Irreligion

Irreligion is defined as the absence of religion and/or an indifference towards religion.

Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion.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 some people who would be included under agnosticism, ignosticism, nontheism, religious skepticism, freethought, non-believer. 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.Some evidence suggests that the fastest growing religious status in the United States is "no religion".[4

Demographics

Atheists, agnostics and nonreligious, by the Dentsu Institute (2006) and Zuckerman (2005)⁵

Gallup Religiosity Index 2009⁶

Irreligion in the World
Country	Percentage of populations who are non-religious	Source
Estonia	75.7	7
Azerbaijan	74	8
Czech Republic	64.3	7
Albania	60	9 10 11
China	59-93	7 12
Japan	51.8	7
Russia	48.1	7
Belarus	47.8	7
Sweden	46-85	13
Vietnam	46.1	7
Netherlands	44.0	14
Denmark	43-80	13
Hungary	42.6	7
Ukraine	42.4	7
Latvia	40.6	7
South Korea	36.4	7
Belgium	35.4	7
New Zealand	34.7 (from 87.3% who answered the optional question)	15
Germany	34.6	16
Chile	33.8	7
Luxembourg	29.9	7
Slovenia	29.9	7
France	27.2 (23.9% of women, 30.6% of men)	17
Venezuela	27.0	7
Slovakia	23.1	7
Mexico	20.5	7
Lithuania	19.4	7
Australia	18.7 (from 88.8% who answered the optional question)	18
Italy	17.8	7
Spain	17	19
United Kingdom	16.8 (from 92.7% who answered the optional question)	20
Canada	16.2	21
United States	16.1	22
Argentina	16.0	23
South Africa	15.1	24
Croatia	13.2	7
Austria	12.2	7
Finland	11.7	7
Portugal	11.4	7
Puerto Rico	11.1	7
Bulgaria	11.1	7
Philippines	10.9	7
India	6.6	7
Serbia	5.8	7
Peru	4.7	7
Poland	4.6	7
Ireland	4.5	25
Iceland	4.3	7
Greece	4.0	7
Turkey	2.5	7
Romania	2.4	7
Tanzania	1.7	7
Malta	1.3	7
Iran	1.1	7
Uganda	1.1	7
Nigeria	0.7	7
Bangladesh	0.1	7

title="Edit section: See also" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Irreligion&action=edit&section=2">edit 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

External links

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

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