MOSCOW, 22 January 2024. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a survey describing Russian experiences with going to sacred places.

Nature abhors a vacuum

The survey reveals that visiting sacred places is getting increasingly popular with Russians, especially those who are independent travelers: over as little as four years the share of Russians who have similar experiences has increased from 31% to 43%, up 17 p.p. over the ten-year-period (26% in 2014).Organized trips and guided tours to visit sacred places are still not in demand (16%, as in 2020). About half of all the respondents happened to be in sacred places (53%, +10 p.p. compared to 2020). One of possible explanations behind people’s interest in pilgrimage and religious tourism is an increasing role of religion in their life: findings of July surveys show that over the recent thirty years the share of those who consider religion as an important thing has increased 2.5-fold, from 6% to 15%.  

• Russian traveling independently to sacred places can be equally male or female (44% and 42% respectively), middle-aged or slightly older (48-46% of the 35-59-year-olds), with higher or incomplete higher education diplomas (48%), with good financial income (50%), a person living in a metropolitan area (50%).
• Russian traveling to sacred places as part of a tour or a group is likely a woman (20% vs. 11% of men), a younger person, under 25 (19%), or an older one, aged 60+ (20%); with higher or incomplete higher education (21%), living in Moscow or St Petersburg (24%).
• Russian who has never visited sacred places is likely a man (49% vs. 45% of women), a 25-34 -year-old (52%), with incomplete secondary or secondary education (60%), who considers himself/herself as a non-believer (66%) or a Muslim adherent (73%).

Visiting sacred places brings positive emotions – an overwhelming majority of respondents are satisfied with their experience with sacred places (96%; 94% in 2014); they are equally those who traveled on their own or in a group (96% each).

Never been there but eager to be there!

Russians who have never been to sacred places are really interested in visiting such places (70%); over the ten years this percentage has considerably increased (56% in 2014). Most often they are respondents aged 45 and older (74% of the 45-59-year-olds; 77% of those 60+), rural area inhabitants and people living in settlements with a population of under 100 thousand inhabitants (76% and 77% respectively), and Orthodox Christians (85%).

Every fourth respondent among those who have not visited sacred places would not like to go there (26%; 32% in 2014). They are basically young respondents under 35 (39-40%), residents of large cities (Moscow, St Petersburg — 41%; million-plus cities — 38%; cities with a population of 500-950 thousand inhabitants — 33%), as well as non-believers (70%).

VCIOM-Sputnik Russian nationwide telephone survey was conducted 12 January 2024. A total of 1,600 Russians aged 18+ were surveyed. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

 Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 12 January 2024:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7959; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0181; response rate (RR)*** = 0.1078.  Calculations are based on corporate standards: https://profi.wciom.ru/principy_standarty/korporativnyj-standart-po-izmereniyu-rezultativnosti-oprosov-sputnik-vciom/

* CR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews and b) non-interviews with eligible respondents.

** MRR: the number of complete interviews divided by the sum of: а) complete interviews, b) interrupted interviews after successful screening and c) all the respondents where it is unknown whether they meet the selected criteria or not.

 ** RR is calculated in the same way as MRR, with the only difference that the number of respondents with unknown eligibility decreases proportional to the percentage of eligible cases in the total number of respondents with identified eligibility or non-eligibility.