Irreligion

"Irreligious" redirects here. For the album by Moonspell, see Irreligious (album).

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Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion and/or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion.^[1] When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as indifference to religion, it includes apatheism. When characterized as the rejection of religious belief, it includes atheism and secular humanism. When characterized as the absence of religious belief, it may include agnosticism, ignosticism, nontheism, religious skepticism, and freethought.

Irreligion may even include forms of theism depending on the religious context it is defined against, as in 18th century Europe where the epitome of irreligion was Deism.^[2] Sixteen percent of the world population (1.1 billion people) are considered non-religious.^[3] Some evidence suggests that the fastest growing religious status in the United States is "no religion".^[4]

Demographics

Main article: Irreligion by country

Gallup Religiosity Index 2009^[5]

Irreligion in the World

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Estonia 75.7 [6]  Azerbaijan 74 [7]  Czech Republic 64.3 [6]  Albania 60 [8] [9] [10]  China 59-93 [6] [11]  Japan 51.8 [6]  Russia 48.1 [6]  Belarus 47.8 [6]  Sweden 46-85 [12]  Vietnam 46.1 [6]  Denmark 43-80 [12]  France 43-54 [12]  Hungary 42.6 [6]  Ukraine 42.4 [6]  Latvia 40.6 [6]  Netherlands 39-44 [12]  United Kingdom 39-65 [13]  South Korea 36.4 [6]  Belgium 35.4 [6]  New Zealand 34.7 (from 87.3% who answered the optional question) [14]  Germany 34.6 [15]  Chile 33.8 [6]  Luxembourg 29.9 [6]  Slovenia 29.9 [6]  Venezuela 27.0 [6]  Slovakia 23.1 [6]  Mexico 20.5 [6]  Lithuania 19.4 [6]

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Australia 18.7 (from 88.8% who answered the optional question) [16]  Italy 17.8 [6]  Spain 17 [17]  Canada 16.2 [18]  United States 16.1 [19]  Argentina 16.0 [20]  South Africa 15.1 [21]  Croatia 13.2 [6]  Austria 12.2 [6]  Finland 11.7 [6]  Portugal 11.4 [6]  Puerto Rico 11.1 [6]  Bulgaria 11.1 [6]  Philippines 10.9 [6]  India 6.6 [6]  Serbia 5.8 [6]  Peru 4.7 [6]  Poland 4.6 [6]  Ireland 4.5 [22]  Iceland 4.3 [6]  Greece 4.0 [6]  Turkey 2.5 [6]  Romania 2.4 [6]  Tanzania 1.7 [6]  Malta 1.3 [6]  Iran 1.1 [6]  Uganda 1.1 [6]  Nigeria 0.7 [6]  Bangladesh 0.1 [6]

See also

	Atheism portal
	Religion portal

• Humanism
• Importance of religion by country
• Irreligion by country
• Nontheistic religions
• Pantheism
• Post-theism
• Skepticism
• Spiritual But Not Religious
• Transtheistic

References

1. ^ Definition of Irreligion
2. ^ Campbell, Colin. 1971. Towards a Sociology of Irreligion. London:McMillan p. 31.
3. ^ Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents
4. ^ American Nones: The Profile of the No Religion Population A Report Based on the American Religious Identification Survey 2008
5. ^ The Religiosity Index is a measure of the importance of religion for respondents and their self-reported attendance of religious services. For religions in which attendance at services is limited, care must be used in interpreting the data. (Gallup WorldView)
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao} Dentsu Communication Institute Inc., Research Centre for Japan (2006)(Japanese)
7. ^ Gallup poll
8. ^ "Albania". State.gov. 2006-09-15. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71364.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  US Department of State - International religious freedom report 2006
9. ^ L'Albanie en 2005
10. ^ "Adherents.com". Adherents.com. http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_472.html. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Some publications
11. ^ "Adherents.com". Adherents.com. http://www.adherents.com/Na/Na_473.html. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Some publications
12. ^ ^{a b c d} Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", from the Cambridge Companion to Atheism, edited by Michael Martin, University of Cambridge Press, 2007
13. ^ UK National Statistics Bureau (2011 census)
14. ^ Statistics New Zealand (2006 census)^{[dead link]}
15. ^ "fowid - Forschungsgruppe Weltanschauungen in Deutschland: Home". Fowid.de. http://www.fowid.de/. Retrieved 2011-09-12.  German Worldview Research Group (2010)
16. ^ "2914.0.55.002 - 2006 Census of Population and Housing: Media Releases and Fact Sheets, 2006". Abs.gov.au. 2007-06-27. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/6ef598989db79931ca257306000d52b4!OpenDocument. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Australian Statistics Bureau (2006 census)
17. ^ [1]^{[dead link]} Socialogical Research Centre (2005)
18. ^ "96F0030XIE2001015 - Religions in Canada". 2.statcan.ca. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/rel/contents.cfm. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Canada 2001 census
19. ^ US Religious Landscape Survey
20. ^ "Table Of Statistics On Religion In The Americas". Prolades.com. http://www.prolades.com/amertbl06.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Gallup-Argentina survey, April 2001
21. ^ [2]^{[dead link]} Güney Afrika 2001 census
22. ^ "Microsoft Word - PDR 2006.doc" (PDF). http://www.cso.ie/census/documents/Final%20Principal%20Demographic%20Results%202006.pdf. Retrieved 2011-02-04.  Central Statistics Bureau of Ireland 2006 census

External links

• First chapter of Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up by John Allen Paulos