In early April 2026, an article was published on the website of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (https://www.kiis.com.ua/) showing that, depending on how the questions are phrased, between 15% and 56% of those who identify as Orthodox Christians consider themselves to be ‘just Orthodox’.
In this case the proportion of those belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine ranges from 80% to 35%. The proportion of members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church can vary by as much as sixfold: from 2% to 12%. The lower figures are obtained when affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate is mentioned, whilst the higher figures are obtained when instead the names of the primates of the jurisdictions are mentioned.
In the mentioned article the author, Anton Hrushetskyi, Executive Director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), analyses data from a survey conducted in autumn 2025 and compares it with similar surveys from previous years. In particular, the surveys show that over the last five years the proportion of Orthodox Christians in Ukraine has fallen significantly: from 72% to 63%, whilst the proportion of atheists has doubled: from 8% to 16%.
Regional differences in the religious affiliation of Ukrainian citizens are also indicative: proportionally, the largest share of OCU members is found in central Ukraine (57%), ‘just Orthodox’ believers in southern Ukraine (17%), UOC members in eastern Ukraine (10%), and those of the Greek Catholic Church – in western Ukraine (19%).
Another indicative finding of the survey is that, when presented only with the names of the jurisdictions (namely the UOC and the OCU) and the names of their primates, two-thirds of respondents who identified as Orthodox believers were unable to explain the difference between both jurisdictions. These results are likely due to the respondents’ low level of religious knowledge.
Alternative methods of measuring the religiosity of Ukrainian citizens include:
– Face-to-face interviews rather than telephone surveys (such statistics are provided annually by the Razumkov Centre);
– Statistical data on the number of religious organisations, especially parishes (such statistics are provided annually by the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience),
– Estimates of attendance at worships by the faithful of the relevant parishes and jurisdictions (police data on attendance at festive services or the approach of religious studies scholar Nikolay Mitrokhin).
