From Iceland — Iceland Losing Faith: Four Out Of Ten Icelanders Still Consider Themselves Believers

Iceland Losing Faith: Four Out Of Ten Icelanders Still Consider Themselves Believers

Published November 17, 2020

Photo by
Art Bicnick

A Maskína survey has revealed that four out of ten Icelanders consider themselves believers in some religious faith, according to Fréttablaðið. It also showed that supporters of the People’s Party are more likely to be believers than supporters of other political parties.

This means that there is little difference between the number of Icelanders who consider themselves believers and the number of Icelanders who don’t. Just over two out of ten said that they couldn’t say for sure if they believed or not, whereas four out of ten identified as non-believers.

Compared with a report from 2015, this shows that the number of believers in Iceland is decreasing, while the number of non-believers is increasing. The survey was conducted in January of this year from a sample group of just under 1,000 participants.

The survey also showed that younger people and people with university degrees were less likely to be religious than older or less educated people. Women were more likely to be believers than men, and there was little difference between income brackets. Similarly, residents of Reykjavík are slightly less likely to be believers than those from rural backgrounds.

Note: Due to the effect the Coronavirus is having on tourism in Iceland, it’s become increasingly difficult for the Grapevine to survive. If you enjoy our content and want to help the Grapevine’s journalists do things like eat and pay rent, please consider joining our High Five Club.

You can also check out our shop, loaded with books, apparel and other cool merch, that you can buy and have delivered right to your door.

Support The Reykjavík Grapevine!
Buy subscriptions, t-shirts and more from our shop right here!

Show Me More!