Culture Turkey: Religiosity is decreasing, non-belief is increasing

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KONDA shared the findings of its research on the religious belief trends of Turkish society.

According to the results, the proportion of people who describe themselves as "religious" has dropped from 55% to 46%, while those who identify as "non-believers or atheists" have increased from 2% to 8%.

KONDA shared the results of its “Lifestyles Survey,” conducted in October 2024, with the public.

KONDA compared its latest research with a similar study conducted 16 years ago. Compared to the 2008 survey, a significant decrease was observed in the proportion of people who identify as "religious," while there was a notable increase in the number of those who describe themselves as “atheist and non-believers.”

According to the research conducted by KONDA with 6,137 participants, the proportion of people identifying as "religious," which was 55% in 2008, declined to 46% in 2025.

In the same period, the proportion of those who identified as “atheist and non-believers” rose from 2% to 8%. Meanwhile, the percentage of people who described themselves as “believers” increased slightly, from 31% to 34%.

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Among those identified as “devout,” the proportion did not change and remained steady at 12%.

In a post shared on KONDA’s social media account, it was stated: “Religiosity is declining in Turkish society, while non-belief is on the rise. In 2008, the proportion of those who described themselves as atheist and non-believers was 2%, whereas it is now 8%.”
 
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Rango Dango said:
TID. TOTAL. ISLAM. DEATH.
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Islam is in a deep crisis worldwide. Even in places like Iran where the government now tries to bring people back to religion.


Government Study Shows Iranians Less Religious Than Before​

A study by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance reveals a significant decline in adherence to religious values, despite extensive ideological propaganda by the government in Iran.

The confidential study, conducted by the Ministry's Research Center for Culture, Art and Communication and leaked to foreign-based Persian media outlets, highlights that approximately 73 percent of Iranians advocate for the separation of religion from state, indicating an unprecedented demand for a secular government.

Contrary to the 22.5 percent advocating for a religious government, a sharp increase in secularism is evident, with demands for secular governance rising from less than 31 percent in 2015.

The significant change seems to have taken place since large anti-regime protests in 2022 and 2023 when the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement began, representing the most serious challenge to the Islamic Republic in 45 years.

With participation from over 15,800 Iranians aged 18 and above across all 31 provinces, this is the fourth such study, following similar ones in 2000, 2003, and 2015.

Although the population's departure from the government's ideological values is shocking enough for the government, most of those taking part in the study have reiterated that Iranians are likely to be even less religious in the coming years.

Moreover, nearly 62 percent of participants believe that ideological inquiries should not be part of employment exams, underscoring the societal polarization around religious and ideological matters under the clerical regime.

In one of the most important findings of the study, 85 percent said Iranians have become less religious compared to 5 years ago. Only 7 percent said they have become more religious and around 8 percent said they can see no difference in this regard between now and 5 years ago.

Looking ahead, over 81 percent anticipate a continued decline in religious observance over the next five years, reflecting shifting societal attitudes towards religious practices. Only 9 percent said they are likely to be more religious and around 10 percent said there will be no difference.

Regarding the compulsory hijab, attitudes have shifted markedly since 2015, with a substantial portion expressing tolerance towards women who defy the mandate. Only a minority now support strict enforcement of hijab rules. Around 38 percent said they do not mind if women defy the compulsory hijab, 46 percent said they oppose women who do not wear hijab but will not object to them.

The change since 2015 is significant. Some 10.6 percent had said in 2015 that they do not mind violation of compulsory hijab. Meanwhile, 34.4 percent said compulsory hijab rules should not be imposed on women who do not like it. The figure was 15.7 in 2015. On the other hand, 7.9 percent said they absolutely agree that women must be made to wear hijab whether they like it or not. The figure was 18.6 percent in 2015.

Only 11 percent of those who answered the questionnaire said they always take part in congregational prayers while 45 percent said they had never attended Friday prayers. As opposed to 13 percent who said they always read the holy Koran, 19 percent said they never read it.

The figures show why the Iranian government was reluctant to publish the results of the study although several journalists during the past week called on the government to make it available to the public. The reluctance of the Iranian government underscores its discomfort with the findings, which contradict its narrative of promoting piety. Instead, the data suggests a decline in adherence to religious values under clerical rule.
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I consider this abhorrent religion one of the greatest mistakes ever made and I'm happy to see more and more people turning their back on it.
 
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This has been the case for long.

Turks have been trying to be more western since the 1850s. Replacing the Ottoman (Arabo-Persian) script with Latin. Turning the Hagia Sophia from a mosque into a museum, etc.

I guess Turks are high iq enough to realise that following an unwashed desert pedophile warlord's delusions is stupid.

The only people who are staying, or becoming, Muslim are low IQ retards and brown people, i.e. pakistanis and immigrants
 
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Vriljami said:
I have recently come across Turks who view Islam as "arab sand religion" and instead support Tengrism as genuine Turkic religion. Turkey's European larp going too far when they start imitating the Odinists?
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The Pahlavi dynasty promoted Zoroastrianism as Iran's historic religion instead of Islam, partly as a way of decoupling Islam from the national identity and reducing its influence on politics. It comes out of a nationalist desire for a more self-defined national identity of authentic Iranian identity, I'd imagine it's the same for the Turks. A survey found that to be likely reason for why there was a massive overrepresentation of Zoroastrians in online surveys on religion than the actual estimated population. (Survey Zoroastrians: Online Religious Identification in the Islamic Republic of Iran)
 
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Pixy said:
Turkey may beat Europe's levels of agnosticism and atheism, but they still won't be European.
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I’m actually seeing more young Turks ditching the “we wuz Europeanz” thing. They’re skeptical now.

- They watch their country deal with 10+ million refugees, with Erdogan pulling his “I’m gonna open the gates” stunt, then pocketing EU hush money and all is good.
- They’re dumbfounded by European cities crawling with Afghans and Pakistanis, some spots feeling more “halal” than Turkey’s seaside towns. A secular Turk would lose it in Birmingham.
- Even if they’re FAANG-adjacent tech bros or academics with PhDs from the US/EU, they’re still getting slapped with Schengen visa rejections when they try for a vacation from Turkey.
- They’ve clocked that while their economy’s in the gutter, Europoors scraping by on 2k EUR a month ain’t the dream either. Moving to Europe won’t fix their mess.
 
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datafag said:
I’m actually seeing more young Turks ditching the “we wuz Europeanz” thing. They’re skeptical now.

- They watch their country deal with 10+ million refugees, with Erdogan pulling his “I’m gonna open the gates” stunt, then pocketing EU hush money and all is good.
- They’re dumbfounded by European cities crawling with Afghans and Pakistanis, some spots feeling more “halal” than Turkey’s seaside towns. A secular Turk would lose it in Birmingham.
- Even if they’re FAANG-adjacent tech bros or academics with PhDs from the US/EU, they’re still getting slapped with Schengen visa rejections when they try for a vacation from Turkey.
- They’ve clocked that while their economy’s in the gutter, Europoors scraping by on 2k EUR a month ain’t the dream either. Moving to Europe won’t fix their mess.
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These are all minor things, imo. Many Turks changed their minds on eurofaggotry after the whole "muh kurd genocide" thing, and then after Azerbaijan/Armenia war.
 
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Islam is Erdogan's entire platform, he and his party invoke religion constantly to justify everything they do. They've also driven the country into a ditch with one economic disaster after another. Also, Turkey is kind of similar to Israel in that they have an official state religious department that runs all the mosques, and the imams are government workers. That means that every mosque preaches a uniform ultra-conservative ideology. You don't have a choice of different mosques that emphasize different parts of the doctrine, their product is uniform like McDonalds food and of course they all support Erdogan and make excuses for his failures.

So they're kind of speedrunning the history of secularism in Europe, where churches were also branches of the government. The pulpit was used as a tool of propaganda and any spiritual connection people felt to it was lost; the same is happening in Turkey.
 
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Vaclav said:
Islam is Erdogan's entire platform, he and his party invoke religion constantly to justify everything they do. They've also driven the country into a ditch with one economic disaster after another. Also, Turkey is kind of similar to Israel in that they have an official state religious department that runs all the mosques, and the imams are government workers. That means that every mosque preaches a uniform ultra-conservative ideology. You don't have a choice of different mosques that emphasize different parts of the doctrine, their product is uniform like McDonalds food and of course they all support Erdogan and make excuses for his failures.

So they're kind of speedrunning the history of secularism in Europe, where churches were also branches of the government. The pulpit was used as a tool of propaganda and any spiritual connection people felt to it was lost; the same is happening in Turkey.
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Yep. Generally, when a society allows ZERO choice in religion, religiosity declines.
 
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