The Social Responsibility of Religious Communities in Multi-religious Societies

A good three is the average rating that the religious communities in the Republic of North Macedonia received from the citizens for their social activity. The latest research by the Institute for Political Research-Skopje "IPIS" and the Internet portal "Religija.mk", with the support of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, shows that citizens want more socially responsible religious communities, especially in this period of energetic and economic crisis, for which they fear will seriously affect their standard of living.

A high 73.1% of respondents in the survey expressed concern about how they will spend the winter due to the announcements about the economic and energy crisis. When it comes to which expenses they fear will increase the most, electricity and food are in the top two places.

A total of 35.2% of respondents currently have problems with the domestic budget to cover basic expenses. The survey shows that one in three respondents would choose to seek help from their religious community in a situation where they could not cover their basic living expenses. 15.2% of those surveyed believe that this winter there could be a need to use the services of soup kitchens organized by religious communities.

Although it is a relatively high percentage of citizens who fully or partially agree that religious communities are socially responsible institutions, they still expect religious communities to be more active in the social life of the community. That attitude is shared by a high 70% of respondents.

Although 38.1% of respondents agree, and 24.9% somewhat agree with the opinion that religious communities are socially responsible, the majority of citizens were not involved, nor are familiar with any specific social activity organized by religious communities.

The majority of respondents would support any of the proposed socially responsible activities of religious communities, from humanitarian actions to the opening of hospitals or centers for treatment and spiritual-psychological support. The percentage of support for such activities is over 70%, and for some even over 90%.

When it comes to the average score of religious communities in their role in the social aspect of citizens' lives, it is 3.43.

This research also follows the trend of the religiosity of the population and shows a constant high percentage of the religious population in the Republic of North Macedonia.

This is first research of such kind, which is part of the project to monitoring citizens' perception of the religious aspects of multi-confessional societies such as the Republic of North Macedonia.

The survey was conducted in October on a representative sample of 1109 respondents. The margin of error is between +/-3.2% with a 95% confidence interval.