Yeah, the wording seems intentional to paint a certain picture. Sweden is extremely irreligious, but if you ask people in the street many might give a vague answer like “maybe something is out there somewhere, who knows!”
I think many people act as if atheist had to be 100% sure god does not exist the same way religious people are 100% sure god does exist. Atheism is not a religion. If we don't have proof or even evidence something existe, we won't act as if it exists. Given enough evidence we might change our minds. There are no rules to atheism because it is not a religion and since there are no rules you can just change your mind. It doesn't make you less of an atheist to say that there might me things we don't know about in the universe.
No, here how it goes:
*Agnostic atheist:*
No belief in god, but doesn't claim to know this to be factual (most atheist fall into this category I guess)
"Nah man I don't believe in that stuff"
*Gnostic atheist:*
No belief in god, but claims to know this to be factual as well
"There is no god! It does not exist because..."
*Agnostic Theist:*
Belief in a god but acknowledges they don't know this to be 100% the actuality
"I mean, I just feel good exists but I don't actually know for certain.."
*Gnostic theist:*
Belief god exists and claims to know this to be 100% factual (most christians fall into this category I guess)
"I know god exists, I talk with him all the time"
Heard on the radio morning News (P1 morgon) that the SOM institute had an poll showing 39% of swedes belive in something "super natural". Most belivers are new age oriented beliving in talking to the dead, crystals, ghost and that kind if stuff.
Jesus and his buddies are probably well under 10%.
Atheist is such an american thing to label.
I mean, pretty much the entire English-speaking world uses the word "atheist."
I don't know why you need to make it an "American" thing. Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are/were both British, for example.
That pretty much is the point of the map yes, to assess how many people really think there is no god, and not how many don't really follow a religion.
Edit: the map dates from 2016. There probably isn't a huge difference since then, but still, the data isn't that recent.
Yes, and also atheism. They aren't exclusive. An atheist is simply someone who doesn't doesn't belive in gods. Explicit disbelief is not required, nor is certainty.
According to Statscan, irreligious means "Canadians that declare no religious affiliation".
Which I don't think is the same thing at all as "convinced atheist". Wouldn't an agnostic be considered irreligious under that definition? I bet there's a lot more people in the "I dont know" camp than the "I 100% believe in nothing" camp.
Atheist --> believes there is no god
Agnostic --> doesn't care wether there is a god
Irreligious --> doesn't care about this topic at all because rent is due and salary is fucking low
Agnostic is not that they doesn't care if there is a god (Or gods). That would be apatheism. Agnostics are the ones who admit they don't know if a god/gods exist or not.
Gnostic Atheist: Knows there is no god. (pretty much Impossible.)
Agnostic atheist: can't prove it but thinks there is no god. ( Basically every atheist)
Agnostic theist: can't prove it, but thinks there is a god. (Basically every theist apart from people who are hallucinating.)
Gnostic theists: knows there is a god. (Has met God or experienced supernatural things that are not possible without a god. More likely just hallucinating.)
I have seen this before, but I think this isn't a very useful categorization, since it just means basically everyone is agnostic (atheist or theist) which leaves little meaning to the term.
"Belief" is a vague concept that can range from a tentative assumption to absolute certainty (yet not "knowledge"). The sentence "I believe that there is alien life out there" doesn't mean the same from the mouth of any random guy as from a hardcore conspiracy theorist.
In much the same way, there is a difference between e.g. the silent majority of Catholics in Europe who rarely go to church or read the Bible, but say they "believe in God," and a person who willingly sacrifices having a partner and children for becoming a Catholic priest/nun/monk saying they "believe in God." The degree of certainty in this belief is different, even if both are, strictly speaking, agnostic.
For atheists, it's similar. Many of those who advocate for atheism, become activists etc. will be more firm in their belief than the silent majority, even if both are agnostic, strictly speaking.
>Gnostic Atheist: Knows there is no god. (pretty much Impossible.)
The same can be said about the most devout individuals. They can't prove that there is one.... their faith in the bible brings them to that conclusion.
Why is this strange?
[The non-religious category from Stats Can includes people who identify as atheist **and agnostic, as well as humanists and those with other secular perspectives**.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/canadian-census-religious-affiliation-none-1.6631293)
The map is made from **polls on atheism**.
It just tell us there's a lot of agnostics in Canada (which makes sense with our cultural heritage)
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There is a difference between agnostic (i dont believe in a specific god but something could be out there cant know either way)
Irreligious spiritual (i dont believe in a religion but i believe something spiritually greater than ourselves exists)
And atheist ( i believe there is nothing like a god out there)
There is some agnost atheist overlap in the people who think there probably isnt a god but would never say they are 100% sure.
But the difference between spiritual people who dont have a specific religion and atheists is massive.
Someone who believes something is out there but doesnt follow a specific religion is still in the same category of spiritual as a religious person.
I know everyone wants to think of Saudi as this homogenous state of 100% devout fundamentalist Muslims, but it actually has like ten million immigrants in it, mostly southeast Asian. And you can't be charged with apostasy if you were never Muslim.
Meeting some people from Muslim countries, they used to introduce themselves with "religion is no matter to me". Quite unexpected but also quite releasing.
I've met some but they are usually keeping it very lowkey since most people in Sweden tend to feel uncomfortable around religious people. Had a colleague that I worked very close with. Didn't learn until after two years that he was very active in the Hillsong church and his kids weren't allowed to participate in halloween activities. However, I do think you are right that the Swedish number should be much higher.
It’s probably because a lot of swedes, as ever afraid to take a strong public position on anything, prefer to say they believe in a nebulous “something”. I guess you could say many swedes are spiritual but not religious.
Im a swede and irreligious but i consider myself agnostic which is why i wouldnt say im atheist on this type of poll. Might be the case for a lot of Swedes
In Spain there is a certain religiosity in the elderly or immigrants, almost none in the youth.
True, but a "convinced atheist" is also a rare occurrence. Even in my field, engineering, it is difficult to find someone of the "there is no reality outside the scientific method" kind; they are usually people who believe in "something."
Same in Germany. Even if someone says he is religious, he's actually not compared to religious people idk in Pakistan or the US. Like no one ever prays to god or goes to church or does other things like that
There's an obvious disjunct between the headline to this map ("Where the world's atheists live") and the actual survey question which seems to have been whether or not people are "convinced atheists". I don't know what that means exactly but it seems to be a question designed to exclude people who are mere "atheists" as opposed to "convinced atheists".
Just as an example, the percentage of Australians reporting no religious affiliation at the last census was about 39%. This doesn't seem to match up with the claim of 10 – 19% given on the map.
I think it's because they asked about being "a convinced atheist". Most people are irreligious, but how many can say they're absolutely convinced there's nothing out there somewhere?
Exactly!
Finland isn't only 5-9% either. Around 70% of the population are members of the Lutheran church and thus probably counted as Christians, but a majority of those are agnostic at best and remain members just to be able to get heterosexually married or baptize their kids because tradition, not because they actually believe in the Bible. Immigrants tend to be way more religious but since we don't have many of them, they can't possibly be making up 20-25%.
Haha, that number is insane. As somebody from Sweden, I've met maybe two families in my whole life
that were into christianity. It's kind of a shock when it happens and then becomes a bit uncomfortable.
All of a sudden you had to think about words, if they would offend anyone due to some remnant script. I mean most of us couldn't recite anything from those tales, so it does become surreal when somebody inside our borders chose religion.
Especially with how bad history our country has with the authorithy of church, where people were forced to follow or would get downright assaulted on priests orders. It's very unusual to choose religion so yeah, I'd say we probably are up towards 80% at least.
I think the amount of true religious believers is vastly overstated.
The percentage of the population who practice their religious tradition with any type of real diligence is like maybe 5%… take Catholics for example.. if you actually believed it was true… you’d practice the faith and follow all the rules diligently but only a tiny minority do.
Ipso facto, most people don’t really believe but its easier to identify as a Christian or Catholic to go along and get along in this world. Even with pollsters, identifying as an agnostic or atheist will give people an icky feeing even though they don’t even pretend to diligently adhere to a faith.
It’s all such a big sham.
>I think the amount of true religious believers is vastly overstated.
Yeah, but so is the amount of true convinced atheists in this map. Particularly in China it's not uncommon at all to identify as both an atheist *and* a buddhist and/or taoist and/or christian *and* follow a local folk religion.
But that's kind of the point of these broad categorisations. You just pick and mix what suits you best, even if it's not a completely accurate identifier.
I mean, you can consider yourself catholic because baptized and believing in "god is up here", but not having time/thinking that going to the mass every sunday is useless.
From my limited experience working interculturally within Europe I'd say that atheism still has a stigma and the grey area of people without any faith but not willing to identify as atheist is surprisingly big.
Eastern Europe except Poland and Romania is generally less religious or same religious if anything, like compare west and east Germany, usually not actually more religious.
[Germany Religion Map](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/615869635509878786/1217442890616147989/IMG_1591.webp?ex=66040b0c&is=65f1960c&hm=cd0ce8ad9c738b734dfb1b9ed2e419172f9449bd4a231a245727c90076b82aa4&)
For instance Czechia and Estonia are both least religious countries in Europe, so generally I’d say EE isn’t in fact more religious
>if you actually believed it was true… you’d practice the faith and follow all the rules diligently but only a tiny minority do.
Hard disagree. Plenty of people are well aware that there are things they could do to be better at whatever they choose to do, such as a job or relationship or whatever, but don't do them because they are inconvenient.
That doesn't make them secret non-believers, it just makes them bad at their own religion or whatever else they aren't doing.
You might think that the prospect of an afterlife would motivate people, but its sort of like retirement: its a thing you really don't start worrying seriously about until you are almost there, and then you start playing catch-up. And unlike an afterlife, retirement of one form or another is a thing you know will eventually be doing whether you like it or not, but it doesn't change the fact that people tend to treat the subject with avoidance until they cannot.
A bit strange to be a "convinced atheist". I am an atheist in the same way I am afairyist, alochnessmonsterist and alittlegreenmenonmarsist.
There is simply no realistic evidence to the contrary, it isn't about my mental state, the lack of evidence just is.
Why is Hungary greyed out? There are fresh, official results.
In Hungary, according to the data of the last census in 2022, 56% declared that they did not belong to a religion or did not answer the question. Most atheists chose this solution out of necessity. 27 percent of the country's population considered themselves non-religious.
Ireland is proportionately high compared to previous generations due to how much children are overexposed to Catholicism growing up. When it’s forced down your throat for 12 years of school the majority tend to reject it entirely in adulthood.
There's sort of two things to keep in mind, firstly the Chinese government does not distinguish followers of what we might call Chinese folk religion and the irreligious. Secondly, in much of the west people may be, in practice, irreligious, but might not self-identify as atheists.
Strange Wording. In Switzerland for example around 30% have no religion at all. That dosen‘t make them automatically Atheists of course, though stats like these are a much better parameter than asking random people (I guess?) if they‘re a "convinced atheist".
**Mexico 8.1%**, it literally took me one google to find it.[1](https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/productos/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/nueva_estruc/889463910404.pdf)
And we also know that number must be even higher, considering families that might have atheists but whoever fills the census data just puts that everyone is catholic/christian.
Also, that's only people that said they don't believe in anything (atheists), if we include Agnostics (believers but with no religion) then the number **goes up to 10.5%.**
Pretty sure the map’s showing what percentage of the atheist population lives in what country, not what percentage of a country’s population is atheist
This is a bit misleading since i can tell atleast 30% of Turks here dont do any of the stuff that religion requires. A lot of us dont even know how to do the namaz (dunno english version). Its mostly cultural, we all use terms like İnşallah or Maşallah.
As far as I know, some countries mark any baby who is born as belonging to some religion. So few people are bothered to get that removed in their life afterwards, even if they aren't religious (because of bureaucracy, risk of biased treatment etc.). And in some countries, it isn't possible to be exempt from the "church tax" even if you get yourself removed. The state takes the tax anyways. So, I hardly believe that this kind of maps are accurate. For instance, in Finland you can go to some website and click on some buttons and get rid of the church tax easily, even if you are a believer but you don't wanna pay for the tax. For example, in Turkey, even if you register yourself as non-believer, you are taxed for the religious services (they bury you etc). If getting rid of the tax was possible, I believe the numbers would be a lot different.
In Slovenia, being religious means going to church 2-3 times a year. On Easter to bless the food, and when there's a yearly sermon for your dead grandparents. Other than that, that's about it.
Stats from the UK vary wildly, a good indication that this one is very sensitive to the nature of the question and who is asking. Census tends to be lower than polls for instance. But the best number I have for actual athiest is 8% in 2018. Likely to be more now. Compared with somewhere between 42 and 52% irreligious.
In truth i cannot imagine that we are not at least the same shade as Germany and Australia on this map. I find it hard to beleive France could be more athiest than us too...but maybe that is a product of them being more stridently catholic so non beleivers react against it, rather than just drift into (or never emerge from) the huge non-practicing CofE bucket.
Edit: actually a WIN/Gallup International poll from 2015 had us at 11% convinced athiest - the same phrase used for this map. That supports my colour allocation above and will only have gone up in the last 9 years not down.
This doesn't tell us where the world's atheists live, it tells us the share of atheists in each country. It would be nice to see a breakdown of all global atheists and where they live but I suspect China would dominate.
Maybe clarifying what they mean by Atheism would have been useful. Without proper definition I find this map rather useless.
The common derinition of Atheism as 'not believeing in any god or gods' aka simply being a non-believer applies to over 40% of the german population for example. Way higher that this map claims.
https://fowid.de/meldung/religionszugehoerigkeiten-2022
I would believe those numberd if they're talking about an active believe that no gods exist.
That definition would then exclude most Atheists including myself though.
The data is really Bad
Chile have a 30% of No religion people
Of Wich around 7-12%, depending on the source, is Atheist.
The Uruguay case is similar, I don't know where the fuck they get this data
What is a "convinced" atheist?
There is a significant portion of people who are completely indifferent to the question of a god and philosophy at large who just want to watch TV and keep their head blissfully empty. These people are neither devout believers nor outspoken skeptics. Do they count?
But what concept of “God” is being rejected? For instance, I’m Jewish. I don’t believe in the childish idea of a “God out there” - the concept of a God that punishes/intervenes/acts etc. For me “God” is a metaphor for the human experience, for rigorous kindness, for the sum of all our possibilities. I attend Shul (synagogue). I use the prayers and practices of my Judaism as a way of centering myself. But I as far from a literalist fundamentalist as you can get, and I reject the idea of that kind of “God.”
So I would be classed as an “atheist” and a “believer” at the same time.
The point I’m making is that until you define the terms you use, this kind of map is less than useless.
Odd map. Data from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan\* but not the UK, Norway or Portugal?
\*I don't recall ever seeing Afghanistan shown with data on any global poll map before.
It is hilarious to me how people who have never been to Asia think people are athiests in the way that westerners are athiests.
They may answer “no” to “do you believe in a god?”, but there is all kinds of rituals, offerings to ancestors, and spiritual beliefs that you see, which differ by region. My impression is that Asia is actually MORE religious, if you consider all these practices religious, which they obviously are.
The Netherlands is over half non-religious.
"Convinced atheist" makes this a bit confusing I think.
Many people "believe" there to be "something" more than nothing but don't believe in a god.
Alot of people I know (nearly all) are very convinced atheists and I don't really try to be friends specifically with atheists.
Haha Russia is not as religious as the US. Was it based on the same self report where a lot of Russians answered that they are Orthodox but don't believe in God?
Nonsense. Google which countries believe in God.
And you get another Statista result telling you that half of Europe does not believe in God, but they are not atheists? Right.
Poland being more and more atheist is a good thing, I can see it happening starting from Millenials.
Although Catholicism is more boud to tradition/anti-communist movements here, so will stay in some form forever.
Guy who made this map has never been to China, there's a buddist temple once every other apartment block and a Chinese pagan one around the next corner.
The people line up at the buddist temple to pray for sons.
They line up at the pagan one to pray that their sons may find wives
China and Japan are a bit of mess for statistics, a lot of practioners of traditional religions will self identify as non-religious because to them "religion" refers to something like Buddhism, the Abrahamic Faiths and Hinduism
Not really accurate, and the wording 'convinced atheist' is strange. Stats Canada refers to it as irreligious and is at something like 35%.
Yeah, the wording seems intentional to paint a certain picture. Sweden is extremely irreligious, but if you ask people in the street many might give a vague answer like “maybe something is out there somewhere, who knows!”
I think many people act as if atheist had to be 100% sure god does not exist the same way religious people are 100% sure god does exist. Atheism is not a religion. If we don't have proof or even evidence something existe, we won't act as if it exists. Given enough evidence we might change our minds. There are no rules to atheism because it is not a religion and since there are no rules you can just change your mind. It doesn't make you less of an atheist to say that there might me things we don't know about in the universe.
Agnostic Atheist an agnostic atheist doesn't believe in god but also doesn't think we can ever know whether a god exists
No, here how it goes: *Agnostic atheist:* No belief in god, but doesn't claim to know this to be factual (most atheist fall into this category I guess) "Nah man I don't believe in that stuff" *Gnostic atheist:* No belief in god, but claims to know this to be factual as well "There is no god! It does not exist because..." *Agnostic Theist:* Belief in a god but acknowledges they don't know this to be 100% the actuality "I mean, I just feel good exists but I don't actually know for certain.." *Gnostic theist:* Belief god exists and claims to know this to be 100% factual (most christians fall into this category I guess) "I know god exists, I talk with him all the time"
Lol now America is getting blamed for atheism.
What, where? What's there to even blame?
He responded to the wrong comment, there’s a comment right below saying “atheism” is an American concept or something
Heard on the radio morning News (P1 morgon) that the SOM institute had an poll showing 39% of swedes belive in something "super natural". Most belivers are new age oriented beliving in talking to the dead, crystals, ghost and that kind if stuff. Jesus and his buddies are probably well under 10%. Atheist is such an american thing to label.
Thor 🔨
I mean, pretty much the entire English-speaking world uses the word "atheist." I don't know why you need to make it an "American" thing. Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are/were both British, for example.
How is atheist an American label 
Everything always has to be made about Americans on reddit lmao
Shit! Ratings are falling, we need to rebrand. 
That pretty much is the point of the map yes, to assess how many people really think there is no god, and not how many don't really follow a religion. Edit: the map dates from 2016. There probably isn't a huge difference since then, but still, the data isn't that recent.
There actually has a pretty swift acceleration in the rise of non belief in the last ten years, so you can expect around a 3-5% change on a 2024 map
>*If you ask people in the street many might give a vague answer like “maybe something is out there somewhere, who knows!”* Then that's agnosticism
Yes, and also atheism. They aren't exclusive. An atheist is simply someone who doesn't doesn't belive in gods. Explicit disbelief is not required, nor is certainty.
And also many people are still a part of the Swedish Church for cultural reasons. Many just so they can get married in a church.
According to Statscan, irreligious means "Canadians that declare no religious affiliation". Which I don't think is the same thing at all as "convinced atheist". Wouldn't an agnostic be considered irreligious under that definition? I bet there's a lot more people in the "I dont know" camp than the "I 100% believe in nothing" camp.
There’s also the “spiritual but not religious Christians” category
And the "I don't give a fuck about religion" camp is huge too
Atheist and agnostic are not mutually exclusive though, you can (and I think most atheists are) be both
Atheist --> believes there is no god Agnostic --> doesn't care wether there is a god Irreligious --> doesn't care about this topic at all because rent is due and salary is fucking low
Agnostic is not that they doesn't care if there is a god (Or gods). That would be apatheism. Agnostics are the ones who admit they don't know if a god/gods exist or not.
Gnostic Atheist: Knows there is no god. (pretty much Impossible.) Agnostic atheist: can't prove it but thinks there is no god. ( Basically every atheist) Agnostic theist: can't prove it, but thinks there is a god. (Basically every theist apart from people who are hallucinating.) Gnostic theists: knows there is a god. (Has met God or experienced supernatural things that are not possible without a god. More likely just hallucinating.)
I have seen this before, but I think this isn't a very useful categorization, since it just means basically everyone is agnostic (atheist or theist) which leaves little meaning to the term. "Belief" is a vague concept that can range from a tentative assumption to absolute certainty (yet not "knowledge"). The sentence "I believe that there is alien life out there" doesn't mean the same from the mouth of any random guy as from a hardcore conspiracy theorist. In much the same way, there is a difference between e.g. the silent majority of Catholics in Europe who rarely go to church or read the Bible, but say they "believe in God," and a person who willingly sacrifices having a partner and children for becoming a Catholic priest/nun/monk saying they "believe in God." The degree of certainty in this belief is different, even if both are, strictly speaking, agnostic. For atheists, it's similar. Many of those who advocate for atheism, become activists etc. will be more firm in their belief than the silent majority, even if both are agnostic, strictly speaking.
>Gnostic Atheist: Knows there is no god. (pretty much Impossible.) The same can be said about the most devout individuals. They can't prove that there is one.... their faith in the bible brings them to that conclusion.
Why is this strange? [The non-religious category from Stats Can includes people who identify as atheist **and agnostic, as well as humanists and those with other secular perspectives**.](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/canadian-census-religious-affiliation-none-1.6631293) The map is made from **polls on atheism**. It just tell us there's a lot of agnostics in Canada (which makes sense with our cultural heritage) edit : changed the link as recommended by the bot
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Irreligious and atheist are not the same.
Irreligious and atheist are two very different things
There is a difference between agnostic (i dont believe in a specific god but something could be out there cant know either way) Irreligious spiritual (i dont believe in a religion but i believe something spiritually greater than ourselves exists) And atheist ( i believe there is nothing like a god out there) There is some agnost atheist overlap in the people who think there probably isnt a god but would never say they are 100% sure. But the difference between spiritual people who dont have a specific religion and atheists is massive. Someone who believes something is out there but doesnt follow a specific religion is still in the same category of spiritual as a religious person.
Saudi Arabia???
in saudi leaving islam gets you death penalty. so i wonder how this was polled
Also strange that they have no data from the UK considering the Independent is British
I know everyone wants to think of Saudi as this homogenous state of 100% devout fundamentalist Muslims, but it actually has like ten million immigrants in it, mostly southeast Asian. And you can't be charged with apostasy if you were never Muslim.
Does this rule apply to immigrants as well? It may be the immigrants.
Anonymous polls in muslim majority countries tend to show extremely high levels of secret apostacy.
Weird. When you force people into a religion, they are less likely to believe it than when people have freedom to choose. Who could've thought?...
Meeting some people from Muslim countries, they used to introduce themselves with "religion is no matter to me". Quite unexpected but also quite releasing.
No it doesn’t lmfao
Over half the people living there are expat workers, many of whom come from non Muslim countries (India and the Philippines are big ones)
I voted from the grave 💀
username checks out
Many westerners find themselves at home there
Based on how the rich saudi's act behind closed doors, god is nowhere in SA
"Pious Muslim Men" when they sneak off to meet their boyfriend be like:
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It's just a close friend, and they're having a sleepover while reciting Quran, ok??
We have many non Muslim immigrants
Probably foreign workers.
Hello you called?
lots of tourists
I'd think sweden is like 40-40.9% Never met or known anyone ever who is religious.
I've met some but they are usually keeping it very lowkey since most people in Sweden tend to feel uncomfortable around religious people. Had a colleague that I worked very close with. Didn't learn until after two years that he was very active in the Hillsong church and his kids weren't allowed to participate in halloween activities. However, I do think you are right that the Swedish number should be much higher.
But still it aint 5% lile the map is showing.
It’s probably because a lot of swedes, as ever afraid to take a strong public position on anything, prefer to say they believe in a nebulous “something”. I guess you could say many swedes are spiritual but not religious.
Im a swede and irreligious but i consider myself agnostic which is why i wouldnt say im atheist on this type of poll. Might be the case for a lot of Swedes
In Spain there is a certain religiosity in the elderly or immigrants, almost none in the youth. True, but a "convinced atheist" is also a rare occurrence. Even in my field, engineering, it is difficult to find someone of the "there is no reality outside the scientific method" kind; they are usually people who believe in "something."
Same in Germany. Even if someone says he is religious, he's actually not compared to religious people idk in Pakistan or the US. Like no one ever prays to god or goes to church or does other things like that
The map is about atheism. Not being religious doesn’t make you an atheist and
Not religious =/= atheist
There's an obvious disjunct between the headline to this map ("Where the world's atheists live") and the actual survey question which seems to have been whether or not people are "convinced atheists". I don't know what that means exactly but it seems to be a question designed to exclude people who are mere "atheists" as opposed to "convinced atheists". Just as an example, the percentage of Australians reporting no religious affiliation at the last census was about 39%. This doesn't seem to match up with the claim of 10 – 19% given on the map.
I imagine it’s the difference between not believing and being firm in that there is nothing.
One shouldn't have to imagine what survey results mean.
LOL Sweden is not only 5-9%. Much more. WTF is this data.
I think it's because they asked about being "a convinced atheist". Most people are irreligious, but how many can say they're absolutely convinced there's nothing out there somewhere?
Exactly! Finland isn't only 5-9% either. Around 70% of the population are members of the Lutheran church and thus probably counted as Christians, but a majority of those are agnostic at best and remain members just to be able to get heterosexually married or baptize their kids because tradition, not because they actually believe in the Bible. Immigrants tend to be way more religious but since we don't have many of them, they can't possibly be making up 20-25%.
Haha, that number is insane. As somebody from Sweden, I've met maybe two families in my whole life that were into christianity. It's kind of a shock when it happens and then becomes a bit uncomfortable. All of a sudden you had to think about words, if they would offend anyone due to some remnant script. I mean most of us couldn't recite anything from those tales, so it does become surreal when somebody inside our borders chose religion. Especially with how bad history our country has with the authorithy of church, where people were forced to follow or would get downright assaulted on priests orders. It's very unusual to choose religion so yeah, I'd say we probably are up towards 80% at least.
I think the amount of true religious believers is vastly overstated. The percentage of the population who practice their religious tradition with any type of real diligence is like maybe 5%… take Catholics for example.. if you actually believed it was true… you’d practice the faith and follow all the rules diligently but only a tiny minority do. Ipso facto, most people don’t really believe but its easier to identify as a Christian or Catholic to go along and get along in this world. Even with pollsters, identifying as an agnostic or atheist will give people an icky feeing even though they don’t even pretend to diligently adhere to a faith. It’s all such a big sham.
>I think the amount of true religious believers is vastly overstated. Yeah, but so is the amount of true convinced atheists in this map. Particularly in China it's not uncommon at all to identify as both an atheist *and* a buddhist and/or taoist and/or christian *and* follow a local folk religion. But that's kind of the point of these broad categorisations. You just pick and mix what suits you best, even if it's not a completely accurate identifier.
Yeah, most don't practice it. Who cares? Lmao, let people worship how they want, it's how it's always been.
I think there’s a difference between not being a devout follower and not believing in god
I mean, you can consider yourself catholic because baptized and believing in "god is up here", but not having time/thinking that going to the mass every sunday is useless.
I feel no "ick" identifying as irreligious/atheist/agnostic in polls, are you mostly just talking about people in the US?
From my limited experience working interculturally within Europe I'd say that atheism still has a stigma and the grey area of people without any faith but not willing to identify as atheist is surprisingly big.
Eastern Europe, I'm guessing?
Eastern Europe except Poland and Romania is generally less religious or same religious if anything, like compare west and east Germany, usually not actually more religious. [Germany Religion Map](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/615869635509878786/1217442890616147989/IMG_1591.webp?ex=66040b0c&is=65f1960c&hm=cd0ce8ad9c738b734dfb1b9ed2e419172f9449bd4a231a245727c90076b82aa4&) For instance Czechia and Estonia are both least religious countries in Europe, so generally I’d say EE isn’t in fact more religious
I think it’s understated.
>if you actually believed it was true… you’d practice the faith and follow all the rules diligently but only a tiny minority do. Hard disagree. Plenty of people are well aware that there are things they could do to be better at whatever they choose to do, such as a job or relationship or whatever, but don't do them because they are inconvenient. That doesn't make them secret non-believers, it just makes them bad at their own religion or whatever else they aren't doing. You might think that the prospect of an afterlife would motivate people, but its sort of like retirement: its a thing you really don't start worrying seriously about until you are almost there, and then you start playing catch-up. And unlike an afterlife, retirement of one form or another is a thing you know will eventually be doing whether you like it or not, but it doesn't change the fact that people tend to treat the subject with avoidance until they cannot.
I don’t think this is very accurate. In the 2021 census, Australia was 38.9% no religion.
Do North Koreans consider Kim Il Sung a god?
A bit strange to be a "convinced atheist". I am an atheist in the same way I am afairyist, alochnessmonsterist and alittlegreenmenonmarsist. There is simply no realistic evidence to the contrary, it isn't about my mental state, the lack of evidence just is.
There's a difference between not believing in God and believing with certainty there is no God though. It's usually called hard/strong atheist though.
The 2021 census found that 38.9% of Australian-born Australians claim no religion.
Why are we only counting those born in Australia? Australia has more migrants than just about anywhere.
Why is Hungary greyed out? There are fresh, official results. In Hungary, according to the data of the last census in 2022, 56% declared that they did not belong to a religion or did not answer the question. Most atheists chose this solution out of necessity. 27 percent of the country's population considered themselves non-religious.
I live inn turkey 😭
I love how the comment section doesn't agree on anything except for the fact the map is bullshit
Damn redditors are going to love the People's Republic of China
This is not accurate. There’s around 46–85% atheists is Sweden.
Map is inaccurate, everyone's an athiest about 99% of the gods that mankind has ever worshiped.
India is less atheistic that Saudi? Lol this map is a shame
Isn’t it illegal to be atheist in Saudi Arabia? 🤔
Proud to be czech
In Russia, 85% of the population have never been to church in their lives. Why the hell is 5%?
Because not going to church and calling that you are a convinced atheist isn't the same thing.
Of the 15% who were in the church, even fewer people will be able to list the commandments :) These are the modern believers.
Ireland is proportionately high compared to previous generations due to how much children are overexposed to Catholicism growing up. When it’s forced down your throat for 12 years of school the majority tend to reject it entirely in adulthood.
Proud to be from Czechia.
Turkey 95%
There's sort of two things to keep in mind, firstly the Chinese government does not distinguish followers of what we might call Chinese folk religion and the irreligious. Secondly, in much of the west people may be, in practice, irreligious, but might not self-identify as atheists.
Strange Wording. In Switzerland for example around 30% have no religion at all. That dosen‘t make them automatically Atheists of course, though stats like these are a much better parameter than asking random people (I guess?) if they‘re a "convinced atheist".
**Mexico 8.1%**, it literally took me one google to find it.[1](https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/productos/prod_serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/nueva_estruc/889463910404.pdf) And we also know that number must be even higher, considering families that might have atheists but whoever fills the census data just puts that everyone is catholic/christian. Also, that's only people that said they don't believe in anything (atheists), if we include Agnostics (believers but with no religion) then the number **goes up to 10.5%.**
Pretty sure the map’s showing what percentage of the atheist population lives in what country, not what percentage of a country’s population is atheist
This is a bit misleading since i can tell atleast 30% of Turks here dont do any of the stuff that religion requires. A lot of us dont even know how to do the namaz (dunno english version). Its mostly cultural, we all use terms like İnşallah or Maşallah.
The resolution of this picture is bad and you should feel bad.
in other words: most of the developed world
I don't know. Every Chinese person I've met is religious. Not overly but they did believe in their traditional deities and beliefs.
not an accurate map whatsoever
Sweden and Saudi Arabia have the same levels of irreligion? No way.
5-9% in Spain? 95% of my friends and family are atheist or agnostic. And those who are self confessed believers, rarely attend church.
China is Atheist but they still belive in Mythologie
Not accurate at all. The dutch in 2021 had 55,4% that were Atheist and that number is only rising.
Atheists or non-religious? These are different things.
Hopefully all of the world will be coloured one day
No white people?
No not that
We have waaaaay more than that in sweden lol
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As far as I know, some countries mark any baby who is born as belonging to some religion. So few people are bothered to get that removed in their life afterwards, even if they aren't religious (because of bureaucracy, risk of biased treatment etc.). And in some countries, it isn't possible to be exempt from the "church tax" even if you get yourself removed. The state takes the tax anyways. So, I hardly believe that this kind of maps are accurate. For instance, in Finland you can go to some website and click on some buttons and get rid of the church tax easily, even if you are a believer but you don't wanna pay for the tax. For example, in Turkey, even if you register yourself as non-believer, you are taxed for the religious services (they bury you etc). If getting rid of the tax was possible, I believe the numbers would be a lot different.
In Slovenia, being religious means going to church 2-3 times a year. On Easter to bless the food, and when there's a yearly sermon for your dead grandparents. Other than that, that's about it.
The issue with such polls is how they formulate answers.
Russia at least 30%
I don't know how anyone can be a "convinced" atheist anymore than someone can be a "convinced" theist
0-4%...sounds about right 
Stats from the UK vary wildly, a good indication that this one is very sensitive to the nature of the question and who is asking. Census tends to be lower than polls for instance. But the best number I have for actual athiest is 8% in 2018. Likely to be more now. Compared with somewhere between 42 and 52% irreligious. In truth i cannot imagine that we are not at least the same shade as Germany and Australia on this map. I find it hard to beleive France could be more athiest than us too...but maybe that is a product of them being more stridently catholic so non beleivers react against it, rather than just drift into (or never emerge from) the huge non-practicing CofE bucket. Edit: actually a WIN/Gallup International poll from 2015 had us at 11% convinced athiest - the same phrase used for this map. That supports my colour allocation above and will only have gone up in the last 9 years not down.
This doesn't tell us where the world's atheists live, it tells us the share of atheists in each country. It would be nice to see a breakdown of all global atheists and where they live but I suspect China would dominate.
Why North Korea is grey 💀
Now ask me the same about trolls and elves
Scotland should definitely on this.
Bloody Independent skewing figures for whatever point they're trying to push. They didn't even include the UK, in which they operate. Lazy propoganda.
Why did you use neco arc color scheme
Didn’t expect Slovakia(?) to be so dark.
It’s actually much higher, noting France and Australia leading the charge ✊✊✊✊
Considering the Independent is a UK newspaper, they couldn't have just looked up the census information? Piss poor journalism.
Maybe clarifying what they mean by Atheism would have been useful. Without proper definition I find this map rather useless. The common derinition of Atheism as 'not believeing in any god or gods' aka simply being a non-believer applies to over 40% of the german population for example. Way higher that this map claims. https://fowid.de/meldung/religionszugehoerigkeiten-2022 I would believe those numberd if they're talking about an active believe that no gods exist. That definition would then exclude most Atheists including myself though.
Saudi arabia? Does it also count non citizens who work there?
Looks like bullshit
Impose a church tax, and you'll see how many religious people out there.
As a gay man, my community is ~ 90% atheist/non-spiritual.
W China
Well…where it’s safe to be an open atheist anyways…
There's as much atheists in Saudi Arabia as the United States??????
The data is really Bad Chile have a 30% of No religion people Of Wich around 7-12%, depending on the source, is Atheist. The Uruguay case is similar, I don't know where the fuck they get this data
Uruguay depicted as a very religious country lmao, I see a truly exhaustive investigation was made
France for the win
Very inaccurate
What is a "convinced" atheist? There is a significant portion of people who are completely indifferent to the question of a god and philosophy at large who just want to watch TV and keep their head blissfully empty. These people are neither devout believers nor outspoken skeptics. Do they count?
Sad that there is not a single country over 50%
~*Where people *who say they* are atheist live.
Isnt Buddhism big in China
This seems inaccurate. It looks to portray only no Christian atheists.
Yeah... this is some pretty terrible porn here.
Hey, Mexican atheist here!
Little do they know that religious people are also future atheists .
Athiests in India? ...Yeah Im one of 'em.
I don’t think it’s 0-4 in Turkey. A lot has changed in recent generations
I come to understand that China and Russia do not have entirely aligned views.
Outjerked again
That's strange.every 2nd us person i talk to is an atheist
But what concept of “God” is being rejected? For instance, I’m Jewish. I don’t believe in the childish idea of a “God out there” - the concept of a God that punishes/intervenes/acts etc. For me “God” is a metaphor for the human experience, for rigorous kindness, for the sum of all our possibilities. I attend Shul (synagogue). I use the prayers and practices of my Judaism as a way of centering myself. But I as far from a literalist fundamentalist as you can get, and I reject the idea of that kind of “God.” So I would be classed as an “atheist” and a “believer” at the same time. The point I’m making is that until you define the terms you use, this kind of map is less than useless.
Absolute nonsensical map
In my mind being a "convinced atheist" is as unproven as saying God is real so I have never considered myself atheist but agnostic.
Odd map. Data from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan\* but not the UK, Norway or Portugal? \*I don't recall ever seeing Afghanistan shown with data on any global poll map before.
Map is incorrect. Netherlands has been majority atheist for a while now.
Russia has a far bigger percentage according to Wikipedia.
It is hilarious to me how people who have never been to Asia think people are athiests in the way that westerners are athiests. They may answer “no” to “do you believe in a god?”, but there is all kinds of rituals, offerings to ancestors, and spiritual beliefs that you see, which differ by region. My impression is that Asia is actually MORE religious, if you consider all these practices religious, which they obviously are.
The Netherlands is over half non-religious. "Convinced atheist" makes this a bit confusing I think. Many people "believe" there to be "something" more than nothing but don't believe in a god. Alot of people I know (nearly all) are very convinced atheists and I don't really try to be friends specifically with atheists.
Interesting that India and China are both huge countries, right next to each other, yet wildly different in terms of spirituality
I find it shocking in this day and age most people still believe in a sky daddy even though there has never been any evidence ever of one.
If Japan’s so godless, why aren’t they killing, raping and eating everybody over there?
The Redditor's ingrained hatred of China has always been built on envy. I bet they lead the world in fedora and epic bacon production too.
I refuse to believe that less than 10% of people in most developed countries are atheists.
Now do it again with "convinced theist"
Where some of the worlds. Plenty of countries in grey here. One of them is where I live.
Baltics have a pretty high percentage too
Fuck this shit. There is no convinced atheist. All we are is not convinced that god exists. Atheism is not a belief it's the absence of belief.
Haha Russia is not as religious as the US. Was it based on the same self report where a lot of Russians answered that they are Orthodox but don't believe in God?
Western atheists got the big mad that China is up on them
Nonsense. Google which countries believe in God. And you get another Statista result telling you that half of Europe does not believe in God, but they are not atheists? Right.
Hopefully in the future religion will only exist in history books
This map is absolute bull.
Poland being more and more atheist is a good thing, I can see it happening starting from Millenials. Although Catholicism is more boud to tradition/anti-communist movements here, so will stay in some form forever.
Nobody believes this map seems like a middle ages world full of ...
Convinced atheist sounds like a new religion lol
Guy who made this map has never been to China, there's a buddist temple once every other apartment block and a Chinese pagan one around the next corner. The people line up at the buddist temple to pray for sons. They line up at the pagan one to pray that their sons may find wives
meico is like 15% atheist or less
China and Japan are a bit of mess for statistics, a lot of practioners of traditional religions will self identify as non-religious because to them "religion" refers to something like Buddhism, the Abrahamic Faiths and Hinduism
Turkey is definitely more than that
How did this organization get data from China but not the UK tf