The decline of faith and continuous religion in Switzerland

Church of Santa Maria Del Sasso, Morcote, Switzerland, with Porto Ceresio, Italy in the background.Image: Shutterstock

Switzerland observes a decline in religious practice, with a drop in believers and a decrease in participation in spiritual services.

In Switzerland, fewer and fewer people belong to a religion and the share of the population with religious practices continues to be reduced. Religion or spirituality, however, continues to play an important role in the difficult times of life.

The attendance of religious demonstrations or religious services is much less widespread than ten years ago, writes on Monday the Federal Statistics Office (OFS). Fewer and fewer people attend religious services, follow religious or spiritual demonstrations on radio, television or on the Internet, or take the time to pray.

While in 2014, almost a third of the population had never attended a religious demonstration or a religious service during the twelve months preceding the survey, it was the case for almost half of the population in 2024.

At the same time, the regular reading of books, magazines or articles on the Internet dealing with spirituality has become generally more popular in the past ten years (from 13 to 20%).

The proportion of the population who believes in God continues to decrease. In 2014, 46% of those questioned believed in one God, against 38% in 2024. The decline was particularly marked in people aged 65 or over (-14 percentage points), the proportion of believers hardly changed among those under 25.

Progression atheists

At the same time, the share of people who do not believe in a god or in several, or who doubt the existence of one or more gods, has increased, including within the population of Roman or reformed Catholic confession (passing from 20 to 26% respectively and from 23 to 32%).

Among the reasons mentioned for leaving religion in 2024, more than 28% claim to have never had or lost faith; More than 26% say they are disagreement with the positions of the religious community.

Religion or spirituality, however, continues to play a rather important, even very important role, in the difficult times of life and in the event of illness for the majority of the population (respectively for 56 and 52%).

It occupies an important place for almost half of those questioned (and even 55% of those aged 65 or over) in their way of perceiving the environment and for 45% of parents in the education of their children.

More than a fifth of the population interviewed believes that religion or spirituality has a rather important, even very important influence, on its eating habits. In all these contexts, religion or spirituality generally plays more an important role for women than for men.

SOF data concerns the period 2014-2024. They are based on two surveys by sampling (language and religion as well as culture and leisure) with 10,000 people each (more possible cantonal densifications). People are randomly selected in the SOF sampling register. (Jah/ATS)

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