For the third time, infas conducted the survey for the Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Religion Monitor. Now results of the latest wave have been published. From the Foundation’s press release:
“The trend of declining membership in Christian churches in Germany is continuing. This is shown by initial data from our new Religion Monitor 2023. At the same time, many people agree that it is possible to be a Christian without a church. That could change the significance of churches in society in the long term.”
As in the previous waves, the Religion Monitor 2023 refers to the population aged 16 and over. For the first time, the use of a civil register sample for Germany was chosen for this study, which currently represents the best possible sampling basis for population surveys.
The survey was supplemented by an additional sample based on an online access panel. Both sample sources were linked using appropriate weighting. Together, this combined dataset of around 4,400 complete interviews forms the basis of analysis for the Religion Monitor. The surveys took place as online surveys in German, Turkish and Arabic. In addition, top-ups of persons of the Muslim faith were also used in Germany, the proportions of which were adjusted to corresponding estimates from the population sample as part of the weighting process. In addition, further surveys were conducted in France, the UK, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the USA – also on the basis of online access panels. The field period for all modules was in June and July 2022.
