What’s interesting is that there is a near 0% weekly worship attendance among Azeris, and only about 38% of Azeris consider religion to be very important in their lives. However, over 75% of Azeris have reported that they pray daily. This is unlike any of the Central Asian countries, even though, like them, Azerbaijan is hostile to religious institutions. While this data is from a little over a decade ago, I still believe it applies today as well.
Another interesting tidbit is that Sunni and Shia Azeris seems to get along the most out of all the countries with a split Shia and Sunni population. In addition, the notion that Sunnis are more religious than Shias (at least in Azerbaijan) isn’t really confirmed to be true in any survey results, although again, the data gathered here was quite a while ago (2013). Instead, this notion might just be a stereotype of North Caucasian/Dagestani Sunnis.
TLDR: Religion is generally a private (and not communal) matter for most Azeris, and a major difference in religiosity between Sunnis and Shias in Azerbaijan isn’t observed in the data gathered through surveys conducted by Pew Research Center.
Source of images 1 – 3:
Religious observance by age and country | Pew Research Center
Source of image 4:
Many Countries Favor Specific Religions | Pew Research Center
Source of images 5 – 10:
Many Sunnis and Shias Worry About Religious Conflict | Pew Research Center
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1tbcav3
Posted by ExpertMisinformant
5 Comments
There is no way 75% of Azerbaijanis said they pray daily… something is deeply flawed with this survey
I doubt even 10% of Azerbaijanis pray daily
Other graphs are pretty much in line with the country tho
While most of these stats are more or less correct, the 2nd picture has flawed methodology. It assumes that 75% of Azerbaijanis engage in “daily religious worship”, yet only 21% of Azerbaijanis pray daily according to the same data. That means the question asked by pollsters was incorrect and Azerbaijanis probably understood it as “are you religious every day”?
never on this earth 75% azerbaijanis pray daily. i even doubt that they know what praying is and how it is done
This “least religious” country narrative is mostly an unsubstantiated gimmick that has been going around for years. When your government can label you as a radical whenever they want to jail you, people are obviously going to be more private about their beliefs.
As for the low attendance at religious services, women are far less likely to attend them. I checked the methodology, and the azerbaijani survey sample was heavily skewed toward women. On top of that, the survey was conducted in both Azerbaijani and Russian. Rus sector women are not representative of the religious attitudes of the Azerbaijani majority. That’s why the numbers are so low compared to others.
https://preview.redd.it/et8xgb1nzr0h1.png?width=812&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e9ff4a5ef40f5fad35e97ab1d241b1fbc230f92
The prayer question in Azerbaijan is extremely translation sensitive.