Hong Kong lifts strict mask requirement after three years

Study: Religion hardly played a helping role in the corona crisis

According to a survey, religion only proved helpful in overcoming the crisis for a small proportion of the population during the pandemic. Around a third of the 4363 nationally representative respondents stated that they had increasingly dealt with questions about the meaning of life during the Corona crisis. As the Bertelsmann Foundation’s “Religions Monitor 2023” shows, most people in the crisis found family and science to provide them with support and orientation.

Among those surveyed in the summer of 2022, 90 percent said family was “rather helpful” or “very helpful” in dealing with the pandemic. Around 85 percent said that with a view to science, 81 percent to the health system. The neighborhood was also seen as helpful by many (74 percent). But only 48 percent attributed this to politics and only 29 percent to religion.

A comparison of European countries – such as Spain, France or Great Britain – showed similar patterns, according to the publication on Thursday. In the crisis, religion gives strength above all to people who were religious before the pandemic.

As a positive result, the foundation notes: Almost nine out of ten people in Germany were confident that they would also survive this crisis. And three-quarters said they’ve been more involved with others during the pandemic. Religious people are disproportionately represented in this group. “Belief is obviously also a social force,” says the study. Looking to the future, it also became clear that war, global poverty and climate change are now ahead of infectious diseases and pandemics.