A surveyed list has been made of the top twenty countries that hold the highest number of individuals who are said to be either atheists, or agnostics. However, the given numbers do not necessarily constitute the exact number of people who claim to be non-believers in God. For example, out of people who tool the survey in Estonia, 49% of people claimed that they do not believe in God, but only 11% called themselves atheists.
|
Country |
Total country population (2004) |
% Atheist/Agnostic Nonbeliever in God |
Number of Atheists/Agnostics Nonbelievers in God (Min - Max) |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 1,298,848,000 | 8 - 14%* | 103,907,840 - 181,838,720 |
| Japan | 127,333,000 | 64 - 65% | 81,493,120 - 82,766,450 |
| Russia | 143,782,000 | 24 - 48% | 34,507,680 - 69,015,360 |
| Vietnam | 82,690,000 | 81% | 66,978,900 |
| Germany | 82,425,000 | 41 - 49% | 33,794,250 - 40,388,250 |
| France | 60,424,000 | 43 - 54% | 25,982,320 - 32,628,960 |
| USA | 293,028,000 | 3 - 9% | 8,790,840 - 26,822,520 |
| Britain | 60,271,000 | 31 - 44% | 18,684,010 - 26,519,240 |
| South Korea | 48,598,000 | 30 - 52% | 14,579,400 - 25,270,960 |
| Canada | 32,508,000 | 19 - 30% | 6,176,520 - 9,752,400 |
| Spain | 40,281,000 | 15 - 24% | 6,042,150 - 9,667,440 |
| Ukraine | 47,732,000 | 20% | 9,546,400 |
| Italy | 58,057,000 | 6 - 15% | 3,483,420 - 8,708,550 |
| Sweden | 8,986,000 | 46 - 85% | 4,133,560 - 7,638,100 |
| Netherlands | 16,318,000 | 39 - 44% | 6,364,020 - 7,179,920 |
| Czech Republic | 10,246,100 | 54 - 61% | 5,328,940 - 6,250,121 |
| Taiwan | 22,750,000 | 24% | 5,460,000 |
| Australia | 19,913,000 | 24 - 25% | 4,779,120 - 4,978,250 |
| Hungary | 10,032,000 | 32 - 46% | 3,210,240 - 4,614,720 |
| Belgium | 10,348,000 | 42 - 43% | 4,346,160 - 4,449,640 |
Source: Zuckerman, 2005
*Note: The given percentage of atheist population for China is only an approximate figure. The available numbers have been carefully calculated to the best of the surveyors' knowledge.
When you add nonbelievers into the ranks of confirmed atheists (as I believe should be done, most people who are agnostic or who do not value religion would be atheists) there's really a lot of atheists in the world. Much more than the constant barrage of religious media would have you believe, and probably much more than most religious people themselves realize.
To count the number of churches around here, you'd think that every person on my block must belong to at least 2 or 3 in order to keep them all full!
China will be the worlds strongest empire in the future and I'm not surprised that they are the most atheist.
I am from China, and my family is completely atheist. But if you look at the percentage of atheists in china, it is rather low (it's high because of China's population). Most of China's theists are in the rural areas and they might 'believe' in something, but they are not that serious about it and don't really care that much (i might be wrong, but this is my opinion). They might say something like @"Oh my God!" but as you probably know, that is just a way of expressing the feeling of surprise. However China still could be considered as a rising power.