Internet growth linked to declining religious identity globally
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Miran Lavrič and Tibor Rutar, sociologists at the University of Maribor in Slovenia, analysed data from 81 countries between 1990 and 2022 to understand how internet access affects religious belief.
The researchers combined internet usage statistics with data from the World Values Survey, a project tracking beliefs worldwide. They created an index to measure religiosity based on factors like church attendance and how important people consider God to be.
The study revealed that as internet access increased in a country, average levels of religiosity tended to decrease over time. This connection remained even after the researchers accounted for other factors like wealth, education, and urbanisation, suggesting the internet itself plays a role. The decline was most noticeable in formal religious affiliation and how people identified themselves religiously.
While increased internet use didn’t strongly affect personal religious practices like prayer or attending services, it did correlate with fewer people joining religious denominations or considering themselves religious. Researchers noted this pattern aligns with previous findings from studies of internet use in the United States. They cautioned that the relationship between internet use and faith is complex, and could be a reciprocal cycle where declining religion also drives internet adoption.
Future research may need to examine how specific online activities, including religious ones, impact belief.
