MOSCOW, 9 June 2025. The VCIOM Analytical Center presents the findings of a monitoring study on religion.

Religious identity in the Russian society is rather stable: a vast majority of respondents identify as believers, including two-thirds of respondents who remain committed to the Orthodox faith. A high level of declarative religiosity hides a variety of meanings. Today, first and foremost, for Russians religion is largely a national tradition and observance of moral and ethical norms; it is less likely to be perceived as personal salvation and part of the world culture and history; few identify religion with their participation in the church life and consider it to be a prejudice.  

Perceptions of religion: temporal and generational outlook

Changes in the public perceptions of religion over the recent 17 years reflect individualization and desacralization of the religious experience. The focus is shifting from collective rituals and formal adherence to dogmas to independent spiritual search. External, formal aspect of religion is weakening, while the cultural component is strengthening. The latter is specifically important for Zoomers. Raised in the era of globalization, pluralism and individualism, modern youth often view religion through the prism of culture and history, not dogmas. That is why different religious practices at young age (18-24) can be considered as elements of cultural heritage and not as guidelines. However, there is no crisis of belief among the young people to speak of. On the contrary, there has been an increase in the share of believers in this group compared to the beginning of last year. Time will tell how stable the trend is, but it can also be a short-term thing driven by soul-searching and still rather vague religious consciousness typical of the young generation.

Remarkably, older age groups are more likely to perceive religion as a path to personal salvation than young groups. Apparently, as we grow older, we become more aware of the mistakes we made and reconsider the values, which stimulates the need for consolation and expiation.

How Faith Relates to Religious Practices?

Four groups can be singled out in terms of the degree of religious engagement:

— poorly churched (respondents involved in 1-3 out of 10 religious practices) (15%): often men, respondents with secondary education and lower, with good and bad financial well-being; those who perceive religion as part of the world culture and history;

— moderately churched (respondents involved in 4-7 religious practices) (46%): often women, residents of small localities (under 100 ths inhabitants), those who perceive religion as a national tradition, as well as part of the world culture and as observance of moral and ethical norms;

— highly churched (respondents involved in 8-10 involved in) (37%): Russians aged 34-57 (Older millennials and the Reform generation), with the income above average, religion for them is observance of religious rites;

— unchurched (respondents who do not do anything mentioned above) (2%).

The most popular religious practices among Russians (based on the level of engagement*) are as follows: celebrating religious holidays, keeping the commandments, visiting churches, reading prayers and wearing religious symbols. The degree of involvement in religious practices varies substantially. For example, external attributes of religion (wearing religious symbols, participating in holidays) are common; more specific practices (fasting, reading the spiritual literature, talking to a priest, helping at churches, participating in rites) are less common and situational.

Remarkably, in terms of the level of engagement with religious practices faithful youth is not inferior much to the older generations. Observance of religious commandments might be the only point it loses on. According to the findings, this is what the believers have been working towards their entire lives.

Role of religion in everyday life

Over the recent ten years, the number of Russians who say that religion helps in their daily life has increased. Today six in ten respondents say they feel that religion helps them (7 out of 10 believers). The higher the level of engagement with religious practices, the stronger the believers feel positive impacts of religion on their life.

* “Regularly” and “sometimes” sum of answers

All-Russian VCIOM-Sputnik telephone survey was conducted May 12, 2025. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interview, 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 May 12, 2025: cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7130; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0125; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0884. Calculations are based on corporate standard:

* 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.

** This table is for reference only. Distribution of religious respondents by generation: Digital generation (n=85), Younger millennials (n=142), Older millennials (n=295), Reform generation (n=331), Thaw generation (n=125).

*** Calculations based on the question: “Which of the following activities do you do, not do?”

*** Calculations based on the question “Which of the following activities do you do, not do?”

**** Due to the small size of the group, a breakdown by non-churchgoers is not provided. 

* Before 2017, surveys were conducted through household face-to-face interviews (Express project); stratified multi-stage sample, with quotas based on socio-demographic parameters; representative of the Russian population aged 18+, according to type of settlement, gender, age, education and federal district. Sample size: 1,600 respondents.