A Russian study, published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, claims the chances of a society becoming religious increases proportionately with an increase in aging population.
Older people tend to believe in God more and think it is important to instill the same belief in their children. The research indicates that an increase in population of older people can slow down the society’s transition to secular values from religious.
The study also predicts that developed countries would become more religious in the next two decades since older adults (aged 50 and above) constitute 50% of adult population (aged 20 and above). And, these numbers are expected to increase significantly by the end of 2040.
Andrey Korotaev, one of the study authors from the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Russia states, “That is why, it is mainly in the developed countries that global ageing may have the most pronounced effect on slowing down the transition from religious to secular values or, possibly, even on some increase in religiosity.”
He further claims, “Japan is known to be one of the countries most affected by ageing, so probably it is not a mere coincidence that a number of important indicators reveal a slowdown of secularization trends and even a certain resurgence of religiosity in this country.”
The study included a total of 16 countries, including, USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, and Germany, among other European countries.
