THE Bible has something meaningful to say about life today, nearly half (47 per cent) of the people in Western countries who responded to a new poll reported.
More than one third (36 per cent) believed that the Bible was relevant to them personally. About one third (32 per cent) reported using the Bible at least once a month.
The Patmos World Bible Attitudes Survey, published on Wednesday and commissioned by the Bible Society, is based on more than 90,000 interviews conducted by Gallup with adults aged 15 and older in 85 countries and areas in 2023 and 2024. Most interviews were conducted face-to-face, asking questions about attitudes to the Bible and to religion, church attendance, Bible use, the influence of the Bible, and people’s confidence about the Bible.
The project lead, Richard Powney, spoke of a need to “see beyond simple census demographics or assumed narratives”. The study provided “the first truly global picture of how people view and interact with the Christian Bible, arguably the most stable marker for understanding global Christianity. . . All of us benefit from robust, trustworthy data about religion.” It provided “strategic intelligence for anyone involved in communicating faith in the modern world”.
The 109-page report divides the 85 countries and areas into seven “clusters”: Cluster Five is made up of 24 “economically developed, historically Christian” countries in Europe, North America, and Australasia. Here, four in ten of those interviewed said that religion was an important part of their daily life — less than half the global average. In Cluster One (the Sahel), it was almost 100 per cent, even among Muslims rated as “inactive”, while in Cluster Three (majority Muslim countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia), it was 85 per cent. In Cluster Seven, Christian-majority sub-Saharan countries, it was 91 per cent.
Forty-one per cent in Cluster Five said that they definitely believed in a god or higher power (rising to 62 per cent when including “probably”). The “definitely” proportion was 94 per cent in Cluster One; 99 per cent in Cluster Three; 79 per cent in Cluster Four (majority Christian countries in Latin America); 70 per cent in Cluster Six (Asian countries); and 92 per cent in the sub-Saharan cluster.
Across all Christians, 42 per cent reported using the Bible weekly: the lowest rates were recorded in European and Australasian contexts. A total of 55 per cent said that they were confident that they could describe the overall story of the Bible. Only 17 per cent of non-religious respondents thought that the Bible was personally relevant. Across all respondents, 70 per cent agreed that it was good for children to know Bible stories.
Within each cluster, further segmentation was carried out, measuring attitudes to religion and interest in the Bible. Within Cluster Five, more than half of those interviewed (53 per cent) identified as Christian; but 58 per cent were assigned to categories described as either “indifferent” or “closed”. This was the cluster where people were most likely to say that they were not interested in learning more about the Bible; but, of the eight per cent that never or rarely attended church (“open, inactive”), 57 per cent said that they were interested in learning more about the Bible.
Within Cluster Five, 16 per cent were defined as “open, active”. Of these, 72 per cent used the Bible on a weekly basis, and 71 per cent attended church at least once a month. They were most likely to be found in the United States, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain. They tended to be older (46 per cent aged 55 and older) and female (58 per cent).
Across the cluster, 22 per cent agreed that the Bible was a cause of harm in the world, while 48 per cent disagreed. A total of 12 per cent were defined as “closed, dismissive”: 56 per cent asserted that the world would be better without the Bible in it.
Cluster Two is made up of 22 countries with large Christian populations primarily located throughout Southern and Eastern Europe. Here, 75 per cent identified as Christian, but only 40 per cent said that religion was an important part of their daily life.
The 17 per cent defined as “active, confident” Christians (of whom 51 per cent attended church at least weekly), tended to be older (46 per cent were 55 and older) and poorer (24 per cent were in the poorest quintile). In common with other clusters, almost two-thirds of this segment (62 per cent) were female. Of the “indifferent, skeptical” sub-category (ten per cent of the total), 40 per cent were aged 18 to 34, and more than half were in the richer two quintiles. In total, one third are defined as “indifferent” or “closed” towards the Bible.
Cluster 4 is made up of 21 majority-Christian countries, mainly in Latin America. Here, 77 per cent agreed that religion was an important part of their daily life, and 85 per cent identified themselves as Christian. Of the 38 per cent defined as “active”, either “public or private”, 60 per cent were female. The nine per cent who were “inactive, dismissive” tended to be younger (55 per cent aged 15 to 34) and richer (a third were in the richest quintile).
Cluster 6 is composed of 19 countries and territories, most of which are located throughout Asia. Here, 56 per cent of people said that they had never heard of the Bible, and just six per cent were interested in learning more about it.
In Cluster 7, 71 per cent identified as Christian, but 47 per cent said that they believed that Christianity was essentially a Western religion. This rose to 86 per cent of the active-confident Christians. They were disproportionately likely to be younger and wealthier. Across the cluster, just six per cent of people were defined as “inactive, indifferent”, while more than half (57 per cent) “active” or “open”.
Across all clusters, high percentages said that they believed that people should keep their religious beliefs to themselves, including 69 per cent in the Sahel cluster (63 per cent of Christians, 70 per cent Muslims), and 73 per cent of “active, confident” Christians in sub-Saharan Africa.
The survey found that 11 per cent of respondents from different religious traditions — and those with no religious tradition — were “open to learning more about the Christian Bible”: a trend seen across most clusters, but more prominent in Christian-majority contexts.
The report lists “two significant challenges. . . First, the indifference towards the Bible and religion in more secular contexts. Second, there are still significant parts of the world where people have not heard about the Bible.”
