Secularization or revival, polarization or convergence? An assessment of trends in the religiosity of young adults in twenty-first-century Europe

In this article we analyze trends and differentials in religiosity by Christian denomination: Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. Combining six measures of religiosity used in the European Values Study, we categorized young adult respondents as “religious,” “fuzzy,” or “secular.” We found that, in the most secular countries, the “religious” proportion has remained stable over recent decades; however, there has been a concurrent growth in the “secular” proportion—hence a shrinking of the “fuzzy” middle group. A postcommunist revival has continued in some Orthodox countries but abated elsewhere, while Catholic countries have shown greater declines than already highly secularized Protestant countries.