Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Irreligion
1 reference results for: Irreligion
Wikipedia

Irreligion is a lack of religion, indifference to religion, or hostility to religion. Depending on the context, it may be understood as referring to atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, or secular humanism.

Conviction

Irreligious people may have convictions equal in depth to those of religious adherents. For instance, followers of the life stance of Humanism regard themselves as just as deeply believing in their life stance as corresponding to any religious belief.

Irreligious theist

Although people classified as irreligious might not follow any religion, not all are necessarily without belief in the supernatural or in deities; such a person may be a non-religious or non-practicing theist. In particular, those who associate organized religion with negative qualities, but still hold spiritual beliefs, might describe themselves as irreligious. It also must be noted that in countries such as Saudi Arabia, the government essentially requires religion, so the numbers might not be entirely accurate.

Statistics by country

Irreligion around the world

Country Percentage stating they have no religion Source
Estonia 75.7% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
People's Republic of China 59-71% Various publications
Sweden 46%-85% Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)
Albania 60% US Department of State - International Religious Freedom Report 2006
L'Albanie en 2005
Various publications

Czech Republic 59% (plus additional 8% did not fill in anything) Czech Statistical Office (2001 census)
Japan 51.8% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Russia 48.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Belarus 47.8% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Vietnam 46.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Netherlands 44.0% Social and Cultural Planning Office
Finland 28%-60% Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005)
Hungary 42.6% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Ukraine 42.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Latvia 40.6% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
South Korea 36.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Belgium 35.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
New Zealand 34.7% (of the 87.3% who answered an optional question) Statistics New Zealand (2006 census)
Chile 33.8% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Germany 32.7% German Worldview Research Group (2004)
Luxembourg 29.9% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Slovenia 29.9% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
France 27.2% (23.9% of women, 30.6% of men) INSEE (2004 survey)
Venezuela 27.0% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Slovakia 23.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Mexico 20.5% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Lithuania 19.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Denmark 19% Eurobarometer(2005)
Australia 18.7% (of the 88.8% who answered an optional question). 29.9% including no answer/inadequately described Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006 census)
Italy 17.8% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Spain 17% Centre of Sociological Investigations (2005)
Canada 16.2% Canada 2001 Census
Argentina 16.0% Gallup-Argentina poll, April 2001
United Kingdom 15.5% indicated no religion. (23.2% including no answer) United Kingdom 2001 Census.
South Africa 15.1% Statistics South Africa Census 2001
United States 15.0% (of the 94.6% who answered an optional question, out of a sample of 50,281 households in the 48 contiguous states) American Religious Identification Survey (2001), as reported by US Census Bureau
Croatia 13.2% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Austria 12.2% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Portugal 11.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Puerto Rico 11.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Bulgaria 11.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Iceland 11% Eurobarometer Poll (2005)
Philippines 10.9% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Brazil 7.4% National Demografic Census in 2000, conducted by the IBGE.
India 6.6% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Poland 6% Public Opinion Research Centre (2007)
Serbia and Montenegro 5.8% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Ireland 4.5% Central Statistics Office Ireland Census 2006
Peru 4.7% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Greece 4.0% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Turkey 2.5% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Romania 2.4% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Tanzania 1.7% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Malta 1.3% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Iran 1.1% (Atheism and Agnosticism are illegal) Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Uganda 1.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Nigeria 0.7% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)
Bangladesh 0.1% Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2006)

Notes and references

See also

Share This:Share This: digg.comShare This: ma.gnolia.comShare This: www.stumbleupon.comShare This: del.icio.usShare This: FacebookShare This: favorites.live.comShare This: www.technorati.comShare This: furl.netShare This: myweb2.search.yahoo.comShare This: www.google.com