Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics

krsna · 10-23-2007, 04:07 AM

Top 50 Countries
With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics
(Zuckerman, 2005)

Below is a list of the top fifty countries containing the largest measured percentage of people who identify as atheist, agnostic, or non-believer in God. These figures do not necessarily represent the number of people who are identify themselves as "atheists." For example, in Estonia in 2004, 49% of people surveyed said they did not believe in God. At the same time, only 11% of people in the country identified themselves as atheists.

Country Total country
population % Atheist/
Agnostic/
Nonbeliever in God Number of Atheists/Agnostics

Nonbelievers in God
(minimum - maximum).....>

Sweden	8,986,000	46 - 85%	4,133,560 - 7,638,100
Vietnam	82,690,000	81%	66,978,900
Denmark	5,413,000	43 - 80%	2,327,590 - 4,330,400
Norway	4,575,000	31 - 72%	1,418,250 - 3,294,000
Japan	127,333,000	64 - 65%	81,493,120 - 82,766,450
Czech Republic	10,246,100	54 - 61%	5,328,940 - 6,250,121
Finland	5,215,000	28 - 60%	1,460,200 - 3,129,000
France	60,424,000	43 - 54%	25,982,320 - 32,628,960
South Korea	48,598,000	30 - 52%	14,579,400 - 25,270,960
Estonia	1,342,000	49%	657,580
Germany	82,425,000	41 - 49%	33,794,250 - 40,388,250
Russia	143,782,000	24 - 48%	34,507,680 - 69,015,360
Hungary	10,032,000	32 - 46%	3,210,240 - 4,614,720
Netherlands	16,318,000	39 - 44%	6,364,020 - 7,179,920
Britain	60,271,000	31 - 44%	18,684,010 - 26,519,240
Belgium	10,348,000	42 - 43%	4,346,160 - 4,449,640
Bulgaria	7,518,000	34 - 40%	2,556,120 - 3,007,200
Slovenia	2,011,000	35 - 38%	703,850 - 764,180
Israel	6,199,000	15 - 37%	929,850 - 2,293,630
Canada	32,508,000	19 - 30%	6,176,520 - 9,752,400
Latvia	2,306,000	20 - 29%	461,200 - 668,740
Slovakia	5,424,000	10 - 28%	542,400 - 1,518,720
Switzerland	7,451,000	17 - 27%	1,266,670 - 2,011,770
Austria	8,175,000	18 - 26%	1,471,500 - 2,125,500
Australia	19,913,000	24 - 25%	4,779,120 - 4,978,250
Taiwan	22,750,000	24%	5,460,000
Spain	40,281,000	15 - 24%	6,042,150 - 9,667,440
Iceland	294,000	16 - 23%	47,040 - 67,620
New Zealand	3,994,000	20 - 22%	798,800 - 878,680
Ukraine	47,732,000	20%	9,546,400
Belarus	10,311,000	17%	1,752,870
Greece	10,648,000	16%	1,703,680
North Korea	22,698,000	15%*	3,404,700
Italy	58,057,000	6 - 15%	3,483,420 - 8,708,550
Armenia	2,991,000	14%	418,740
China	1,298,848,000	8 - 14%*	103,907,840 - 181,838,720
Lithuania	3,608,000	13%	469,040
Singapore	4,354,000	13%	566,020
Uruguay	3,399,000	12%	407,880
Kazakhstan	15,144,000	11 - 12%	1,665,840 - 1,817,280
Mongolia	2,751,000	9%	247,590
Portugal	10,524,000	4 - 9%	420,960 - 947,160
USA	293,028,000	3 - 9%	8,790,840 - 26,822,520
Albania	3,545,000	8%	283,600
Argentina	39,145,000	4 - 8%	1,565,800 - 3,131,600
Kyrgyzstan	5,081,000	7%	355,670
Dominican Republic	8,834,000	7%	618,380
Cuba	11,309,000	7%*	791,630
Croatia	4,497,000	7%	314,790

Source: Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). * NOTE: The estimates of the number of atheists in North Korea, China and Cuba may be unreliable. The best data available have been used in making these estimates, but the people in these three nations live under Communist governments which have traditionally suppressed religious freedom and officially (often forcibly) endorsed atheism.

gHari · 11-04-2007, 10:06 AM

I noticed when working in Mexico and Colombia that Christmas was a very joyous celebration everywhere compared to my home Canada where it has all but died. I am not surprised to see neither of them on this black list. I'm a little surprised to see 1 in 3 Canadians screwed up. I guess I've got my work cut out for me here.

Sephiroth · 11-13-2007, 09:01 PM

I'm surprise that China shown to have max. 14% of it's people as Atheist. 181,000 out of 1 billion people who is estimated to live in China is not an accurate number in my understanding. For one thing, China is a communist country, and this number could be an error.

And North Korea - another country which have been Communist-based since 1950s, and they expect us to believe that only 14% of it's people are Atheists?