Russia: In Terms of Religious Practice, Islam Surpasses Christianity
January 19, 2026 fsspx.news/russia-terms-religious-practice-islam-surpasses-christianity
Source: FSSPX News
The Grozny Mosque in Chechnya
The Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) has not published recent data, but many independent demographers believe that the Russian demographic decline is accelerating. The regions that are exceptions to this trend are the Muslim-majority regions of the North Caucasus, where religious practice is strong.
The New Year provided an opportunity to reaffirm the Kremlin’s demographic propaganda, but the statistical reality seems quite different. Patriarch Kirill asserts that the country is “laying the foundations of a new civilization,” but the Russian Academy of National Economy warns against the risk of 130 cities disappearing, whose current population is between 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants.
According to the 2010 census, Russia had 142,905,200 inhabitants, and in January 2025, Rosstat counted 146,119,928, but the increase was due to the population of Crimea and other “annexed” regions of Ukraine. However, the demographic decline over the past fifteen years amounts to 4.4 million, and this decrease led Rosstat to keep the 2025 data secret.
Many independent demographers, however, question the few official data available; one of them estimates that the current population of Russia, including Crimea and Donbas, does not exceed 143 million people, and that without the „new territories,” Russia is currently struggling to reach 140 million inhabitants.
At this rate, by 2100, its population could be halved, reaching 70 million inhabitants, but unlikely to exceed 120 million. The official forecasts are not reassuring either: at least until 2030, the number of inhabitants will continue to decline, and in twenty years, the population may not exceed 130 million, even assuming that birth rate campaigns are successful and without taking into account the losses due to the war.
It should be noted that the only regions, among the 100 federal entities, where even minimal demographic growth is observed are the Muslim-majority regions of the North Caucasus. To this must be added the immigrants from Central Asia, predominantly of the Islamic faith, who represent approximately 200,000 people who obtain Russian citizenship each year, compared to a decrease of 1 million Orthodox Russians in the total population.
“Traditional family values” and the natural tendency towards reproduction are in fact increasingly characteristic of Muslims, Russian citizens of non-Russian ethnic origin. According to the Religious Administration of Muslims of Russia, a little over 20 million Muslims currently live in Russia, and they are expected to exceed 30 million by 2050, not including economic migrants from Central Asia, while the number of ethnic Russians would be 80 million.
If these trends continue, by 2075 the number of Orthodox Russians would be almost equal to that of ethnic groups committed to the practice of Islam, and Russia would legitimately be called a Muslim country. 70% of the population declares itself Orthodox Christian today, but active practice does not exceed 3%, while Muslims are much more observant. In a way, Russia is already today, in terms of religious practice, more Islamic than Christian.
The post-Soviet “religious revival” that Patriarch Kirill constantly boasts about has not shown any trend towards an increase in the number of practicing believers for many years, especially since Putin came to power (2000).
“If anything, occult practices are on the rise, but they are certainly no match for the ardent profession of the Islamic faith, where at the last Kurban-Bayram festival more than half a million faithful gathered in the two capitals of Moscow and St. Petersburg, compared to 200,000 Orthodox Christians for Easter.”
(Source : Asianews – FSSPX.Actualités)