Irreligion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irreligion, irreligiousness, or nonreligion is an umbrella term which, depending on context, may be understood as referring to atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism, general secularism, or heresy.[citation needed]
Irreligion has at least three related yet distinct meanings:
- lack of religion (either due to a lack of information about religion or to lack of belief in it)
- hostility to religion
- behaving in such a way that fails to live up to one's religious tenets
Although people classified as irreligious might not follow any religion, they do not necessarily lack belief in the supernatural or in deities; such a person may be a non-religious or non-practicing theist. In particular, those who associate organized religion with negative qualities are likely to hold spiritual beliefs but describe themselves as irreligious.
[edit] Statistics by country
| Country | Percentage stating they have no religion | Source |
|---|---|---|
| China | 93.0% | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[1] |
| The Netherlands | 62.0% | (CBS) |
| Czech Republic | 59% (plus additional 8% did not fill in anything) | Czech Statistical Office (2001 census) [2] |
| Japan | 51.8% | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[3] |
| Russia | 48.1% | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[4] |
| South Korea | 36.7% | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[5] |
| Germany | 32.7% | fowid (German Worldview Research Group) (2004) [6] |
| New Zealand | 32.0% (of the 85.9% who answered an optional question) | Statistics New Zealand (2001 census) [7] |
| France | 27.2% (23.9% of women, 30.6% of men) | INSEE (2004 survey) [8] |
| Australia | 17.5% (of the 88.3% who answered an optional question) | Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001 census) [9] |
| United Kingdom | 16.8% (of the 92.7% who answered an optional question) | UK National Statistics (2001 census) [10] |
| Canada | 16.2% | Canada 2001 Census [11] |
| South Africa | 15.1% | Statistics South Africa Census 2001[12] |
| United States | 15.0% (of the 94.6% who answered an optional question, out of a sample of 50,281 households in the 48 contiguous states) | American Religious Identification Survey (2001), as reported by US Census Bureau [13] |
| Ireland | 3.53% | Central Statistics Office Ireland Census 2002 [14] |
| India | 6.6% | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[15] |
| Iran | 1.1% (Atheism and Agnosticism are illegal) | Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000)
(Japanese)[16] |
