muslims, but the question is whether this will remain so

By Afran Groenewoud May 17, 2024 at 11:46 am

The share of Dutch people who call themselves Christians has clearly decreased over the past ten years. At the same time, the share of Muslims is increasing. But it is unclear whether this trend will continue in the long term, statistics agency CBS tells NU.nl. The share of believers in the Netherlands has fallen sharply over the past ten years, from 53 to 42 percent. This is the conclusion of CBS based on the Social cohesion and well-being study. 17 percent say they are Roman Catholic, 13 percent Protestant and 6 percent adhere to Islam.

Especially people over the age of 75 call themselves Christians. The people who call themselves Muslims are on average younger. The share of Muslims has increased slightly since 2013, from 5 to 6 percent.

Age mainly plays a role in trends in the share of Christians. "The Christian is dying out, in short," says chief sociologist Tanja Traag of CBS. "But it is too simplistic to say that this will continue in the long term."

It is also too simplistic to say that the group of people who say they are Muslims continues to grow. According to Traag, it is also possible that in the long term their share will decrease again due to an aging population.

Catholics go to church much less than Protestants Attendance at religious services by believers is stable. Just like in 2013, 18 percent of believers attended a service at least weekly last year.

The large difference between Catholics (6 percent) and Protestants (33 percent) is striking. Of the Muslims, 27 percent went to the mosque at least weekly.

Of believers, 38 percent sometimes follow a service via radio, TV or internet. 20 percent do this every week.

Conclusions more difficult around Hindus, Buddhists and Jews Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and other faiths are relatively small religious communities in the Netherlands. For example, according to a CBS survey last year, 0.8 percent of the inhabitants of the Netherlands call themselves Hindu. Other faiths are even less represented.

That is why it is more difficult to identify statistically well-substantiated trends about the growth or increase of those relatively small religious communities, says Traag. "Because they occur little in our samples, you can't say much about any shifts from year to year."