List of countries by irreligion

Nonreligious population by country, 2010.[1]

Irreligion, which may include deism, agnosticism, ignosticism, anti-religion, atheism, skepticism, ietsism, spiritual but not religious, freethought, anti-theism, apatheism, non-belief, pandeism, secular humanism, non-religious theism, pantheism, panentheism, and New age, varies in the countries around the world. According to reports from the Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association's (WIN/GIA) four global polls: in 2005, 77% were a religious person and 4% were "convinced atheists"; in 2012, 23% were not a religious person and 13% were "convinced atheists";[2] in 2015, 22% were not a religious person and 11% were "convinced atheists";[3] and in 2017, 25% were not a religious person and 9% were "convinced atheists".[4] According to the Pew Research Centre in 2012, 16% of the world is "religiously unaffiliated", which "include atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys"; of that overall category, many may still hold some religious beliefs and some engage in religious practices as well.[5]

According to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a god range from 500 to 750 million people worldwide.[6] According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population) with China alone accounting for 200 million of that demographic.[7] Relative to its own populations, Zuckerman ranks the top 5 countries with the highest possible ranges of agnostics and atheists: Sweden (46–85%), Vietnam (81%), Denmark (43–80%), Norway (31–72%), and Japan (64–65%).[8][9] A 2023 Gallup International survey found that Sweden was the country with the highest percentage of citizens that stated they do not believe in a god.[10]

  1. ^ "Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Global Index of Religion and Atheism" (PDF). WIN/Gallup International. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Losing our Religion? Two-Thirds of People Still Claim to be Religious" (PDF). WIN/Gallup International. 13 April 2015.
  4. ^ "Religion prevails in the world" (PDF). Gallup International. 14 November 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  5. ^ "Religiously Unaffiliated". The Global Religious Landscape. Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. 18 December 2012. The religiously unaffiliated include atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys. However, many of the religiously unaffiliated have some religious beliefs...Some of the unaffiliated also engage in certain kinds of religious practices.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zuckerman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Keysar, Ariela; Navarro-Rivera, Juhem (2017). "36. A World of Atheism: Global Demographics". In Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199644650.
  8. ^ "The Cambridge Companion to Atheism - PDF Drive".
  9. ^ "81-F77-Aeb-A404-447-C-8-B95-Dd57-Adc11-E98".
  10. ^ Whether or not you belong to a religion, do you believe or not believe in the following? - God (Image).