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Gallup 2022 Non Religious

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Click on a country for details.

Least Religious Countries 2023

According to a Pew Research Center study released in 2012, more than 1.1 billion people—roughly one-in-six (16%) people worldwide at the time—considered themselves "religiously unaffiliated". Alternately titled "irreligious" in some studies, this category includes a whole spectrum of non-believers including atheists who actively reject the notion of supernatural deities, agnostics who believe the existence or nonexistence of deities is unknowable, and people who simply don't identify with any particular religion.

It is worth noting that atheism is not a religion—however, in actively rejecting the existence of spiritual deities, atheism is arguably a spiritual belief. As such, atheism enjoys many of the same constitutional protections as any religion.

Which country has the most irreligious people?

The two lists below display data from a Pew Research Center report that used existing data to project the total number of non-believers per country and the percentage of that country's population they would make up for 2020.

Top 10 Least Religious Countries (by percentage) - Pew Research 2020

  1. Czech Republic - 78.4%
  2. North Korea - 71.3%
  3. Estonia - 60.2%
  4. Japan - 60%
  5. Hong Kong (China) - 54.7%
  6. China - 51.8%
  7. South Korea - 46.6%
  8. Latvia - 45.3%
  9. Netherlands - 44.3%
  10. Uruguay - 41.5%

Top 10 Least Religious Countries (by total non-believers) - Pew Research 2020

  1. China - 720,100,000
  2. Japan - 74,780,000
  3. United States - 62,310,000
  4. Vietnam - 28,760,000
  5. South Korea - 23,250,000
  6. Russia - 21,190,000
  7. Germany - 21,150,000
  8. France - 20,830,000
  9. United Kingdom - 20,070,000
  10. North Korea - 18,070,000

In terms of sheer numbers, China is the least religious country, home to more than 50% of religiously unaffiliated people in the world. Fewer than 10% of residents stated that they feel religious in this nation, and over 60% are "convinced atheists." That said, China is also the world's most populous country, and when looking at the percent of residents who are irreligious, several smaller countries eclipse China's level of non-belief.

Top 10 Least Religious Countries - Public Perception

When it comes to public perception, the results are a bit different. A survey of over 16,000 people's personal perceptions chose Australia as the least religious country in the world, followed by Sweden and Germany. The complete lack of Asian, African, and South American countries on the list arguably calls into question the geographical knowledge and/or location of the survey participants.

  1. Australia
  2. Sweden
  3. Germany
  4. Netherlands
  5. New Zealand
  6. Luxembourg
  7. Denmark
  8. Canada
  9. France
  10. Austria

Number of religiously unaffiliated people worldwide compared to major religions

The major world religions and their number of followers according to 2015 Pew Center projections for 2020 include:

  • Christianity - 2.38 billion
  • Islam - 1.91 billion
  • Unaffiliated/irreligious - 1.19 billion
  • Hinduism - 1.16 billion
  • Buddhism - 507 million
  • Folk Religions (African traditional, Native American, Chinese folk, etc.) - 430 million
  • Other Religions (Taoism, Sikhism, Wicca, etc.) - 61 million
  • Judaism - 14.6 million
- True percentage in countries with a displayed value of 0.1 may actually be lower.
- Gallup 2022 = percent of people who are non-religious and/or atheist (separate colums).
- Gallup 2017 = percent of people who are non-religious and/or atheist (combined).
- Pew 2010 = the percent of people who are religiously unaffiliated.
- The Gallup 2017 poll has been questioned by experts who noted that previous polls using the same questions yielded lower percentages.

Download Table Data

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Country
Gallup 2022 Non Religious
Gallup 2022 Atheist
Gallup 2017 Combined
Pew 2010 Unaffiliated
Vietnam65%9%63%29.6%
Thailand65%4%2%0.3%
United Kingdom49%17%69%21.3%
Sweden46%26%73%27%
United Arab Emirates45% 1.1%
Canada43%10%57%23.7%
Japan42%30%60%57%
Ireland42%13%56%6.2%
Netherlands41%19% 42.1%
Czech Republic41%30%72%76.4%
Spain39%19%57%19%
Luxembourg39%19% 26.8%
Germany38%20%60%24.7%
Austria38%13%53%13.5%
Switzerland36%19% 11.9%
France35%32%50%28%
Hungary34%13% 18.6%
Belgium33%27%29%29%
Syria30%1% 2%
Poland29%13%10%5.6%
Portugal29%16%38%4.4%
Bulgaria29%9%39%4.2%
United States28%7%39%16.4%
Bolivia28%4% 4.1%
Philippines27%1%9%0.1%
South Korea27%34%60%46.4%
Hong Kong25%47% 56.1%
Libya25% 0.2%
Croatia25%18% 5.1%
Slovenia24%31%53%18%
Argentina23%9%34%12.2%
Jordan22% 0.1%
Italy21%11%26%12.4%
Greece21%12%22%6.1%
Nigeria20% 2%0.4%
Indonesia19% 30%0.1%
Mexico19%6%36%4.7%
Peru19%2%23%3%
Bosnia and Herzegovina19%5%22%2.5%
India18%1%5%0.1%
Ecuador18%3%18%5.5%
Palestine18% 35%0.1%
Serbia17%3%21%3.3%
Kazakhstan14%5% 4.2%
Iraq13%1%34%0.1%
Ivory Coast13%2% 8%
Romania13%6%9%0.1%
Sierra Leone13% 0.1%
Cameroon12%5% 5.3%
Ghana11%1%1%4.2%
Slovakia11%19% 14.3%
Moldova10%4% 1.4%
Russia8%10%30%16.2%
Georgia8% 0.7%
North Macedonia8%2%11%1.4%
Armenia7%2%6%1.3%
Ethiopia6% 0.1%
Pakistan4% 6%0.1%
Senegal3% 0.1%
Kenya2%1% 2.5%
China 90%52.2%
Brazil 17%7.9%
Bangladesh 19%0.1%
Egypt 0.1%
DR Congo 17%1.8%
Iran 20%0.1%
Turkey 12%1.2%
Tanzania 1.4%
South Africa 14.9%
Myanmar 0.5%
Uganda 0.5%
Sudan 1%
Algeria 1.8%
Afghanistan 0.1%
Morocco 0.1%
Saudi Arabia 0.7%
Ukraine 42%14.7%
Angola 5.1%
Uzbekistan 0.8%
Yemen 0.1%
Malaysia 0.7%
Mozambique 17.9%
Nepal 0.3%
Madagascar 6.9%
Venezuela 10%
Niger 0.7%
Australia 63%24.2%
North Korea 71.3%
Taiwan 12.7%
Mali 2.7%
Burkina Faso 0.4%
Sri Lanka 0.1%
Malawi 2.5%
Zambia 0.5%
Chile 8.6%
Chad 2.5%
Somalia 0.1%
Guatemala 4.1%
Cambodia 0.2%
Zimbabwe 7.9%
Guinea 1.8%
Rwanda 3.6%
Benin 5%
Burundi 0.1%
Tunisia 0.2%
Haiti 10.6%
Dominican Republic 10.9%
Cuba 23%
South Sudan 0.5%
Honduras 10.5%
Azerbaijan 64%0.1%
Papua New Guinea 5%0.1%
Tajikistan 1.5%
Belarus 28.6%
Israel 58%3.1%
Togo 6.2%
Laos 0.9%
Nicaragua 12.5%
Paraguay 1.1%
Kyrgyzstan 0.4%
Turkmenistan 0.5%
El Salvador 11%
Republic of the Congo 9%
Singapore 16.4%
Denmark 61%11.8%
Central African Republic 1%
Finland 55%17.6%
Norway 62%10.1%
Liberia 1.4%
Lebanon 28%0.3%
New Zealand 36.6%
Costa Rica 7.9%
Mauritania 0.1%
Oman 0.2%
Panama 13%4.8%
Kuwait 0.1%
Eritrea 0.1%
Mongolia 29%35.9%
Uruguay 40.7%
Puerto Rico 1.9%
Albania 39%1.4%
Jamaica 17.2%
Gambia 0.1%
Qatar 0.9%
Botswana 20.6%
Namibia 1.9%
Gabon 5.6%
Latvia 52%43.8%
Equatorial Guinea 5%
Trinidad and Tobago 1.9%
Bahrain 1.9%
Timor Leste 0.1%
Estonia 60%59.6%
Mauritius 0.6%
Cyprus 1.2%
Eswatini 10.1%
Djibouti 0.2%
Reunion 2%
Fiji 8%0.8%
Comoros 0.1%
Guyana 2%
Bhutan 0.1%
Solomon Islands 0.2%
Macau 15.4%
Montenegro 3.2%
Suriname 5.4%
Cape Verde 9.1%
Western Sahara 0.4%
Malta 2.5%
Maldives 0.1%
Brunei 0.4%
Bahamas 3.1%
Belize 8.9%
Guadeloupe 2.5%
Iceland 49%3.5%
Martinique 2.3%
Mayotte 0.2%
Vanuatu 1.2%
French Guiana 3.4%
French Polynesia 4.9%
New Caledonia 10.4%
Barbados 1.9%
Sao Tome and Principe 12.6%
Samoa 2.5%
Saint Lucia 6%
Guam 1.7%
Kiribati 0.8%
Grenada 1%
Micronesia 0.9%
Tonga 0.1%
Seychelles 2.1%
Aruba 6%
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2.5%
United States Virgin Islands 3.7%
Antigua and Barbuda 1.7%
Isle of Man 15.2%
Andorra 8.8%
Dominica 0.5%
Cayman Islands 9.4%
Bermuda 19.4%
Greenland 2.5%
Faroe Islands 1.7%
Northern Mariana Islands 1%
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1.6%
American Samoa 0.7%
Marshall Islands 1.5%
Monaco 11.7%
San Marino 7.2%
Gibraltar 2.9%
British Virgin Islands 3.9%
Palau 1.2%
Cook Islands 3.2%
Anguilla 4%
Nauru 4.5%
Wallis and Futuna 0.6%
Tuvalu 1.3%
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 3.8%
Montserrat 4.8%
Falkland Islands 31.5%
Niue 3.3%
Tokelau 0.1%
Vatican City 0.1%
showing: 222 rows

What is the least religious country in the world?

The Czech Republic has the most nonbelievers in the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources