Less than half of the Church’s members are Christians

Pray to GodPray to God.Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / SCANPIX

Every third member of the Norwegian Church is an atheist, and only 48 percent consider themselves to be Christians, according to a new poll.

In the survey made by Response Analysis  for Aftenposten, 40 percent of the entire population say that they regard themselves as Christians.
Helga Haugland Byfuglien, permanent president of the Bishops’ Conference, is not surprised by the result.
– These figures line up with a number of other surveys. The proportion who are members of the Norwegian Church has decreased. The main reason for that is that the make-up of the population has changed. The number of members is fairly stable, but we recognize that we as a church are challenged by new trends, she says.
Among those over 60 years  53 percent of the population reply that they consider themselves to be Christians, while only 22 percent under age 30 say the same.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today