A September survey published by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada shows that the nation is among the world’s most secular countries, with only 29 percent of Canadians saying religion is a very important part of their lives, compared to 59 percent of Americans who gave it a high priority.
Another 37 percent said religion is somewhat important — for a total of 66 percent — a drop from 20 years ago, when 76 percent of Canadians said it was either very or somewhat important.
Asking whether society would be better off if people attended religious services more regularly, 50 percent agreed, but 48 percent disagreed.
However, Canada’s best known surveyor of religious trends says something new is happening in the country’s churches: an increase in attendance. In “Restless Churches,” his seventh book on the subject, Reg Bibby says “organized religion is making a comeback.”
Attendance has dropped steadily since the 1950s, but Bibby, a sociologist at the University of Lethbridge, says weekly attendance has crept up to its highest level since 1985.
By 2000, weekly attendance was 21 percent of Canadians, but surveys in 2002 and 2003 pegged weekly attendance ranging from 26 percent to 30 percent. Across Canada, “there has been an increase in attendance by Protestant adults under 35, and the number of teens attending services has bounced back from the low of 18 percent in 1992, to 22 percent in 2000. “Things are healthier than people let on.”
The Pew Research Center has conducted studies that found Canadians as a whole are moving away from sincere religious faith, even as they continue in large numbers to call themselves Catholic or Protestant on census forms.
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