In this piece, we will take a look at the 25 most atheist countries in the world. If you want to skip our analysis of whether irreligion leads to economic growth, then take a look at 5 Most Atheist Countries in the World.
Throughout its history, storytelling and myths have been among humanity’s favorite pastimes. Human societies, which have endured for thousands of years, have found different ways such as drawing and writing to pass down their histories and make sure that the tales and beliefs of the time were preserved in one form or the other – whether it’s through cave paintings or the hieroglyphs of the pyramids.
Another aspect of society that has endured for thousands of years is religion. Religions are among some of the oldest philosophies in the world, and they are often tightly interlinked to the conditions and cultures of the societies in which they evolved. For instance, Ancient Egyptian religion is present in its biggest form through the pyramids as the pharaohs were often believed to have a direct connection with god.
However, as humanity advances in science and technology, a growing number of people in the world are moving towards irreligiosity. And depending on the country, not being religious or openly declaring atheism or a deviation from the religious beliefs of the majority, or making statements that are offensive to religious people can often be life threatening. Countries such as Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, sometimes sentence people to death for making blasphemous statements or leaving their religion, and others often do not even find the time for due process since mobs typically lynch people to death.
Yet, irreligion is growing. Secularism and the separation of the church and state is followed in most Western countries, and the fact that these countries are also among some of the most prosperous in the world in terms of scientific and technological advancements has led some to argue that perhaps its secularism that is responsible for the economic and technical growth. Data compiled by National Geographic shows that between the ten years that passed between 2005 and 2015, non religious populations of Europe, North America, and Australia have grown by at least five percent. Within this subset, surveys show that France, Netherlands, and New Zealand will have majority secular populations soon, with the U.K. and Australia also set to lose their Christian majorities.
Naturally, since religion is a major part of human society, and so is economic progress, there are dozens of research papers and studies that try to investigate the link between either secularism or atheism to economic growth. One such study comes from researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Tennessee. They took data from the European Values Survey and the World Values Survey to map out whether a lack of religion precedes economic growth or if economic growth succeeds irreligion. This is one of the most important questions to ask since arguments in favor of religion often bemoan that it is humanity’s focus on material pleasures that is moving it away from spirituality. The researchers concluded that the former is true, with the researchers concluding:
In this study, we have shown that, across a diversity of countries around the world, changes in secularization predicted changes in GDP worldwide during the 20th century. More broadly, this implies that changes in the everyday importance of religious practices preceded changes in economic development in the 20th century. While this does not yet isolate one path of causality, it determines that economic growth is not what caused secularization in the past. Our observation that secularization preceded economic change further rules out a bicausal relationship between income and religion as well as the theory that socioeconomic advances cause religious practices to be phased out.
While this research simply examined a time series relation between secularization and GDP growth, a study conducted by the United Nations is more direct since it simply asks whether religion affects economic growth. They used a mathematical model called regression which analyzes whether a group of variables called the independent variables have an effect on a single variable called the dependent variable and the magnitude of these effects. The regression model for this research eliminated unaffiliated citizens as well as all other religions except the four major religions of the world of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. This was done because the researchers wanted to compare the effects of religion vs other variables such as governance, natural resources, foreign direct investment (FDI), savings, and education to economic growth.
If you were looking for definitive and iron clad conclusions from this research then you’d be disappointed. The research showed that none of the religions had any impact on economic growth, and their regression was able to only re verify the standard economic theory i.e. FDI, savings, and education were the only variables in the data that could explain economic growth. The data was further fine tuned to determine if any of the independent variables had an effect on each other, but this was not the case – a fact that further bolsters the researchers’ conclusions.
Finally, many well known business leaders are also either agnostics or atheists. These include Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A)’s famed Warren Buffett who shared in a shareholder meeting:
No I’m an agnostic an I grew up in a religious household. If you asked that question to my mother and father, you’d have gotten a different answer. And I’m a true agnostic, I’m not closer to either a theist or either an atheist. I simply don’t know, and maybe someday I’ll know and maybe someday I won’t, but that’s the nature of being agnostic.
So, which are the most irreligious and atheistic countries in the world? We took a look so read on below for more details.
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Our Methodology
To compile our list of the most atheistic countries in the world, we used data from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050 database which maps out the estimated religious composition of all countries based on past data. The countries with the greatest percentage of citizens unaffiliated with any religion are as follows. The data is supplemented by an IPSOS survey which reports the religious composition of 26 countries.
25 Most Atheist Countries in the World
25. Kingdom of Spain
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 21%
Spain is a developed European nation with a population estimated to sit at 48 million. According to an IPSOS survey of 26 countries, 46% of Spaniards surveyed identified as having no religion.
24. Swiss Confederation
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 22.8%
Switzerland is another developed European nation with low income equality and high human development scores. Data from 2020 from the Swiss government shows that 29.4% of the population had no religious affiliation.
23. Republic of Cuba
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 23.2%
Cuba is an island country located in the Atlantic Ocean. It has a $126 billion economy and a GDP per capita of $11,255.
22. Canada
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 24.5%
Canada is a North American country that is also one of the most developed nations in the world. Data from Canada’s 2021 census shows that the percentage of religiously unaffiliated population was the highest after Christianity.
21. Federal Republic of Germany
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 26.3%
Germany is Europe’s largest economy courtesy of its well developed industrial base. 38% of Germans identified as being irreligious in 2018.
20. Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 26.7%
Luxembourg is another developed European nation that is known for having a high GDP per capita of $131,503. 23.4% of its population had no religion in 2018 according to the European Commission’s data.
19. Republic of Belarus
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 28.6%
Belarus is a landlocked Eastern European country. It is one of the poorer nations in Europe with a GDP per capita of $8,570. The country also has low levels of income inequality.
18. Commonwealth of Australia
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 28.6%
Australia is an Oceanic country which is one of the largest in the world in terms of landmass. Data from the 2021 Australian census shows that 38.9% of its population identified as irreligious.
17. Kingdom of Sweden
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 29%
Sweden is a prosperous Nordic European country. Like several other countries that we have covered so far, irreligious people form the second highest percentage of its population after Christianity.
16. Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 29.9%
Vietnam is the first Asian country on our list. It is also the first with nearly 80% of the population either believing in folk religions or no religion according to a 2019 report from the State Department.
15. Kingdom of Belgium
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 31%
Belgium is a Northwestern European country with a $624 billion economy. Like other developed European countries, it has high levels of human development and low levels of income inequality.
14. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 31.2%
The U.K. is a global power and a prosperous economy which is a G7 member. When it comes to religion, data from the Association of Religion Data Archives shows that 52% of Brits identified as having no religion in 2018.
13. French Republic
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 31.9%
France is one of the most developed countries in the world and a global power in international politics. Official statistics show that as of 2021, 33% of French citizens had no religion.
12. Mongolia
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 36.5%
Mongolia is an East Asian country with a low GDP per capita of $4,814. It relies primarily on coal and copper for its exports courtesy of its well developed mining industry.
11. New Zealand
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 39.6%
New Zealand is an island country in the Pacific Ocean. Data from the 2018 census shows that 48.6% of New Zealanders were irreligious.
10. Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 41.5%
Uruguay is a South American country that is known for high levels of peace and economic freedom. It has a $77 billion GDP and a GDP per capita of $21,677.
9. Netherlands
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 44.3%
The Netherlands is a European country with more than a quarter of its land located below sea level. Like some other countries on our list, more than half of the Dutch part of the 2020 survey identified as having no religion.
8. Republic of Latvia
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 45.3%
Latvia is a Baltic European country with a $40.5 billion economy and a GDP per capita of $21,482. Data from the State Department shows that 35% of Latvians had no religion.
7. Republic of Korea
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 46.6%
South Korea is an Asian country that is one of the most technologically developed nations in the world. 53% of its population had no religion according to the IPSOS survey.
6. People’s Republic of China
Percentage of Population With No Religious Affiliation: 51.8%
China is the second most populous nation in the world, a global political power, and the biggest economy in nominal terms. Like Vietnam, most Chinese are either irreligious or believe in folk religions.
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Disclosure: None. 25 Most Atheist Countries in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.