FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Migration seminar: Christian Immigration to the Nordic Countries

Welcome to the Migration Seminar!

Christian Immigration to the Nordic Countries: The estimated volume of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant migration from 2001 to 2024

Profile

Tuomas Martikainen, Professor in the Study of Religion, University of Turku, Finland

Abstract

This presentation provides an estimate of the religious distribution of immigrants with particular focus on first generation Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden from 2001 to 2024. Based on the data from ARDA and national statistical bureaus we concluded that the number of Christian immigrants has risen from 966,000 in 2001 to 2.060 million in 2024. At the same time, the share of Christian has fallen from 53% to 45%, which is primarily explained by a large change in the Swedish situation, and to a lesser extent that of Finland. In the Denmark and Norway, the share of Christians has risen 2–4% and in Iceland stayed the same at 70%. A further change has taken place in the distribution of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant immigrants, in which the Catholics and Orthodox have tripled in size, but Protestants only gradually grown. The results of our estimates should be taken with some caution, as we have not adjusted our data to religiously selective migration flows or religious change in the country of settlement. The chapter is to our knowledge the first systematic overview of Christian migrants by main Christian tradition and denomination in the Nordic region.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.
If you have any questions, send an email mim@mau.se

Zoom

Will be available closer to the seminar date.

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