Religiosity and the Spread of COVID-19: A Multinational Comparison

Abstract

This article considers the relationships between population religiosity and the coronavirus pandemic situation across different countries. Country-level analyses were based on data from the World Values Survey, Worldometer, and International Monetary Fund covering information about internal (beliefs) and external (practices) religiosity, religious fundamentalism, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic situation at two time points in 47 countries. Results showed that declared attendance at religious services is related to more COVID-19 infections and deaths, as well as when controlling for gross domestic product per capita and the number of coronavirus tests per 1 million population. This effect remained in the longitudinal perspective (of six months) and extended from external religiosity only, to both internal and external religiosity indices.