The Dutch turn their back on religion
For the first time, a majority of the Dutch population does not consider itself to be a religious group. In 2017, less than half (49 percent) of the population aged 15 or older reported belonging to a religious group. A year earlier that was still half and in 2012 more than half (54 percent) belonged to a religious group. This is evident from new figures from Statistics Netherlands from the study Social cohesion and well-being.
In 2017, 24 percent of the Dutch population aged 15 or older was Roman Catholic. Furthermore, 15 percent were Protestant: 6 percent said they were Dutch Reformed, 3 percent Reformed and 6 percent said they belonged to the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN). In addition, 5 percent were Muslims last year and 6 percent said they belonged to a 'other' religious group, such as Jewish or Buddhist.
Attendance at religious gatherings has declined little since 2012
Participation in religious services has declined over time, although the decline has slowed down in recent years. In 1971, 37 percent of the population still regularly (at least once a month) attended a religious service, in 1 this had dropped to 2012 percent and in 17 church attendance dropped further to 2017 percent.
Last year, 15 percent of the over-10s went weekly, 3 percent went 2 to 3 times a month and the same percentage went to a religious meeting once a month. Furthermore, 1 percent went less than once a month. More than three-quarters of the population (7 percent) rarely or never went to a religious service.
The slight decrease in church attendance since 2012 is entirely attributable to Catholics. Visits to the church or mosque have not decreased among both Protestants and Muslims.
Women more religious and involved
In 2017, 46 percent and 52 percent of men and women consecutively belonged to a religious group. 17 percent of the women went to a service regularly, and 14 percent of the men. Young people aged 18 to 25 are by far the least religiously involved: one in three belonged to a religious group. Last year, 13 percent of these young people indicated that they regularly attended a religious service.
Older people are the most religious and involved. Of the over-75s, 71 percent said they were religious, 34 percent regularly attended a service.
Highly educated people are the least religious
Low education and religion go hand in hand. Of the group with only primary education, 64 percent belonged to a religious group and 20 percent regularly attend church. This was 37 percent and 12 percent among academics.
Religions are made to oppress the people with lies and scare tactics. They are also used to incite the people against each other, because as long as the people fight with each other, the rulers remain unaffected. Fortunately, more and more people are starting to get this. We are all slaves of so-called democracy or whatever you want to call it. Everywhere you have to donate a large part of your earned money and when you go to the store you can pay taxes again. pay taxes on property. Care pay ect ect. only when people no longer accept this do we have real freedom and we don't need religions for that. Who tell us how to live.
Actually, it is said that there is a religion that is getting bigger and bigger, but that is kept silent for politically correct reasons
Tell who? The Buddhists? You sometimes hear that this is more popular among the Dutch. But according to Statistics Netherlands, this has been about 0,4% of people for years. Muslims then? 4,5 to 5% for years. Which faith then? According to the CBS all stable or declining.
Or are you insinuating cheating with the numbers for 'politically correct reasons'? It would be amazing if nothing ever leaked out. No, in terms of faith we do not have to fear that this weather will throw a blanket over our country. Good thing, too. I'm left-wing as anything, but strongly attached to individual freedom, imposing a belief on someone else or something like that doesn't fit with that and if that happens, then clearly name man and horse.
See the downloads at:
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/achtergrond/2018/43/wie-is-religieus-en-wie-niet-
Dear Rob V.
You may well be right from the start, if you pride yourself on the fact that the left alone brought that very individual freedom, you are or you give the impression of what we call a left-wing rascal and the right has filled its pockets. Something a former government leader also did regardless of the jacket he wore and the language he preached.
This is a figment of the mind of a worker who does not fall for that left-wing talk.
I think the same trend also applies to Belgium.
But in Belgium, too, this is kept silent for political reasons.
Or is that for “politically correct reasons”? 😉
Ah, the penny drops, we have been hearing about Islamization since the beginning of this century, but in practice there is practically no increase in Muslims. That should not be mentioned, of course, because that is not convenient for these ominous politicians.
Which group was actually studied?
Sometimes people speak of Dutch people aged 15 or older and then again they speak of the Dutch population.
If you only take the Dutch, there will be little difference from last time. People don't switch so quickly to no religion or another religion.
If you take all the inhabitants of the Netherlands, you might get different figures.
Numbers, you prove all or nothing with them.
But no increase in Muslims. (I speak for Belgium).
Certainly. Nor will it come from the Belgians who now suddenly become Muslims.
Numbers ? I really don't need a thermometer to know that it is warmer in the sun than in the shade.
http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20160319_02191726
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religie_in_Belgi%C3%AB
Islam is also the fastest growing religion in the country and a study by the Pew Research Center predicts an increase in the number of Muslims to 10,2% of the Belgian population in 2030.[6] Depending on the amount of migration, in 2050 the share of Muslims in the Belgian population could be 11,1% (zero migration), 15,1% (medium migration) or 18,2% (high migration) according to a recent study by Pew Research. Centre.[9]
Still some figures from 2016 for Belgium
Year Number of Muslims Percentage
1970 90,000[3] 0,9%
1990 266,000[6] 2,7%
2000 364,000[3] 3,6%
2016 862,600[7] 7,6%
Strange that Belgium has no official figures! Know that the PEW figures are a bit on the high side due to high birth rates. In reality, Turkish, Moroccan, etc. women have about the same number of children as native Dutch women. But many people think and calculate with too high a number of babies for Muslims.
Here are the PEW figures for Europe, see also the high (too high) birth rates that are used in calculations:
http://www.pewforum.org/2017/11/29/europes-growing-muslim-population/
More information see: https://twitter.com/kevinVcapelle/status/1054276869376434176
Or see Flip's picture with calculation % of Muslim entire Dutch population:
https://twitter.com/flipvandyke/status/1054311882344071168
NB: More about the baby tsunami nonsense on Flip's site
The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) simply uses a measurement/gauging method, otherwise the data would of course become completely unreliable. But the press sometimes wants to simplify definitions or sometimes simply do not understand them. For example, in the media 'people with Dutch nationality' is often simplified to 'inhabitants of the Netherlands'.
I don't know anything about religion and Belgium. But it is difficult to estimate these types of developments 'by feeling'. For example, the number of Schengen visa rejections felt 'high', but when you see the figures it turns out to be hardly anything to write home about. Measuring is knowing. As Professor Hans Rosling said (with Arjen Lubach 2 years ago), it is about the people and the figures. To understand people and developments you need statistics. Comments like that statistics are the biggest lies are nonsense from people who don't like the facts or trend. Nowhere do they work without errors, but with figures from CBS, Eurostat, etc. you get at least a reasonably good idea of which way something is going.
According to EuroBar (under Eurostat), the number of Muslims in Belgium was 2015% in 5,2:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_European_Union
Again as a reminder.
I would appreciate you calling my country Belgium and not mockingly or contemptuously Belgistan.
I don't do that with your country either.
And meanwhile you can read the numbers.
And they are mainly based on the real reason for the growth of Islam in Belgium and that is migration, not birth.
Like I said, you don't need a thermometer to know that water is boiling.
Okay Ronny, Belgium, silly joke on my part to put -stan after your name in Islamization.
But PEW has three scenarios. Also 1 without migration (not going to happen), one with normal migration (that is already difficult because it is erratic, at the beginning of this century more people with a Muslim background left on balance for a few years) and 1 with the asylum peak 2014-16 (extremely unlikely scenario).
But for all 3 scenarios, birth plays a role, until 2050 Muslims will have children. Whether that Muslim is a mosquito or not. PEW's birth rate is too high: “Muslims exceeds replacement level (ie, the rate of births needed to sustain the size of a population) while non-Muslims are not having enough children to keep their population steady.”. Is not true. The Muslim woman hardly has more children than the self-employed and for all of us below the replacement rate of 2,1 children (only Moroccan a little more):
http://www.flipvandyke.nl/2012/01/babytsunami-onzin/
So you calculate that with a figure that is too high and you don't even take into account the fact that the trend is declining everywhere. This means that you will end up higher in 2050 than is plausible.
You can also read about PEW in my other link about Islamization "In the calculation model of PEW Research, for example, almost all Iranian Dutch people are Muslim, while we know from the polls of the CBS that this is not correct." That is why it says on that site: “A prediction about the share of Muslims in the Dutch population in 2050 can easily be taken for granted. The proportion of Muslims will most likely increase in the coming years, but the rate at which this will happen depends on many factors.
Any prediction should therefore be taken with a grain of salt. So is PEW Research's forecast, which is based on assumptions that are incorrect.”.
So that's why I say, it's pretty stable, maybe increasing a bit, but nothing alarming. If things go against us, maybe we will go from 5% now to 10%. Might as well stay 5-6%. We do not know. But certainly no doomsday scenarios in which 1/3 or half of the Netherlands or Belgium come under the yoke of Islam.
Measuring is knowing, sensing the number of believers (I see it on the street anyway) is just as sensible as people who mention visa and migration issues based on what they have heard or seen somewhere. So a lot of nonsense.
Only you ignore the actual numbers and they seem to more than confirm the predictions.
for Belgium
Year Number of Muslims Percentage
1970 90,000[3] 0,9%
1990 266,000[6] 2,7%
2000 364,000[3] 3,6%
2016 862,600[7] 7,6%
And I'll leave it at that.
By the way, the exact number of Belgian Muslims is unknown, as religious censuses are prohibited in Belgium.
Whatever figures you are going to pull out and take as truth, they testify to just as much nonsense as others. Also those that supposedly prove that there is no growth.
But it is noticeable…
The number of Muslims in the Netherlands has been counted again and everyone is pleased: there is nothing wrong with Islamization!
However, Islamization is above all 'self-Islamization'. It will continue unabated, not because it has to but because it can.
In addition, numbers do not say much, politics often only revolves as an image to keep the people quiet and various media are only too happy to cooperate.
That is precisely the problem because these are not hard figures because since 1994 the religion of the inhabitants is no longer registered by the government
This research is based on meaningless questionnaires and not something you can retrieve from a government database in seconds.
It is true that less and less people visit a prayer house, but that does not mean that many are no longer believers, they are.
Do you know what is measured? Visiting mosques has hardly changed and so has the number of Muslims. Measuring believers based on a visit to a stone structure would be really stupid, you can believe perfectly well and never or hardly enter a religious building.
CBS writes:
“Regular church attendance decreased by 2017 percentage points in 0,8 compared to the entire period. The decrease is entirely attributable to Catholics, where this fell by 1,7 percentage points. Among Muslims, mosque attendance has remained the same and among Protestant groups, the proportion that regularly attends a service has increased slightly.” and “42 percent of Muslims visit a mosque at least once a month.”.
Not very exciting in terms of size of believers or visiting a mosque. But you can hardly say that 'the Islamization of the Netherlands' is nonsense anymore, then you immediately get the label look-alike, self-hater, away-with-us-there... it is not (politically?) correct to say that we are not will drown under a wave of Muslims who will rule before the end of the century…
Some numbers:
http://www.republiekallochtonie.nl/blog/achtergronden/de-islamisering-van-nederland-de-feiten
I myself am happy with fewer believers (of whatever religion), it is often a yoke, but I defend everyone's right to believe or not. That is up to the individual, the right of the individual. And then like to fall back on measurements instead of the lower abdomen.
Understand what you mean Rob V. just as you will also find it nonsense when one criticizes or expresses a different opinion on Islam, one is soon put away as a facist, racist, right-wing tokkie and the like.
Criticism should be allowed, as should jokes. Again, regardless of which faith (or non-believers), but as was not done with Christians for a long time, this is still difficult (to put it mildly) with Islam, among others. In some circles you will be labeled a facist if you don't want to ban Piet...
When I was in Asia for the first time at 23, especially in Indonesia, I was often asked what religion I had. In those days (1980) it was always better to have a faith than nothing at all.
After six months of traveling around, I came back to the Netherlands.
There I did a course and applied for work and ended up at Lufthansa in Germany. When filling in the necessary documents, my religion was also asked, so I filled this out truthfully.
When I received my first salary a month later, I was shocked to see that 85 Dm was deducted from my salary because of “Kirchensteuer”.
I thought this was going a bit too far. On inquiry it turned out that the only way to get rid of that was for me to leave the church. So I did. I then had to go to Groß Gerau, where I had to make an official application in the church there to be allowed to leave the church. The man I spoke to warned me that later than never I could get married in a church or have a Christian burial. I was also given three months to think about it, during which the church tax was of course withheld.
I was then 25 years young. My mother was worried, but a Dutch priest friend reassured her: I was still there in the Netherlands and he also thought it impossible that the state in Germany should tax you on the basis of religion.
So I've been a "heathen" ever since, and my life hasn't had any downside to it.
We are moving in the right direction in the Netherlands. Some sense of reality benefits the Dutchman. I have lived as a pagan all my life and have no intention of changing this. Living on the basis of shooting scriptures (Bible, Koran, etc.) is not for me. The fairytale time is outdated I thought and although the world is full of buildings that can often be called impressive, they are still made by mankind and no god is involved. I am aware that there are people who need to be guided and hide behind a belief. It should be clear that the talent is in the Netherlands. Elsewhere in the world we see an increase in very disturbing scenes, inspired by faith. Look at Indonesia and Pakistan, just to name a few. No, the crusader time may be old news, we will get a lot more hassle in the future, because something is very wrong with many on this globe.
Fortunately, in NL - and also in Thailand - we have complete freedom in this area. Unlike Indonesia, for example, where your ID must state one of the 'allowed' – I think 5 – religions. People have been imprisoned for openly admitting to being atheists.