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Religion

The ISSP Religion module series comprises four cross-national surveys conducted in 1991, 1998, 2008 and 2018. Successive surveys are always partial replications of earlier surveys.

ISSP Religion modules mainly deal with issues, such as religious attitudes and beliefs, religious socialization, past and current religious practices, religion and governmental connections and aspects of secularization.

In 2008 and 2018 separate projects aimed at including countries with religious traditions, underrepresented by the ISSP membership. These data are also available from the GESIS Data Archive and can be matched to the international data files of 2008 and 2018.

Please, note that ISSP Religion data (so far modules I-III) is also available as a cumulated data file, allowing for cross-national analyses over time.

Participating countries

  1991

  1998

  2008

  2018
Australia X X X  
Austria X X X X
Belgium     X  
Brazil   (X)    
Bulgaria   X   X
Canada   X (X)  
Chile   X X X
Croatia     X X
Cyprus   X X  
Czech Republic   X X X
Denmark   X X X
Dominican Republic     X  
Finland     X X
France   X X X
Georgia       X
Germany X X X X
Great Britain X X X X
Hungary X X X X
Iceland       X
Ireland X X X  
Israel X X X X
Italy X X X X
Japan   X X X
Latvia   X X  
Lithuania       X
Mexico     X  
Netherlands X X X  
New Zealand X X X X
Northern Ireland X X X  
Norway X X X X
Philippines X X X X
Poland X X X  
Portugal   X X  
Russia X X X X
Slovakia   X X X
Slovenia X X X X
South Africa     X X
South Korea     X X
Spain   X X X
Suriname       X
Sweden   X X X
Switzerland   X X X
Taiwan     X X
Thailand       X
Turkey     X X
Ukraine     X  
Uruguay     X  
USA X X X X
Venezuela     X (X)

(X) = Not (yet) integrated, but available on request

Publication

Bechert, Insa, and Markus Quandt, eds. 2013. ISSP data report: religious attitudes and religious change. GESIS Schriftenreihe 13. Cologne: GESIS. http://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/37204.

Learn more

Single variables from the ISSP ‘Religion’ modules are included in the ONBound project:

https://www.gesis.org/en/services/processing-and-analyzing-data/data-harmonization/onbound

ONBound provides a cumulated international cross-survey database linked with country level indicators. It allows for extensive comparative analyses of national and religious identities with harmonized survey data from 280 survey waves and a time span of 50 years.