More than half of Dutch adults still claim to be religious. But whether they believe in God Buddha or Allah, fewer of them actually visit religious meeting places.

In the period between 2004 and 2008, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) investigated "religion in the perspective of social cohesion" and wrote a book of essays about it. CBS researchers talked to ten thousand Dutch adults.
 
Christian and Muslims
Fifty-eight percent of Dutch people aged 18 and older belong to a church and regard themselves as religious. Around half are Catholic. Thirteen percent belong to the Dutch Reformed Churches and six percent to the relatively new Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN).
 
Muslims were studied separately. They comprise 825,000 people, five percent of the total population. Of these, 95 percent are of non-Western origin. One of the main differences to Dutch Christians is the average age: nearly 40 percent of mosque-goers are younger than 18. Churchgoers are a fair bit older on average.

Empty mosques
Young or not, fewer and fewer people visit a church or mosque or other kind of religious meeting place. The researchers note that not only the churches seem to be empty, it's also no longer taken for granted that you take part in prayers at a mosque.
 
While 34 percent of Muslims in the Netherlands attended mosque at least once a month in 1999, last year that figure was down to 29 percent. Among the ethnic Dutch the number of regular churchgoers in 1999 was only 23 percent, now down to 19 percent.
 
DIYers
CBS spokesman Jan Latten says believers are increasingly independent, going their own way outside the confines of the church or mosque.
 
Some find each other on the internet and go in search of their favourite preacher. Others are looking for more modern preachers: imams speaking in Arabic and pastors with oppressive old-fashioned ideas are becoming less popular. Still others avoid groups entirely and prefer to practice their faith on their own.
 
"I think it's part of the general shift towards individualisation" says Jan Latten, "an individual approach to the experience of religious faith itself. We are clearly living in a society in which more and more people are expected to take responsibility for themselves, to decide what their own norms and values are. And that could well extend to the way in which you experience your religious beliefs."
 
Radicalisation
The fact that the mosques are increasingly empty seems odd in the current context, when there is so much talk about the increasing influence of radical Islam. The CBS says the emptying of the mosques is actually a sign of successful integration.
 
"They have been raised in the Dutch manner," says Latten, "They went to Dutch schools." Nevertheless he thinks it strange that the first generation is also less inclined to visit the mosque. "It's a fact that mosque-going has declined among all age groups. "
 
No discussion
The chairman of the Turkish Islamic Cultural Federation, Emin Ates, argues that the fact you see less old people in the mosque could be because they have returned to their country of origin or have died. But he has not yet noticed mosques really emptying out. And, he says, the imams cannot complain about a lack of listeners. "For us it's just not a matter for discussion."