That Old Time Religion: the Ghana - China Continuum

Based on a 2012 survey asking people if they were religious or not, you can see quite a lot of variation between different countries.  In none of the surveyed countries did <11% of the population say they were religious but China and Japan came close.  Only 14% of the Chinese and 16% of the Japanese identify as religious.  In fact, almost half of the Chinese (47%) and almost a third of the Japanese (31%) identify as atheists.

On the other hand, 90% or more of the population report being religious in Ghana (96%), Nigeria (93%), Armenia (92%), Fiji (92%), and Macedonia (90%).  The US is in the middle of the pack with 60% of Americans reporting they are religious.

The survey found that as per capita income increases, religiosity declines.

Atheism Around the World

Today's map shows data from a worldwide survey which asked respondents if they were a) religious, b) not religious, or c) identified as an atheist.  This map shows the percentages of people in various countries who identify as atheists.  By far the Chinese are the people most likely to self-identify as atheists.  Between 1 in 5 and 1 in 3 people in Japan, France, and the Czech Republic also identify as atheists.  In 2012, 5% of Americans identified as atheists.

This survey was also given in both 2005 and 2012 in some countries including Japan, France, the Czech Republic, and the US.  In all four countries the percentage of people identifying as atheists has risen:  8%, 15%, 10%, and 4% respectively.  In a reverse trend, the percentage of atheists has dropped in Malaysia and Bosnia (-4% and -5% respectively). In fact, in 2012 in the increasingly conservative Muslim country of Malaysia, zero respondents reported being atheists.

(Note:  French Guiana and other overseas French territories are an overseas departments or territories of France and thus appears as the same color as France's European departments.)