According to sociological studies, the share of churchgoers in Russia is 34%

Researchers at the Institute for Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vyacheslav Lokosov and Yulia Sinelina found out in the course of their research that the proportion of people living the church life to one degree or another is, contrary to popular belief, not 4-6%, but about 30%, - reports Interfax . Scientists use the methodology for determining churching, developed by sociologist Valentina Chesnokova.

The methodology offers five signs of the way of life of a churched person: visiting the temple, confession and communion, reading the Gospel, prayer, observing fasts.

According to this methodology and research data for 2006, there are about 10% of those who are churched in Russia, and 24% are semi-churched. The number of people who could be classified as starting their way to the Church is 14%.

Scientists argue that over the past ten years, Orthodox in Russia have begun to attend churches more often, read church prayers and read the Gospel more regularly, while the proportion of those receiving communion has changed insignificantly.

Experts' conclusions are made on the basis of the data of all-Russian studies of the Public Opinion Foundation for 1992, 2000, 2002 and all-Russian studies of the ISPI RAS for 2004 and 2006.

Sources

• The share of Russians who are churched in one way or another is not 4%, but 34%, scientists say // Interfax-religion. 2008. May 26.