Religious Attitudes in East Central Europe

Vol. 1, No. 3, Summer 1993, Covering the Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe

Religious Attitudes in East Central Europe

Survey data indicate that in East Central Europe:

a religious worldview overwhelmingly predominates in Poland (80%), has a considerable following in Slovakia (54%) and Hungary (50%), but influences a decided minority in the Czech Republic (33%).
nominal religious commitment characterizes Hungarian Protestants the most (88%) and Polish Catholics the least (25%);
53 to 71 percent of the population of the countries surveyed do not own a Bible or New Testament; and
"earnest believers" in the majority of cases are female and 50 years of age or older.

PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS WHO	POLAND	SLOVAKIA	HUNGARY	CZECH REPUBLIC
hold to a religious world view¹	80	54	50	33
consider themselves Catholic and who attend church regularly²	75	56	24	29
consider themselves Protestant and who attend church regularly²	n/a	44	12	29
personally own a Bible or New Testament³	47	41	44	29
knew the story of the Good Samaritan (slightly, partly, or well)⁴	65	66	60	42
knew the story of Paul's conversion (slightly, partly, or well)⁴	67	65	60	39
knew the story of the birth of Jesus (slightly, partly, or well)⁴	90	91	92	83
knew the story of creation (slightly, partly, or well)⁴	87	93	87	87
identified themselves as earnest believers
who are female⁵	52	73	[65]⁶	68
who are 50 yrs. of age or older⁵	60	59	74	67
who have eight or less years of schooling⁵	n/a	34	65	27

Findings derive from 7,570 interviews conducted between March and July 1991. The Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization, the British and Foreign Bible Society, World Vision, and Roger Russell Marketing served as sponsors. Survey subcontractors included Szonda-Ipsos (Budapest), Institut Pro Vyzkum Verejneho Mineni (Prague), and Pentor (Warsaw).

Source: Tom Houston, Richard Worthing-Davies, and Roger Russell, Evangelization in the Post Marxist Czech and Slovak Republics. London: Roger Russell Marketing, 1993.

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"Religious Attitudes in East Central Europe," East-West Church & Ministry Report, 1 (Summer 1993), 12.

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