Demographics of atheism

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Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary considerably across different cultures and languages, ranging from an active concept to being unimportant or not developed. Also in some countries and regions atheism carries a strong stigma, making it harder to count atheists in these countries.[1][2] In global studies, the number of people without a religion is usually higher than the number of people without a belief in a deity[3][4] and the number of people who agree with statements on lacking a belief in a deity is usually higher than the number of people who self-identify as "atheists".[3][1]

According to sociologist Phil Zuckerman, broad estimates of those who have an absence of belief in a deity range from 500 to 750 million people worldwide as of 2006.[5] An earlier estimate stated that there were 200 million to 240 million self-identified atheists worldwide as of the year 2000, with China and Russia being major contributors to these figures.[3] According to sociologists Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera's review of numerous global studies on atheism, there are 450 to 500 million positive atheists and agnostics worldwide (7% of the world's population)[as of?] with China alone accounting for 200 million of that demographic.[as of?][6] Relative to its own populations, Zuckerman ranks the top five countries with the highest possible ranges of atheists and agnostics: Sweden (46–85%), Vietnam (81%), Denmark (43–80%), Norway (31–72%), and Japan (64–65%).[7][8]

Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% live in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2%) and the Middle East and North Africa (less than 1%).[as of?][9] The prevalence of atheism in Africa and South America typically falls below 10%.[as of?][10] According to the Pew Research Center's 2012 global study of 230 countries and territories, 16% of the world's population is not affiliated with a religion, while 84% are affiliated.[11] Furthermore, the global study noted that many of the unaffiliated, which include atheists and agnostics, still have various religious beliefs and practices.[9]

Historical records of atheist philosophy span several millennia. The first occurrences of atheistic schools are found in Indian thought and have existed from the times of ancient Hinduism.[12][13][14] Western atheism has its roots in pre-Socratic Greek philosophy, but did not emerge as a distinct perspective on religious claims until the late Enlightenment.[15]

Discrepancies exist among sources as to how atheist and religious demographics are changing. Questions to assess non-belief may ask about negation of the prevailing belief, rather than an assertion of positive atheism.[16] Also, self-identification is not congruous to people's lack of beliefs automatically. For instance, merely not having a belief in a god, for whatever reason, does not automatically mean that people self-identify as an "atheist".[17] According to global Win-Gallup International studies, 13% of respondents were "convinced atheists" in 2012,[18] 11% were "convinced atheists" in 2015,[19] and in 2017, 9% were "convinced atheists".[20] However, other earlier global studies have indicated that global atheism may be in decline[as of?] due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth rates in the world and religious countries having higher birth rates in general.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Zuckerman, Phil (2006). "3 - Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns". In Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. pp. 47–66. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521842700.004. ISBN 9781139001182.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Galen Understanding Secular was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c "Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents". Adherents. Archived from the original on 16 August 2000. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: This is a highly disparate group and not a single religion. Although atheists are a small subset of this grouping, this category is not synonymous with atheism. People who specify atheism as their religious preference actually make up less than one-half of one percent of the population in many countries where much large numbers claim no religious preference...In most countries only a tiny number of people (zero to a fraction of 1 percent) will answer "atheism" or "atheist" when asked an open-ended question about what their religious preference... A slightly larger number answer "no" when asked simply if they "believe in God" (omitting wording indicating more nebulous, less anthropomorphic conceptions of divinity)...Estimates for atheism alone (as a primary religious preference) range from 200 to 240 million. But these come primarily from China and former Soviet Union nations (especially Russia).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ Keysar, Ariela. "2. Religious/Non-Religious Demography". In Shook, John; Zuckerman, Phil (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Secularism. Oxford University Press. The share of atheists is far smaller than the share of not religious in most countries.
  5. ^ Zuckerman, Phil (2006). "3 - Atheism: Contemporary Numbers and Patterns". In Martin, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. p. 61. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521842700.004. ISBN 9781139001182. Between 500 million and 750 million humans currently do not believe in God.
  6. ^ Keysar, Ariela; Navarro-Rivera, Juhem (2017). "36. A World of Atheism: Global Demographics". In Bullivant, Stephen; Ruse, Michael (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Atheism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199644650.
  7. ^ "The Cambridge Companion to Atheism – PDF Drive". www.pdfdrive.com.
  8. ^ "81-F77-Aeb-A404-447-C-8-B95-Dd57-Adc11-E98".
  9. ^ a b "The Global Religious Landscape – Religiously Unaffiliated". Pew Research Center. December 2012. Archived from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference GallupInt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Pew Forum on Religion; Public Life (18 December 2012). "The Global Religious Landscape". Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  12. ^ Pandian (1996). India, that is, sidd. Allied Publishers. p. 64. ISBN 978-81-7023-561-3. Retrieved 9 April 2011.
  13. ^ "8 Oldest Religions in the World". 11 November 2017.
  14. ^ "What is the Oldest Religion in the World?". 15 August 2019.
  15. ^ Baggini, Julian (2009). Atheism: A Brief Insight. New York: Sterling. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4027-6882-8.
  16. ^ "Millennials Losing Faith In God: Survey". Huffington Post. 5 June 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2014. reporting on a Pew study:"Section 6: Religion and Social Values | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press". People-press.org. 4 June 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  17. ^ "Not All Nonbelievers Call Themselves Atheists | Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project". Pewforum.org. 2 April 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  18. ^ "Religiosity and Atheism Index" (PDF). Zurich: WIN/GIA. 27 July 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  19. ^ "New Survey Shows the World's Most and Least Religious Places". NPR. 13 April 2015. Archived from the original on 6 May 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  20. ^ "Religion prevails in the world" (PDF). 14 November 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.