Romania ranks first among 34 countries in Europe included in an analysis of Pew Research Center, which looked at the countries’ levels of religious commitment.

The study took into account four common measures of religious observance, namely religious service attendance, prayer frequency, belief in God and self-described importance of religion in one’s life.

According to the research’s overall index, 55% of Romanians are highly religious - the biggest share among the countries surveyed. Armenia comes second with a share of 51%, followed by Georgia – 50%, Greece – 49%, and Moldova – 47%.

In fact, the analysis revealed that, overall, Central and Eastern Europeans are more likely than Western Europeans to be highly religious. For example, only about one-in-ten people in Denmark, Sweden and the United Kingdom qualify as highly religious.

Also, Central and Eastern Europeans are generally more likely than Western Europeans to say religion is very important in their lives, they attend religious services at least monthly, they pray every day, and they believe in God with absolute certainty. For example, half or over half of respondents in Romania, Georgia, Armenia, Bosnia and Greece said religion is very important in their lives, compared with about one-in-ten in France, Germany, the United Kingdom.

Half of Romanians also said that they attend religious services at least monthly, this being the second highest share after the one in Poland – 61%, while 44% of Romanian respondents said they pray daily (higher shares reported only in Armenia – 45% and Moldova – 48%). The same analysis showed that 64% of Romanians believe in God, the share placing Romania fourth in the ranking, after Armenia – 79%, Georgia – 73%, and Bosnia 66%.

Survey reveals Romanians’ views of minorities, religion, social issues

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com