There is a marked revival of interest in religion among young people in Northern Ireland, a major new poll [1] commissioned by The Iona Institute has found. This is a clear reversal of the previous continual decline by age. The youngest age group polled, that is, the 18-24-year-olds, are more likely to have a ‘very positive’ attitude of Christianity (30pc vs only 4pc with a ‘very negative’ view) than any other age group, even the over-65s. This revival of interest among the 18-24-year-olds is consistent with poll findings in the Republic, in Britain, and in the US. In Britain, the phenomenon is being called the ‘Quiet Revival’.
More of this age group also have a very positive attitude towards the Catholic Church (17pc) than all of the age groups above them.
The poll is based on a representative sample of 1,200 adults in Northern Ireland and was conducted by Amarach Research.
Overall, the poll reveals the attitudes of Catholics, Protestants and the non-religious in the North towards religion, Christianity and the individual Churches. One big finding is that Northern Ireland can no longer be viewed as being simply divided between Catholics and Protestants, but that the ‘nones’, that is, those who say they don’t belong to any religion, have become a major force as well.
Some of the other major findings of the polls are:
– 28pc of those sampled say they are Catholic, 14pc say they are Presbyterian, 11pc say they are Church of Ireland, while 36pc say they don’t belong to any religion (the ‘nones’). The rest belong to other Christian Churches or other religions
– 40pc of Catholics are regular Mass-goers (double the percentage in the South)
– 56pc say they are religious and/or spiritual (a slightly lower percentage than in the South). 39pc say they are neither religious nor spiritual, while the rest say they don’t know
– While the 18-24-year-olds are the most likely to have a ‘very positive’ view of religion, half say they are neither religious nor spiritual, indicating this age group is quite polarised on religion
– 51pc of those surveyed say they pray, 44pc said they attend religious services (which does not mean regularly), 33pc meditate, while 38pc read religious or spiritual books such as the Bible. (Only 18pc of those in the Republic do so)
– The 18-24-year-olds are more likely to pray and read or watch religious content than the 25-34-year-olds
– 49pc of respondents view Christianity favourably, versus 23pc for the Catholic Church and 30pc for the Protestant Churches (probably indicating hostility towards the institutions)
– The scandals are a big driver of unfavourable attitudes towards the Catholic Church
– The most unfavourable attitudes towards religion in general are among the non-religious, which is not surprising. They seem to have a ‘plague on both your houses’ attitude
– We also see in the poll that Catholics are more well disposed towards the Protestant Churches than vice versa.
What does the finding about young people mean? The fact that some kind of revival of interest in religion is occurring among the youngest age group surveyed should encourage all the Churches. It is not an outlier finding because polls elsewhere have seen the same thing. Maybe a growing subset of young people are concluding that secularism isn’t really giving satisfactory answers to life’s big questions.
In the future, there will probably be fewer ‘cultural Christians’ around, that is, people who say they are Christian but don’t practice. Instead, society could be divided between those who believe in religion and those who don’t believe, with little in between, that is between the religious and the ‘nones’. This seems to be what is happening in both the North and the South. The overall conclusion, however, is that religion is not disappearing, contrary to past predictions.