Study title

Gallup Ecclesiastica 2019

Dataset ID Number

FSD3582

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3582
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3582

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Church Research Institute

Abstract

The survey studied religiosity and church membership in Finland as well as people's participation in parish activities. Questions also charted personal faith, spiritual matters, attitudes towards religious communities, and family.

The respondents were first asked about helping others, donating money to charity, and the meaning of their own work. Questions surveyed why the respondents helped other people (e.g. they felt it was their duty as a citizen or a Christian, they felt good when helping others), how much money the respondents had donated to charity in the past year, and whether the respondents thought it was important that they could help and serve others in their work.

The next questions focused on how the respondents spent Sundays and holidays. The respondents were asked, for example, whether they usually went to worship service on Sundays, ate a more festive meal, cooked, or cleaned. The respondents' Easter and Christmas celebrations were also examined with questions on whether they fasted or participated in a worship service on Easter and whether they visited graves or read the Christmas Gospel on Christmas. Further questions focused on fasting and the meaning of fasting to the respondents as well as the respondents' views on the importance of religious ceremonies in connection to big life events (e.g. when a child is born, marriage). Religion and worldviews were surveyed next with questions related to different religions and their teachings, spiritual matters, the existence of God, and the firmness of the respondents' belief in a number of religious tenets and phenomena (e.g. a good God, angels, the Devil).

The respondents' personal spirituality was charted with questions on how often they prayed, read the Bible, watched or listened to religious programmes on TV or radio, and visited websites related to religion. The respondents were asked which books (excluding sacred books of religions), songs and spiritual influencers had the most significance for them spiritually. The respondents' religious and supernatural experiences, such as God answering their prayers or foreseeing a future event, were also surveyed. Religious traditions, family and childhood were surveyed next. The respondents were asked to choose which statements about religion and religious activities they thought described their childhood home and whether they had taught or would teach their children a bedtime prayer. Questions also charted how important the respondents thought it was to pass on various religious traditions, such as baptism, attending worship service, and celebrating Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ, to future generations.

Attitudes towards the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland were also surveyed. The respondents were asked whether people close to them viewed the church with a more positive or negative attitude, what they thought the church's role was in mitigating climate change, and whether the church should support same-sex marriage. Next, membership of a church or other religious community was examined. Those who were members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland were asked about the importance of a number of reasons for Church membership as well as whether they had considered quitting the Church. Those who were not members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church were asked whether they had previously quit the Church and what their reasons for quitting had been. Attitudes towards Finnish identity and different groups of people were also surveyed.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's age, gender, level of education, occupation, household size, household income, type of housing, NUTS2 region of residence, household composition, and political party preference in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

Keywords

Protestantism; beliefs; church; donations to charity; participation; religion; religious doctrines; religious experience; religious movements; religious practice

Topic Classification

• Humanities (Fields of Science Classification)
• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Religion and values (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Gallup Ecclesiastica

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Taloustutkimus

Time Period Covered

2019

Collection Dates

2019-11-20 – 2019-12-18

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged 15- 79 residing in Finland (excluding the Åland Islands)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability

The sample was formed with programmed random sampling based on the target population and the target group in the panel.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, the researcher removed all open-ended responses of the type "other, please specify" from the data. Additionally, open-ended variables K19, K20 and K21 were removed from the data at FSD, identifiers were removed from the responses to open-ended variable 18A, and variables denoting membership of revivalist movements (K40A_5, K40A_13 and K40A_21) were combined.

Weighting

The data contain a weight variable which weights the data to be representative of Finland's population in terms of age, gender, region of residence, and church membership.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Church Research Institute: Gallup Ecclesiastica 2019 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2023-02-01). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3582

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Salomäki, Hanna & Hytönen, Maarit & Ketola, Kimmo & Salminen, Veli-Matti & Sohlberg, Jussi (2020): Uskonto arjessa ja juhlassa: Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko vuosina 2016-2019 [verkkodokumentti]. Tampere: Kirkon tutkimuskeskus. Kirkon tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 134. https://julkaisut.evl.fi/catalog/Tutkimukset%20ja%20julkaisut/r/4238 [viitattu 9.2.2021]

Salminen, Veli-Matti (2020): Missä mennään, diakoninen kirkko? Nelivuotiskertomuksen havaintoja. Diakonian tutkimus 2/2020: 34-39. https://evl.fi/documents/1327140/45652999/Minne+menet%2C+diakoninen+kirkko+%28V-M+Salminen+DT+2_2020%29.pdf/3177e2f1-4dc0-c506-8a00-cd59dcf05017?t=1608543389147

Hytönen, Maarit (2021)Kuinka käy kristillisen kasvatuksen? Crux 1/2021. 36 - 39.

Hytönen, Maarit (2021) Kaste suomalaisten kokemuksena ja saarnojen aiheena. Vol 1 Nro 1 (2021): Uskonto, katsomus ja kasvatus. https://journal.fi/ukk/issue/view/7859

Salomäki, Hanna; Hytönen, Maarit; Ketola, Kimmo; Salminen, Veli-Matti & Sohlberg, Jussi (2021): Religion till vardags och fest. Evangelisk-lutherska kyrkan i Finland 2016-2019. Kyrkans forskningscentrals publikationer 135. Tampere: Kyrkans forskningscentral.

Salomäki, Hanna; Hytönen, Maarit; Ketola, Kimmo; Salminen, Veli-Matti & Sohlberg, Jussi (2021): Religion in Daily Life and in Celebration. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, 2016-2019. Tampere: The Church Research Institute.

Ketola, Kimmo (2020): Jooga ja meditaatio Suomessa. - Elina Hellqvist & Jyri Komulainen (toim.): Henkisyyttä ja mielenrauhaa: Aasian uskonnollisuus länsimaissa, 14-44. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.

Ketola, Kimmo & Sohlberg, Jussi. 2022. Ketkä näkevät enkeleitä? Suomalaisten yliluonnolliset kokemukset ja enkeliusko kyselytutkimusten valossa. Teoksessa: Minna Opas & Tiina Mahlamäki (toim.), Uushenkisyys, 94-117. (Tietolipas 275) Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.

Salomäki, Hanna (2021): Uskonnolliset rituaalit ja nuoret aikuiset: kasteeseen liittyvät valinnat. Teoksessa Maarit Hytönen (toim.) Kasteen polulla: Kasteen ja kummiuden teologiaa ja käytäntöjä. Kirkon tutkimuskeskuksen julkaisuja 136. Tampere: Kirkon tutkimuskeskus, 10-33.

Salminen, Veli-Matti (2022): Suomalaisten luontosuhde, ilmastonmuutos ja spiritualiteetti. Teoksessa Veli-Matti Salminen & Niko Huttunen (toim.) Spiritualiteetti 2020-luvun Suomessa. Suomen ev.-lut. kirkon tutkimusjulkaisuja 137. Helsinki: Kirkon tutkimus ja koulutus, 113-134.

Salomäki, Hanna (2022): Suomalaisten ikä- ja sukupuolierot uskonnollisuudessa 2000-luvulla. Teoksessa Veli-Matti Salminen & Niko Huttunen (toim.) Spiritualiteetti 2020-luvun Suomessa. Suomen ev.-lut. kirkon tutkimusjulkaisuja 137. Helsinki: Kirkon tutkimus ja koulutus, 228-257.

Sohlberg, Jussi (2022): Uushenkisyyteen liittyvien näkemysten kannatus 2000-luvulla kyselytutkimusten valossa. Teoksessa Veli-Matti Salminen & Niko Huttunen (toim.) Spiritualiteetti 2020-luvun Suomessa. Suomen ev.-lut. kirkon tutkimusjulkaisuja 137. Helsinki: Kirkon tutkimus ja koulutus, 258-287.