Statistics for 2017 show that 26% of Switzerland’s residents have no religion. As recently as 1960 the same figure was less than 1%. In 2016, the same figure was 25%.
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The percentage with no faith shows significant regional variations. While only 20% of Italian speakers have no religion, 25% in German-speaking Switzerland and 31% in French-speaking Switzerland don’t.
Compared to much of the rest of Europe, Switzerland is still highly religious. Another survey focused on young people showed that 46% of those aged 16 to 29 in Switzerland had no religion, a relatively low figure when compared to countries like the Czech Republic (91%), Estonia (80%), Sweden (75%) the Netherlands (72%) and the UK (70%).
Europe’s decline in religiosity is largely down to a decline in the number of Christians. According to a Pew report Europe lost 5.6 million Christians between 2010 and 2015. This is partly driven by the demographics of aging, a trend set to continue. A growing number of Muslims in Europe is offsetting the trend to some extent. Between 2010 and 2015 their number in Europe rose by 2.6 million.
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