Does the Russian Orthodox Church help increase the birth rate

The Russian Orthodox Church loves to advise the state how to improve the birth rate. For example, equate abortion to murders or introduce a childless tax . It comes to miracles. For example, according to the statements of the participants of the II Forum of the All -Russian Program “Holy of Motherhood”, the cities that the Virgin Virgin visited, the birth rate rose.

Be that as it may, the influence of religion on the birth rate exists - this fact is recognized not only by deeply believers, but also by scientists. It is the process of transition to a secular state in the West that many of them explain the decline in fertility in Europe. Modern economics and education bring up the value of self -realization in people, and medicine speaks of the responsibility and difficulties of the birth of several children - hence the birth rate, writes the magazine "Demoscope".

Based on this, it can be assumed that in believers, the birth rate will be higher. Indeed, in many European countries you can find such a connection. But in Russia it is not (see, for example, a table below). For example, the share of large families among respondents who attended religious services once a month or more often amounted to 9% in Russia - and 8% of those who attended services several times a year or less. And, for example, in Austria this figure reached 34% among religious families and 13% - among not very religious ones. The lack of a connection between religiosity and fertility is characteristic not only for Russia, but also for other post -Soviet countries, where atheism (Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine and other countries) was promoted at the official level).

The only significant differences are noticeable both at the level of individual religions and within the communities - depending on the degree of involvement of the family in religious life. According to the study by Tatyana Maleva and Oksana Sinyavskaya , "ethnic groups professing Islam demonstrate the highest birth rate." If you look at the Orthodox communities, then there are people who belong to the core of the community or communion in the church once a month - other groups of the Orthodox did not show significant differences in demographic behavior. So before offering radical steps on the scale of the entire state, the ROC figures should first work with their own flock.

The average number of children in the religious and non -religious population

Source: " Weekly Demoscope "