Description

Datasets in the series consist of reasons stated by Finnish citizens in the Eroakirkosta.fi web service for resigning from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland or the Finnish Orthodox Church. After filing the resignation, the service allows users to write down their reasons for leaving the Church.

The first dataset in the series covers years 2010-2017. Starting from 2018, annual datasets supplement the data series.

Nowadays, it is also possible to resign from the church via the online service of Digital and Population Data Services Agency (DVV). The eroakirkosta.fi website now directs people who want to resign from the church to use the service of DVV in the first instance. As a result, the total number of divorces reported on the eroakirkosta.fi website has decreased significantly each year since the early 2020s. The data set does not include the reasons for the resignations reported on the DVV website.