Today Russians believe in God, higher forces and religious miracle much more than in early 1990s.

MOSCOW, April 28, 2016.  Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VCIOM) presents the data of the survey describing whether Russians believe that the destiny is predetermined, and whether they rely on God’s help.

Over twenty-five years the number of Russians who rely on God has increased from 49% in 1991 to 67% in 2016. The proportion of those who always or often rely on higher forces has almost doubled (25% versus 47%). This proportion among Muslims is bigger (49%) than among Orthodox Christians (34%). Since 1991 the share of those who do not believe in God has decreased by 7 percentage points than the percentage of those who do not rely on God (a 9-point decrease). 

Forty-eight percent of Russians are confident that the life path is predetermined; a quarter of a century ago the share of respondents who thought so was twice as small. Even among non-believers the percentage of those who share this viewpoint is 10%. Those who believe in destiny are mainly people aged 60 and over (61%), Muslims (68%) Orthodox Christians (54%), rarer young respondent aged 18-24 (38%) and men (39%).

Whereas in 1990s, 24% believed in hell, 25% believed in devil, and 33% believed in life after death, and more than half of Russians were confident that it was inexistent, today  the percentages of believers and non-believers are almost equal  (40% versus 43%, 40% versus 45% and 46 versus 40, respectively). For the time being, more Russians believe in religious miracle (32% in 1991 versus 50% in 2016).

Over twenty-five years, the percentage of those who are in favour of censorship in art which criticizes or attacks religion (58%). One-quarter of respondents (25%) consider that such pieces should be banned by a law (in 1991, this share was 19%). People with incomplete secondary and complete secondary education support this ban more often than the sample mean (64% and 59, respectively).

The VCIOM survey is based on community-based formalized face-to-face interviews conducted on April 23-24, 2016, with a sample of 1600 respondents, aged 18 and over, in 130 settlements, 46 regions and republics and 9 federal districts of Russia. The survey is conducted with multi-stage stratified sample based on general rule of walking and quotas at the final selection stage (representative sample include sex, age, education and type of settlement). Apart from the margin of error, minor changes in question wording and different circumstances arising during the field work should be taken into account.

Note: Using materials from the website www.wciom.ru or wciom.com, as well as distributed by VCIOM, the reference to the source (or hyperlink for the electronic media) is obligatory.