eChurch Blog

Interesting survey out today by Gallup looking at religiosity rates across the world.

The United Kingdom came 109th in the league table, with 27% of its citizens saying religion was important in their lives and 73% not. Besides Estonia, only Hong Kong, Japan, Denmark and Sweden recorded lower percentages. Of our major Western European partners, Italy scored 72%, Spain 49%, Germany 40% and France 30%.

Source: British Religion in Numbers

Gallup:

Gallup surveys in 114 countries in 2009 show that religion continues to play an important role in many people’s lives worldwide. The global median proportion of adults who say religion is an important part of their daily lives is 84%, unchanged from what Gallup has found in other years. In 10 countries and areas, at least 98% say religion is important in their daily lives.

Each of the most religious countries is relatively poor, with a per-capita GDP below $5,000. This reflects the strong relationship between a country’s socioeconomic status and the religiosity of its residents. In the world’s poorest countries — those with average per-capita incomes of $2,000 or lower — the median proportion who say religion is important in their daily lives is 95%. In contrast, the median for the richest countries — those with average per-capita incomes higher than $25,000 — is 47%.

The United States is one of the rich countries that bucks the trend. About two-thirds of Americans — 65% — say religion is important in their daily lives. Among high-income countries, only Italians, Greeks, Singaporeans, and residents of the oil-rich Persian Gulf states are more likely to say religion is important.

Most high-income countries are further down the religiosity spectrum. In 10 countries, no more than 34% of residents say religion is an important part of their daily lives. Six of those are developed countries in Europe and Asia with per-capita incomes greater than $25,000.

In three of the four lower income countries on the list — Estonia, Russia, and Belarus — the Soviet government restricted religious expression for decades until the U.S.S.R.’s collapse in 1991. The final country is Vietnam, where the government also has a history of limiting religious practice.

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Tags: Religion Society

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Webmaster's Ramblings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.