Irreligion is common in Sweden, and Sweden is one of the most secular nations in the world. The majority of Swedish citizens are members of the

Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...

, but very few are practicing members. Sweden has legally been a

secular state A secular state is an idea pertaining to secularity, whereby a state is or purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state claims to treat all its citizens equally regard ...

since 2000 when the Church of Sweden was separated from the state.

History

Viktor Lennstrand was cited as one of the founders of

Freethought Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

in Sweden after he was imprisoned several times in the 1880s and 1890s for blasphemy."Death of V. E. Lennstrand" (17 November 1895). '' The Freethinker'', Vol. XV (No. 36). p. 732. During the 1960s, debate took place over the role of religion in Swedish society. Herbert Tingsten,

Ingemar Hedenius Per Arvid Ingemar Hedenius (5 April 1908 – 30 April 1982) was a Swedish philosopher. He was Professor of Practical Philosophy at Uppsala University (1947–1973). He was a famous opponent of organised Christianity. The Swedish Humanist Associ ...

, and Gunnar Heckscher were notable irreligious voices at the time.

Humanists Sweden Humanists Sweden ( sv, Humanisterna) is the largest humanist/ rationalist organisation in Sweden with about 4,500 members. It is a member organisation of Humanists International (HI) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF). Humanists Swe ...

was founded in 1979 and is currently the largest

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "human ...

organization in Sweden. The Swedish government has passed several secular reforms over the years: a legal opt-out of the previously mandatory membership of the Swedish church was allowed in 1951; automatic membership by birth with at least one parent member in the

─ the organization's enrollment practice since the 1850s ─ ended in 1996; and the Church of Sweden was formally separated from the state on 1 January 2000, leaving Sweden as, at the time, "the only

Nordic country The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Swe ...

without a

state church A state religion (also called religious state or official religion) is a religion or creed officially endorsed by a sovereign state. A state with an official religion (also known as confessional state), while not secular, is not necessarily a t ...

Demographics

Sweden is considered one of the world's most

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

nations, with a high proportion of

irreligious Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and anti ...

people. Phil Zuckerman, an associate professor of Sociology at

Pitzer College Pitzer College is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. One of the Claremont Colleges, the college has a curricular emphasis on the social sciences, behavioral sciences, international programs, and media studies. Pitzer is k ...

, writes that several academic sources have in recent years placed

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

rates in Sweden between 46% and 85%, with one source reporting that only 17% of respondents self-identified as "atheist". Gallup Poll found in 2016 that 18% of Swedes self-report as atheist and 55% as non-religious. Sweden's official website says that just three out of 10 Swedes state that they have confidence in the church. According to the site, only one in ten Swedes thinks religion is important in daily life or has trust in a religious leader. The

states that under 5 out of 10 children are christened in the church, around 1 out of 3 weddings take place in church, and around three out of four Swedes have Christian burials. Of the 70% of the population who are members of the Church of Sweden, about 6% "are active churchgoers attending services at least once a month". Many of the Swedes that attend church do it due to traditional or cultural reasons, but are otherwise not practicing Christians. One poll found that "only 15% of members of the Church of Sweden say they believe in Jesus, and an equal number claim to be atheists".

References

{{Europe topic, Irreligion in Religion in Sweden

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Secularism in Sweden

History

Demographics

See also

References