Atheists, Agnostics – No Belief in a God AANBG

The FreeThinking Nations Atheists, Agnostics – No Belief in a God AANBG

< Return to Largest Religious Communities The Largest Atheist / Agnostic Populations Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

Finland was Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany Britain Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Denmark France. In the bottom tier followed Iceland, the U.S, Slovakia, Spain, Norway, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Mexico.

Atheists In America • 2007, Pew Research Values Study: Percentage of people identifying themselves as atheist, agnostic or "no religion" by year of birth:[1] • Date of birth • <1946 : 5% • 1946-1964: 11% • 1965-1976: 14% • 1977+: 19% • 2004, University of Akron poll: 16% non-religious, 11% "atheist or secular"[3] • 2002, Pew Research: 13.2% of Americans as "non religious/secular"[4]

< Return to Largest Religious Communities The Largest Atheist / Agnostic Populations Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

< Return to Largest Religious Communities The Largest Atheist / Agnostic Populations Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists. Source: Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). * NOTE: The estimates of the number of atheists in North Korea, China and Cuba may be unreliable. The best data available have been used in making these estimates, but the people in these three nations live under Communist governments which have traditionally suppressed religious freedom and officially (often forcibly) endorsed atheism. Top 20 Countries With Largest Numbers of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005)

< Return to Largest Religious Communities The Largest Atheist / Agnostic Populations Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists. Source: Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). * NOTE: The estimates of the number of atheists in North Korea, China and Cuba may be unreliable. The best data available have been used in making these estimates, but the people in these three nations live under Communist governments which have traditionally suppressed religious freedom and officially (often forcibly) endorsed atheism. Top 20 Countries With Largest Numbers of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Source: Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). Top 10 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists(Greeley/Jagodzinski, 1991) These figures are based on responses to survey questions about beliefs. There may be overlap between people who self-identify as adherents of an organized religion, while at the same time hold beliefs which categorize them an atheist. Opinion surveys are typically the only reliable method for determining the numbers of atheists in an area, because atheists are rarely affiliated formally with membership organizations. Officially released statistics from some Communist governments are often merely manufactured estimates without an empirical or statistical basis. Figures shown above are the total of "soft core atheists" (don't believe in god, but believe there might be life after death) and "hard core atheists" (disbelieve in god and disbelieve in life after death), but do not include agnostics ("softest core atheists": "Might be God... might be a life after death"). Note that these terms are from Greeley's statistical study and are noted here not as an endorsement of the terminology, but so that statistical researchers will be able to identify which columns are the source of the data in the summary tables presented on this page. "Agnosticism" and "atheism" are widely accepted as have different meanings. Based on the questions used in the survey, Greeley's category "softest core atheists" fall under the common definition of agnostics, which is why their numbers have not been included in the "atheist" totals. Note: The Communist nations of China, Cuba and North Korea were not included in this study. These countries may or may not be among the "Top 10 Most Atheist Countries" in the world. Sociologically, Communism is as much a religion as other "traditional" religions such as Islam or Christianity, although it promotes (often forcibly) beliefs which would categorize its adherents as atheists. So in Communist countries, large proportions of people may be properly classified as atheists and also Communists, but they would not be considered secular or "nonreligious" in the sociological sense. Source: International Social Survey Program's study of religion in 1991, as reported in "The Demand for Religion: Hard Core Atheism and 'Supply Side' Theory" by Wolfgang Jagodzinski (University of Cologne) and Andrew Greeley (University of Chicago, University of Arizona). Adherents.com plans to revise the "Top 10" list presented on this page through the use of our entire collection of statistics, without relying primarily on one source (Greeley's paper). Accurate data for China and North Korea remains unavailable. We do not believe the composition of this list will change considerably. We have already pointed out the possibility that North Korea and China should be on this list but were not included among countries Greeley had data for. Still, William Slawski wrote the following criticism of this page (3 April 2000): The use of the term ["softest core atheists"] is carried over from the source of the statistics,which was a paper called "The Demand for Religion: Hard Core Atheism and "Supply Side" Theory." The abstract at the top of the paper ends with the following sentence: "Finally it considers the one thoroughly secularized country -- East Germany -- and concludes that the 'demand' for religion can be diminished considerably if a ruthless government takes control of the process of religious socialization." The paper studied only 17 countries. The Adherents.com site entitiles their web page "Top 10 Countries With Highest Percentage of Atheists (1991)." The original source of the statistics wasn't an inquiry into which countries had the highest rate of atheism, but rather the effects of oppressive governments on religion. To call the adherents.com web page misleading would be accurate. When using statistics to make a presentation, it is often troublesome to remove them too far from the context from which they were originally presented. The statistical incidence and classification of atheism among world religions is discussed on the Major Religions of the World page. Send comments, questions, etc., to webmaster@adherents.com. This atheist/atheism geography and statistics webpage was created 4 August 1999. Last modified 27 March 2005.

Top 10 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists(Greeley/Jagodzinski, 1991)

Top 20 Countries With Largest Numbers of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005) Source: Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)

ducted a survey of 2,002 adults. Questions about religious preference were included. The results are below:

Top Twenty Religions in the United States, 2001(self-identification, ARIS)

Religious broadcasting is broadcasting by religious organizations, usually with a religious message. In the United States, Christian organizations are by far the most widespread compared with other religions, with upwards of 1,600 television and radio stations across the country (not necessarily counting broadcast translators, though because many outlets have low power and repeat national telecasts, the difference is often hard to define). Many religious organizations have long recorded content such as sermons and lectures, and so naturally moved into distributing content on their websites. During these past couple of years, there has been an expansion to the listening or viewing of religious content delivered over the Internet.

Note: The 1998 immortality figures add up to more than 100%. The misprint is in the original. The 76.7% is likely too high. The authors elaborated on these figures: Disbelief in God and immortality among NAS biological scientists was 65.2% and 69.0%, respectively, and among NAS physical scientists it was 79.0% and 76.3%. Most of the rest were agnostics on both issues, with few believers. We found the highest percentage of belief among NAS mathematicians (14.3% in God, 15.0% in immortality). Biological scientists had the lowest rate of belief (5.5% in God, 7.1% in immortality), with physicists and astronomers slightly higher (7.5% in God, 7.5% in immortality). Larson and Witham close their report with the following remarks: As we compiled our findings, the NAS issued a booklet encouraging the teaching of evolution in public schools.... The booklet assures readers, 'Whether God exists or not is a question about which science is neutral'. NAS president Bruce Alberts said: 'There are many very outstanding members of this academy who are very religious people, people who believe in evolution, many of them biologists.' Our survey suggests otherwise." There is a review of earlier studies of the religiosity of scientists at pp 180ff of: Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi and Michael Argyle. The Psychology of Religious Behaviour, Belief and Experience. London & New York: Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 0-415-12330-5 (hbk) or 0-415-12331-3 (pbk). On the subject of eminent scientists, they mention unpublished data collected by one of the co-authors: "Beit-Hallahmi (1988) found that among Nobel Prize laureates in the sciences, as well as those in literature, there was a remarkable degree of irreligiosity, as compared to the populations they came from." The reference is to: Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1988). The religiosity and religious affiliation of Nobel prize winners. Unpublished data.

Atheists, Agnostics – No Belief in a God AANBG