The great exception among the Western industrialised countries is the United States. What is true for adults in the US also applies to the younger generation: there are many more religious people here than in most other Western countries, the study found. Fifty-seven per cent of young Americans say that they pray daily. The free-church and Pentecostal Protestants in the US are almost all religious, with almost 90 per cent deeply religious.
Pious elderly - lukewarm youth?
"The perception that young people are less religious than their parents and grandparents is typically Western European and does not correspond to the reality worldwide," the Foundation said.
Young adults in developing countries and Islamic states are no less religious than other adults. In Morocco, around 99 per cent believe in God and life after death. In Brazil, Turkey and Nigeria this figure is 90 per cent, and in Israel, Indonesia and Italy it is 80 per cent.
The countries where the younger population is less concerned with religious faith are almost all in the Western cultural sphere extending from Australia to Spain. However, there are opposing trends here too.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the younger population is turning to religion more frequently than the older population. And young Israelis are significantly more religious than their parents.
Dr Martin Rieger, project leader of the Bertelsmann Stiftung's Religion Monitor concludes: "The assumption that religious belief is dwindling continuously from generation to generation is clearly refuted by our worldwide surveys - even in many industrialised nations."
Politics is a private matter - sex isn't always
The Bertelsmann Stiftung's study also demonstrated a connection between the religious orientation of young people and their attitudes to politics and sexuality.
Religion has no influence on the political views of most Europeans and "Westerners". This also applies to most of the religious young people outside of Europe, albeit not so stringently. The answers were not quite so clear-cut on the issue of sex and relationships. Most young religious Europeans view sex as a private matter and only a minority believe that their religious beliefs influence their sexual relationships.
Religious considerations have an impact on the love lives of just seven per cent of young Protestants in Europe, 12 per cent of Orthodox believers and 14 per cent of Catholics. However, the picture outside of Europe is quite different: here, no less than 67 per cent of Protestants and 68 per cent of free-church Protestants see a connection between their religious beliefs and sexuality. Catholics outside of Europe are more emancipated in this respect. Only around half (52 per cent) say that their personal faith affects their own sexuality.
