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 WIN/Gallup International'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"; in 2015, 22% were not a religious person and 11% were "convinced atheists"; and in 2017, 25% were not a religious person and 9% were "convinced atheists".
In 2010, the religiously unaffiliated number 1.1 billion (about one-in-six people or 16% of the 6.9 billion population at the time), according to Pew Research Center.: 24 This "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.
In 2006, 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. According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's 2013 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.[citation needed] In 2004, 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%).
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.
In 2020, the majority (78%) of the global nonreligious or unaffiliated demographic resided in Asia-Pacific. China alone makes up 67% of the global religiously unaffiliated demographic. Many of the global religiously unaffiliated demographic still have some religious beliefs and participate in religious practices.
Differences in questions asked in polls
Each poll uses different questions and methods:-
- The WIN/Gallup International poll asked "Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say that you are a religious person, not a religious person or a convinced atheist?"
- Dentsu Communication Institute provides data for respondents who stated that they have "no religion".
- Phil Zuckerman uses only the number of people who describe themselves as atheists and agnostics.
The numbers come from different years, and might not be accurate for countries with governments that require or urge religion or secularism.
Countries and regions
The Pew Research Centre data in the table below reflects "religiously unaffiliated" in 2010 which "include atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys".
The WIN/Gallup International poll results below are the totals for "not a religious person" (regardless of whether they had some religious affiliation or belief) and "a convinced atheist" combined, but not "Do not know/No response". In 2013, Keysar, et al., have advised caution with past WIN/Gallup International figures since more extensive surveys have consistently reached lower figures than the numbers in the table below.[citation needed] For example, the WIN/GIA numbers from China were overestimated which in turn inflated global totals.[citation needed]
The Zuckerman data on the table below only reflect the number of people who have an absence of belief in a deity only (atheists, agnostics). These do not include the broader number of people who do not identify with a religion, such as deists, pantheists, and spiritual-but-not-religious people.
| Pew | WIN/GIA | Dentsu | Zuckerman | Last census or estimation data | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country or region | (2012): 45–50 | (2017) | (2015) | (2012) | (2006) | (2004) | Percent
| Number | Year |
| Afghanistan (details) | < 0.1% | 9% | 15% | ||||||
| Albania (details) | 1.4% | 39% | 8% | 20.6% | 417,466
| 2023 | |||
| Argentina | 12.2% | 20% | 20% | 26% | 13% | 4–8% | |||
| Armenia | 1.3% | 6% | 5% | 5% | 34% | 0.5% | 14,507 | 2022 | |
| Australia (details) | 24.2% | 63% | 58% | 58% | 24–25% | 41.9% | 9,886,957 | 2021 | |
| Austria | 13.5% | 53% | 54% | 53% | 12% | 18–26% | 22.3% | 1,997,700 | 2021 |
| Azerbaijan (details) | < 0.1% | 64% | 54% | 51% | |||||
| Bangladesh (details) | < 0.1% | 19% | 5% | ||||||
| Belarus | 28.6% | 48% | 17% | ||||||
| Belgium (details) | 29% | 64% | 48% | 34% | 35% | 42–43% | |||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2.5% | 22% | 32% | 29% | 1.1% | 38,669 | 2013 | ||
| Brazil (details) | 7.9% | 17% | 18% | 14% | 9.3% | 16,385,342 | 2022 | ||
| Bulgaria (details) | 4.2% | 39% | 39% | 30% | 30% | 34–40% | 5.9% | 305,102 | 2021 |
| Cameroon | 5.3% | 17% | |||||||
| Canada (details) | 23.7% | 57% | 53% | 49% | 26% | 19–30% | 34.6% | 12,577,495 | 2021 |
| Chile | 8.6% | 34% | |||||||
| China (details) | 52.2% | 90% | 90% | 77% | 93% | 8–14% | |||
| Colombia | 6.6% | 14% | 17% | 15% | |||||
| DR Congo | 1.8% | 17% | |||||||
| Croatia (details) | 5.1% | 13% | 7% | 6.6% | 247,149 | 2021 | |||
| Cuba | 23% | 7% | |||||||
| Czech Republic (details) | 76.4% | 72% | 75% | 78% | 64% | 54–61% | 68.3% | 5,027,094 | 2021 |
| Denmark (details) | 11.8% | 61% | 52% | 10% | 43–80% | ||||
| Dominican Republic | 10.9% | 7% | |||||||
| Ecuador | 5.5% | 18% | 28% | 29% | |||||
| Estonia (details) | 59.6% | 60% | 76% | 49% | 67.0% | 659,900 | 2021 | ||
| Fiji | 0.8% | 8% | 7% | 6% | 0.8% | 7,073 | 2007 | ||
| Finland (details) | 17.6% | 55% | 42% | 44% | 12% | 28–60% | 34.9% | 1,965,761 | 2024 |
| France (details) | 28% | 50% | 53% | 63% | 43% | 43–54% | |||
| Georgia (details) | 0.7% | 7% | 13% | 0.5% | 19,080 | 2014 | |||
| Germany (details) | 24.7% | 60% | 59% | 48% | 25% | 41–49% | |||
| Ghana (details) | 4.2% | 1% | 2% | 1.1% | 328,721 | 2021 | |||
| Greece | 6.1% | 22% | 21% | 4% | 16% | ||||
| Hungary (details) | 18.6% | 43% | 32–46% | 26.9% | 1,549,610 | 2022 | |||
| Iceland (details) | 3.5% | 49% | 44% | 41% | 4% | 16–23% | 7.8% | 30,190 | 2025 |
| India (details) | < 0.1% | 5% | 23% | 16% | 7% | 9.11% | 2,867,303 | ||
| Indonesia (details) | < 0.1% | 30% | 15% | 132,881 | |||||
| Iran (details) | 0.1% | 20% | 1% | ||||||
| Iraq (details) | 0.1% | 34% | 9% | ||||||
| Ireland (details) | 6.2% | 56% | 51% | 54% | 7% | 15.8% | 759,370 | 2022 | |
| Israel (details) | 3.1% | 58% | 65% | 15–37% | |||||
| Italy (details) | 12.4% | 26% | 24% | 23% | 18% | 6–15% | |||
| Japan (details) | 57% | 60% | 62% | 62% | 52% | 64–65% | |||
| Kazakhstan (details) | 4.2% | 11–12% | 2.8% | 339,109 | 2021 | ||||
| Kenya (details) | 2.5% | 9% | 11% | 1.6% | 755,750 | 2019 | |||
| Kosovo | 1.6% | 3% | 8% | 0.5% | 7,899 | 2024 | |||
| Kyrgyzstan | 0.4% | 7% | |||||||
| Latvia | 43.8% | 52% | 50% | 41% | 20–29% | ||||
| Lebanon (details) | 0.3% | 28% | 18% | 35% | |||||
| Lithuania | 10% | 40% | 23% | 19% | 13% | 7.1% | 171,810 | 2021 | |
| Luxembourg | 26.8% | 30% | |||||||
| Malaysia | 0.7% | 23% | 13% | 0.8% | 271,799 | 2020 | |||
| Malta | 2.5% | 1% | 5.1% | 23,243 | 2021 | ||||
| Mexico (details) | 4.7% | 36% | 28% | 10.6% | 13,314,516
| 2020 | |||
| Moldova | 1.4% | 10% | 0.2% | 5,942 | 2014 | ||||
| Mongolia | 35.9% | 29% | 9% | 38.6% | 735,686 | 2010 | |||
| Morocco (details) | < 0.1% | 5% | |||||||
| Netherlands (details) | 42.1% | 66% | 56% | 55% | 39–44% | ||||
| New Zealand (details) | 36.6% | 20–22% | 51.6% | 2,576,049 | 2023 | ||||
| Nigeria (details) | 0.4% | 2% | 16% | 5% | 1% | ||||
| North Korea | 71.3% | 15% | |||||||
| North Macedonia | 11% | 10% | 9% | 0.5% | 8,764 | 2021 | |||
| Norway (details) | 10.1% | 62% | 31–72% | 24.2% | 1,343,726 | 2024
| |||
| Pakistan (details) | < 0.1% | 6% | 11% | 10% | 36,881 | ||||
| Palestinian territories | < 0.1% | 35% | 19% | 33% | |||||
| Panama | 4.8% | 13% | |||||||
| Papua New Guinea | < 0.1% | 5% | 4% | ||||||
| Peru (details) | 3% | 23% | 13% | 11% | 5% | 5.1% | 1,180,361 | 2017 | |
| Philippines (details) | 0.1% | 9% | 22% | 11% | 0.04% | 43,931 | 2020 | ||
| Poland (details) | 5.6% | 10% | 12% | 14% | 5% | 8.6% | 2,611,506 | 2021 | |
| Portugal | 4.4% | 38% | 37% | 11% | 4–9% | 14.1% | 1,237,130 | 2021 | |
| Puerto Rico | 1.9% | 11% | |||||||
| Romania (details) | 0.1% | 9% | 17% | 7% | 2% | 0.9% | 154,144 | 2021 | |
| Russia (details) | 16.2% | 30% | 23% | 32% | 48% | 24–48% | |||
| Saudi Arabia (details) | 0.7% | 24% | |||||||
| Serbia | 3.3% | 21% | 21% | 19% | 1.4% | 82,793 | 2022 | ||
| Singapore (details) | 16.4% | 13% | 20.0% | 692,528 | 2020 | ||||
| Slovakia | 14.3% | 23% | 10–28% | 25.4% | 1,296,142 | 2021 | |||
| Slovenia | 18% | 53% | 30% | 35–38% | |||||
| South Africa (details) | 14.9% | 32% | 11% | 3.1% | 1,895,416 | 2022 | |||
| South Korea (details) | 46.4% | 60% | 55% | 46% | 37% | 30–52% | |||
| South Sudan | 1% | 16% | |||||||
| Spain (details) | 19% | 57% | 55% | 47% | 16% | 15–24% | |||
| Sweden (details) | 27% | 73% | 76% | 58% | 25% | 46–85% | |||
| Switzerland (details) | 11.9% | 58% | 47% | 17–27% | |||||
| Taiwan | 12.7% | 24% | |||||||
| Tanzania | 1.4% | 2% | |||||||
| Thailand | 0.3% | 2% | 2% | 0.003% | 2,082 | 2018 | |||
| Tunisia | 0.2% | 33% | |||||||
| Turkey (details) | 1.2% | 12% | 15% | 75% | 3% | ||||
| Uganda (details) | 0.5% | 1% | 0.2% | 85,559 | 2024 | ||||
| Ukraine | 14.7% | 42% | 24% | 23% | 42% | 20% | |||
| United Kingdom (details) | 21.3% | 69% | 66% | 31–44% | 40.1% | 25,273,495 | 2021
| ||
| United States (details) | 16.4% | 39% | 39% | 35% | 20% | 3–9% | |||
| Uruguay (details) | 40.7% | 12% | |||||||
| Uzbekistan | 0.8% | 18% | |||||||
| Venezuela | 10% | 2% | 27% | ||||||
| Vietnam | 29.6% | 63% | 54% | 65% | 46% | 81% | 86.3% | 83,046,105 | 2019 |
- Of the eligible population, excluding unknown answers such as "not declared", "no answers", "not found out", and "refused to answer"
- Included 85,311 atheists and 332,155 believers without denominations
- Included 9,488,671 people without religions, a further 722,381 people classified as atheists/agnostics, and another 3,103,464 people identified as believers without denominations.
- <75% of responses were valid, interpret this with caution
By population
The Pew Research Centre in the table below reflects "religiously unaffiliated" which "include atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys".
The Zuckerman data on the table below only reflect the number of people who have an absence of belief in a deity only (atheists, agnostics). Does not include the broader number of people who do not identify with a religion such as deists, spiritual but not religious, pantheists, New Age spiritualism, etc.
| Country | Pew (2012) | Zuckerman (2004) |
|---|---|---|
| China | 700,680,000 | 103,907,840 – 181,838,720 |
| India | 102,870,000 | |
| Japan | 72,120,000 | 81,493,120 – 82,766,450 |
| Vietnam | 26,040,000 | 66,978,900 |
| Russia | 23,180,000 | 34,507,680 – 69,015,360 |
| Germany | 20,350,000 | 33,794,250 – 40,388,250 |
| France | 17,580,000 | 25,982,320 – 32,628,960 |
| United Kingdom | 18,684,010 – 26,519,240 | |
| South Korea | 22,350,000 | 14,579,400 – 25,270,960 |
| Ukraine | 9,546,400 | |
| United States | 50,980,000 | 8,790,840 – 26,822,520 |
| Netherlands | 6,364,020 – 7,179,920 | |
| Canada | 6,176,520 – 9,752,400 | |
| Spain | 6,042,150 – 9,667,440 | |
| Taiwan | 5,460,000 | |
| Hong Kong | 5,240,000 | |
| Czech Republic | 5,328,940 – 6,250,121 | |
| Australia | 4,779,120 – 4,978,250 | |
| Belgium | 4,346,160 – 4,449,640 | |
| Sweden | 4,133,560 – 7,638,100 | |
| Italy | 3,483,420 – 8,708,550 | |
| North Korea | 17,350,000 | 3,404,700 |
| Hungary | 3,210,240 – 4,614,720 | |
| Bulgaria | 2,556,120 – 3,007,200 | |
| Denmark | 2,327,590 – 4,330,400 | |
| Turkey | 1,956,990 - 6,320,550 | |
| Belarus | 1,752,870 | |
| Greece | 1,703,680 | |
| Kazakhstan | 1,665,840 – 1,817,280 | |
| Argentina | 1,565,800 – 3,131,600 | |
| Austria | 1,471,500 – 2,125,500 | |
| Finland | 1,460,200 – 3,129,000 | |
| Norway | 1,418,250 – 3,294,000 | |
| Switzerland | 1,266,670 – 2,011,770 | |
| Israel | 929,850 – 2,293,630 | |
| New Zealand | 798,800 – 878,680 | |
| Cuba | 791,630 | |
| Slovenia | 703,850 – 764,180 | |
| Estonia | 657,580 | |
| Dominican Republic | 618,380 | |
| Singapore | 566,020 | |
| Slovakia | 542,400 – 1,518,720 | |
| Lithuania | 469,040 | |
| Latvia | 461,200 – 668,740 | |
| Portugal | 420,960 – 947,160 | |
| Armenia | 118,740 | |
| Uruguay | 407,880 | |
| Kyrgyzstan | 355,670 | |
| Croatia | 314,790 | |
| Albania | 283,600 | |
| Mongolia | 247,590 | |
| Iceland | 47,040 – 67,620 | |
| Brazil | 15,410,000 |
See also
- Importance of religion by country
- List of religious populations
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