In this piece, we will take a look at the 20 most atheist countries in the world. For more countries, head on over to 5 Most Atheist Countries in the World.
Religion is one of the oldest philosophies known to humankind. However, it appeared relatively late in the evolutionary processes, due to the fact that cognition in human beings was slow to develop. Researchers believe that the oldest signs of religion appeared as recently as 150,000 years ago, with the Neanderthals being the first to bury their dead. Religion evolved slowly, from the shamanic and ritualistic processes of the first believers to the Pyramid Texts of the ancient Egyptians a couple of thousand years before the birth of Jesus Christ, to the Maya religion, Hinduism, and Buddhism as the early religions of the world. Then, the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam shaped the modern day world as we know it – with the latter two being spread through conquest by the Europeans and the Arabs.
However, at the same time, as society embraces the scientific method, a growing trend is irreligion. Commonly described as atheism, irreligion falls into several categories. The ones that explicitly reject the existence of a god are called atheists. Others include nontheism, which does not espouse any belief about the existence or a lack of existence of a god; agnosticism, which holds that a god cannot be proven or disproven; and apatheism, which, simply put, does not care either way.
Interestingly, the growth in atheism in any country is now being linked to economic progress. On this front, there are several studies that espouse this conclusion. One such study comes from the University of Bristol, where researchers studied the trends in secularization for 100 years and determined that growth in secularism came before economic development. The researchers sought to answer the question of whether a boost in a nation’s economic development leads to lesser religiosity or if it’s the other way around. They discovered some interesting trends. According to a finding of this study, secularization did account for 40% of global economic development in the 1990s, it accounted for only 4% in the 1910s. Additionally, they also disproved the commonly held belief that education also leads to secularism.
Not only might secularism be linked to economic activity, but research from Mississippi State University and West Virginia University also looks at the link between atheism and agnosticism with entrepreneurial activity. They use data for the religious affiliation of residents of several American states and a metric called ‘productive entrepreneurship’ — defined as a “combination” of new businesses, new businesses with 500 employees, and growth rate of self employment. They then checked whether there was a relationship between irreligion and productive entrepreneurship. Stunningly, the researchers found that all metrics of religion that they had tracked ended up negatively correlating with productive entrepreneurship, while atheistic and agnostic variables positively correlated with it. Quoting them on their research, and on the potential reasons behind the results, Pacific Standard magazine reported:
“Interestingly, the percent of the population that is atheist/agnostic is positively and significantly related to a state’s productive entrepreneurship score,” they add.
“This could be because religion imposes opportunity costs in terms of time and resources that may otherwise have been devoted toward productive entrepreneurship,” the researchers speculate. Another possibility, they add, is that religion “may create psychic costs to pursuing worldly gains.”
The researchers also postulated that perhaps religious activity was being substituted by entrepreneurial activity . In other words, people chose to spend time on their businesses instead of engaging in worship.
Further expanding on this, and taking a look at the correlation of daily prayers with a nation’s gross domestic product per capita (GDP per capita), the data is interesting, to say the least. In nearly every country (except Middle Eastern states that were not part of the sample) with a GDP per capita higher than $30,000 adults pray less than a day. However, the biggest exception to this rule is the U.S., where 55% of people pray every day according to Pew Research. Additionally, the number of religious people also rises as we move down the GDP per capita ladder, with most of the low income countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan also seeing most people pray daily. Pew’s data also shows that the importance of religion in a country falls as its GDP per capita rises, with the U.S. once again being an outlier in this regard.
On the flip side, academics from the Skema Business School use arguments from Harvard University professor Joseph Henrich to argue that, ironically, it was the Medieval Church’s attempts to break up the family system by promoting life away from parents, banning cousin marriages, and discouraging polygamy and adoption that led to the development of a more altruistic and trusting society which sowed the seeds of economic development.
Finally, taking a look at the business side of things, there are several business leaders that have made notable contributions to the world which are atheists or agnostics. One famous example is the British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who is not shy of controversy and has openly identified as an atheist. Another business leader and a behemoth in the financial world who identifies as an agnostic is Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK-A), who, when asked about whether he believed in Jesus during Berkshire’s 2008 annual shareholder meeting, stated:
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.
With these details in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most atheistic countries in the world.
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. This data lists both the number of people unaffiliated with a religion and the percentage of the population that are unaffiliated. Out of these, we used the percentage figure, since it is more accurate when describing whether a country is ‘more’ or ‘less’ theistic, with the opposite of theism simply assumed as atheism for the sake of simplicity. Additionally, Hong Kong is also added, since it has its own passport and is classified separately as a country by bodies such as the IMF. The top 20 countries as part of the list of the most atheistic countries in the world are presented below.
Most Atheist Countries in the World
20. Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 26.7%
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. It ranks high on several development metrics, such as innovation and human development.
19. Republic of Belarus
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 28.6%
The Republic of Belarus is a landlocked Eastern European country. It has a $201 billion GDP and a GDP per capita of $21,710. Most of its population is Christian, with the latest estimate sitting at 70.7%.
18. Commonwealth of Australia
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 28.6%
The Commonwealth of Australia is an Oceanic country, which is also unofficially the world’s largest island. It is also one of the most prosperous countries in the world, with a GDP per capita of $65,366.
17. Kingdom of Sweden
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 29.0%
The Kingdom of Sweden is a prosperous European Nordic country with a $712 billion GDP and a per capita income of $65,842. Most of its population identifies as Christian.
16. Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 29.9%
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, or Vietnam, is a coastal Southeast Asian country. A significant portion of its residents believe in folk religion.
15. Kingdom of Belgium
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 31.0%
The Kingdom of Belgium is a prosperous European nation. It has a $723 billion GDP.
14. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 31.2%
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or the U.K., is a developed European country and a global power in modern day politics. It has a $3.8 trillion GDP and high levels of human development.
13. French Republic
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 31.9%
The French Republic, or France, is one of Europe’s largest economies and one of the most advanced countries in the world. The French irreligious population is projected to grow in the future, along with Muslims as well.
12. Mongolia
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 36.5%
Mongolia is a landlocked East Asian country. Most of its population is Buddhist, with irreligious people taking second place.
11. New Zealand
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 39.6%
New Zealand is an island country in the Pacific Ocean. While Pew’s data says most New Zealanders are Christian, almost half of them were irreligious in a 2018 census.
10. Oriental Republic of Uruguay
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 41.5%
The Oriental Republic of Uruguay is a South American country that is one of the most peaceful nations in the region.
9. Netherlands
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 44.3%
The Netherlands is a developed European country. Irreligious people are projected to overtake Christians to account for 46% of the Dutch population in 2030, but Statistics Netherlands shows that 58% were already irreligious in 2021.
8. Republic of Latvia
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 45.3%
The Republic of Latvia is a Baltic European country that is one of the smallest in the world in landmass.
7. Republic of Korea
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 46.6%
The Republic of Korea is an East Asian country with a $2.7 trillion GDP.
6. People’s Republic of China
Religiously Unaffiliated Population: 51.8%
The People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest economy in purchasing power parity terms. Irreligious people make up the biggest chunk of its population.
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Disclosure: None. 20 Most Atheist Countries in the World is originally published on Insider Monkey.