More than half of Norwegians say they don't believe in God in a new survey by pollster Ipsos.
Faced with the simple question “Do you believe in God?”, 51 percent of Norwegians answered no, reflecting a long-standing tendency.
“The survey shows the Norwegian population’s attitudes to faith. A steady development since 1985 shows a decrease in the proportion of those who believe in God in Norway,” Ipsos project manager John Spilling said in a statement.
Ipsos has been asking the same question for decades in a large survey called Norwegian Monitor. The survey conducted from October 2021 to March 2022 and covering over 3,500 people marks a historic first, as more than half of Norwegians said that they don't believe in God.
However, the Church of Norway slammed the yes-or-no approach to the question. Olav Fykse Tveit, Preses of the Bishops’ Conference of the Church of Norway (DNK), argued that the wording of the question was too narrow to convey people’s actual attitude to faith.
“Faith can be expressed in many ways, through practice, through fundamental values, through belonging to tradition, culture, and history, without people wanting to describe it as their personal faith,” Fykse Tveit mused in an interview with newspaper Nationen. “The survey about faith is not a referendum on whether the Christian cultural heritage is part of the Norwegian common society. Norway is a country founded on Christian and humanistic values,” he stated.
Fykse Tveit furthermore mused that the reason why fewer people say they believe in God today is linked to people generally becoming more distant. People therefore have lost their relationship to the work and message of the Church, he added.
In Norway, the state church was formally abolished in 2012. Within ten years, the share of non-believers has increased by about 14 percent. Nevertheless, he pointed out, as of 2022, the Norwegian Church still has 3.5 million members and attracts people at all phases of life, in sorrow and joy.
By contrast, the Human-Ethical Association (HEF) argued that society should move further away from Christian norms and traditions, and that the Ipsos survey reflects the trend.
“Regardless of how many people have a belief in God, we think that it is most fair that the state is impartial when it comes to religion. In Norway, many public services have traditionally been organized through the old state church,” HEF general secretary Trond Enger said.
The HEF argues that hospitals, prisons and the Armed Forces should offer more than priests in order to better embrace diversity in Norway and calls for services to be abolished in school.
While Protestantism remains Norway's largest religion with 55 percent of the population, the share of people who consider themselves “personally Christian” remains only 20 percent, the same survey witnessed.
Furthermore, the Church of Norway has been leaking worshipers in recent decades, a trend mirrored in fellow Scandinavian nations. The share of Norwegians embraced by the Church of Norway has shrunk from nearly 86 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2020.