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Religious belonging and religious demography

Principal religious denominations

In 2016 (latest statistics), about 4 million Finns belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. This corresponds to 72.0 per cent of the population. The proportion of the population of the country that belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church has however, gradually decreased. Fifty years ago the proportion was almost twenty percentage points higher. The second largest religious organization is the Finnish Orthodox Church with about 58,000 members (1.1% of the population). Even though there are numerous other registered religious organizations in Finland, their membership is no more than 1.6% of the population. One fourth of the population do not belong to any registered religious organization, however this does not mean that they all are non-religious. For example, the majority of Muslim immigrants and Pentecostals are not registered members of any religious organization.

Table 1. Population of Finland by religious affiliation 1920–2016 (%)

YearLutheransOrthodoxOthersThose not belonging to registered movements
1920 98 1,6 0,3 0,03
1940 95,9 1,8 0,3 2,0
1960 92,4 1,4 0,6 5,5
1980 90,3 1,1 0,7 7,8
2000 85,1 1,1 1,1 12,7
2010 78,3 1,1 1,4 19,2
2013 75,3 1,1 1,5 22,1
2015 72,9 1,1 1,6 24,3
2016 72,0 1,1 1,6 25,3

Table 2 illustrates the number of members in various religious groups. However, the table includes only the largest religious groups. In 2016, there were 126 registered religious communities in Finland.

Table 2. Membership of major religious communities 1990-2016

19902000200520102016
Evangelical Lutheran Church 4,389,230 4,408,381 4,373,556 4,207,192 3,960,453
Finnish Orthodox Church 52,627 55,692 57,829 58,449 57,891
Jehovah’s Witnesses 12,157 18,492 18,329 19,094 17,979
Evangelical Free Church of Finland 12,189 13,474 13,711 14,485 15,132
Roman Catholic Church in Finland 4,247 7,227 8,446 10,640 13,528
Muslims* 810 1,199 4,239 9,393 13,944
Pentecostals* 1,992 6,281 8,548
Adventists 4,805 4,316 4,015 3,648 3,205
LDS-Church 2,883 3,307 3,301 3,225 3,235
Baptists 2,565 2,395 2,422 2,356 2,476
Methodists 1,251 1,260 1,256 1,301 1,424
Jews 1,006 1,157 1,184 1,208 1,110

* The number of Pentecostals is approximately 50,000, however the majority of Pentecostal parishes are not registered and therefore there is not as detailed information as about the registered religious communities. The number of Muslims is about 70,000, however only 14,000 are registered members.

Statistics Finland, 31.12.2016.

updated by Kimmo Ketola

D 25 May 2017    AKimmo Kääriäinen

CNRS Unistra Dres Gsrl

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