Projects

Religion Monitor

A comprehensive dataset is necessary if we are to gain meaningful insight into current cultural and sociological trends relating to religious belief and practice. The Bertelsmann Stiftung has therefore joined forces with religion specialists, sociologists, psychologists and theologians to develop the Religion Monitor, an analytical tool designed to illuminate in unprecedented detail the multifaceted nature of religious belief in modern society.

Project Description

Questionnaire

A question of belief

Our online questionnaire allows users to participate in the global Religion Monitor survey.
How religious are you?

Once you have completed the questionnaire, you can generate you own personal "religiousness profile" and compare it to results for the country you live in.

Questionnaire

News

Cupola of the Basilica of Saint Peter within the Vatican City.

Rome/Gütersloh - 17/12/2008

Italy is still ''God's home''

Compared to many other western industrialized nations, Italy is still a religious country in which the Catholic faith continues to play a major role within society. Overall, 89 percent of Italians are religious, and 44 percent are highly religious. At the same time, traditional Catholic doctrine influences everyday life in Italy only to a limited extent. Those are the some of the key findings from the 2008 Religion Monitor, an international study carried out by the Bertelsmann Stiftung to compare religious beliefs and practices around the globe.

Gütersloh - 26/09/2008

Muslims in Germany are very religious, and faith plays a central role in their day-to-day lives

Berlin-Gütersloh, September 26, 2008 - Across all age groups, the Muslims who live in Germany are highly religious, which clearly differentiates them from the overall German population. But their religious faith is not characterized by rigid dogmatism or fundamentalism. On the contrary, Muslims in Germany tend to be very accepting of religious pluralism and take a relatively pragmatic approach to religion in their day-to-day lives. These are among the conclusions reached by the Bertelsmann Stiftung's special study "Religion Monitor 2008: Muslim religiosity in Germany," which was unveiled today in Berlin. The study is based on a representative survey of more than 2,000 Muslims over the age of 18.

Gütersloh - 17/09/2008

Christianity in the Occident - still of great importance

According to a representative study by the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Religion Monitor, the Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe. Three-fourth of all Europeans (74 percent) in the countries surveyed are religious and one-fourth (25 percent) are highly religious. Only 23 percent of Europeans are non-religious. Thanks to this interdisciplinary measuring instrument, it was possible to ascertain both religious variety as well as the intensity of religious attitudes and practices. Striking differences were registered between the individual European countries, influenced heavily by national traditions. The Religion Monitor supplies directly comparable data for the seven European countries of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland. In this comparison, faith and religion are most strongly rooted in Italy (89 percent) and Poland (87 percent) and most weakly rooted in secular France (54 percent).