{{Short description|Absence, indifference to, rejection of or hostility towards religion}} {{Redirect|Irreligious|the album by Moonspell|Irreligious (album)}} {{See also|Secularity|Secularism}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Use British English|date=July 2022}} {{Irreligion sidebar}}
'''Irreligion''' is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, rationalism, secularism, and non-religious spirituality. These perspectives can vary, with individuals who identify as irreligious holding diverse beliefs about religion and its role in their lives.<ref name=Britannica>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Eldridge|first=Stephen|editor-last=Duignan|editor-first=Brian|encyclopedia=Britannica|title=irreligion|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/irreligion|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.|archive-date=1 September 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901233736/https://www.britannica.com/topic/irreligion|url-status=live|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref>
Relatively little scholarly research was published on irreligion until around the year 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.explainingatheism.org/resources/overview|title=Resources Overview|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=Explaining Atheism|publisher=Queen's University Belfast|date=15 January 2025<!--from page source-->|access-date=15 January 2025}}</ref>
==Overview== Over the past several decades,{{when|date=December 2024}} the number of secular people has increased, with a rapid rise in the early 21st century, in many countries.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasquale2016>{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/book/11828 |title=The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=Oxford Academic|date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924950.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-992495-0 |access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref><ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016>{{Cite book|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/407943624/Phil-Zuckerman-Luke-W-Galen-Frank-L-Pasquale-The-Nonreligious-Understanding-Secular-People-and-Societies-Oxford-University-Press-2016-pdf|title=The Nonreligious: Understanding Secular People and Societies|last1=Zuckerman|first1=Phil|author-link1=Phil Zuckerman|last2=Galen|first2=Luke W.|last3=Pasquale|first3=Frank L.|date=24 March 2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924950.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-992495-0|pages=226|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=4}}<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020>{{cite news|last=Inglehart|first=Ronald F.|author-link=Ronald Inglehart|date=11 August 2020|title=Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-08-11/religion-giving-god|work=Foreign Affairs|archive-date=22 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922054651/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-08-11/religion-giving-god|pages=110–118|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=112}}<ref name=InglehartWorldValuesSurvey2021>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSNewsShow.jsp?ID=421&ID=421|title=Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion - Revisited|last=Inglehart|first=Ronald|date=20 February 2021|website=World Values Survey|publisher=World Values Survey Association|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref> In virtually every high-income country and many poor countries, religion has declined.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} Highly secular societies tend to be societally healthy and successful.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016Conclusion>{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/book/11828/chapter-abstract/160923581|title=Conclusion|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=Oxford Academic|date=2016 |pages=223–226 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924950.003.0012|isbn=978-0-19-992495-0 |access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref> Social scientists have predicted declines in religious beliefs and their replacement with more scientific/naturalistic outlooks (secularization hypothesis).<ref name=EvolutionaryPsychologicalScience2017>{{cite journal|last1=Ellis|first1=Lee|last2=Hoskin|first2=Anthony W.|last3=Dutton|first3=Edward|last4=Nyborg|first4=Helmuth|title=The Future of Secularism: a Biologically Informed Theory Supplemented with Cross-Cultural Evidence |journal=Evolutionary Psychological Science|date=8 March 2017|volume=3|issue=3|pages=224–242|doi=10.1007/s40806-017-0090-z|url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40806-017-0090-z|access-date=22 December 2024|url-access=subscription}}</ref> According to Ronald Inglehart, this trend seems likely to continue and a reverse rarely lasts long because the trend is driven by technological innovation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cpsblog.isr.umich.edu/?p=2900|title=Religion's Sudden Decline: Why It's Happening and What Comes Next|last=Inglehart|first=Ronald|date=10 December 2020|website=Center for Political Studies (CPS)|publisher=University of Michigan Institute for Social Research|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref> However, other researchers disagree (contra-secularization hypothesis).<ref name=EvolutionaryPsychologicalScience2017/> By 2050, Pew Research Center (Pew) expects irreligious people to probably decline as a share of the world population (16.4% to 13.2%), at least for a time, because of faster population growth in highly religious countries and shrinking populations in at least some less religious countries.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Pew2022>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/12/21/key-findings-from-the-global-religious-futures-project/|title=Key Findings From the Global Religious Futures Project|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=21 December 2022|website=Pew Research Center|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref> Many countries may also be gradually becoming more secular, generation by generation.<ref name=Pew2022/> Younger generations tend to be less religious than their elders.<ref name=Pew2022/><ref name=Pew2018pdf>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/06/ReligiousCommitment-FULL-WEB.pdf|title=The Age Gap in Religion Around the World|last1=Hackett|first1=Conrad|date=13 June 2018|website=Pew Research Center|access-date=7 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=5}} They might become more religious as they age, but still be less religious than previous generations if their countries become more affluent and stable.<ref name=Pew2018pdf/>{{rp|p=13}} Nonetheless, secularization is compatible with religion since most versions of secularity do not lead to atheism or irreligion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eller |first1=Jack |editor1-last=Zuckerman |editor1-first=Phil |title=Atheism and Secularity |date=2010 |publisher=Praeger |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |isbn=9780313351839 |pages=12–13 |chapter=What is Atheism?}}</ref> Religious congruence, that is consistency between beliefs and behaviors, in individuals is rare.<ref name=Chaves2010>{{Cite journal|last=Chaves|first=Mark|title=Rain Dances in the Dry Season: Overcoming the Religious Congruence Fallacy|journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion|date=March 2010|url=https://dukespace.lib.duke.edu/bitstreams/63baac91-b6c5-4b42-88b3-eb2beb68e711/download|volume=49|issue=1|pages=1–14|doi=10.1111/j.1468-5906.2009.01489.x|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{rp|p=2}} Religious incongruence is not the same thing as religious insincerity or hypocrisy.<ref name=Chaves2010/>{{rp|p=5}} The widespread religious congruence fallacy occurs when interpretations or explanations unjustifiably presume religious congruence.<ref name=Chaves2010/>{{rp|p=19}} This fallacy also infects "New Atheist" critiques of religion.<ref name=Chaves2010/>{{rp|p=21}}
Estimating the number of irreligious people in the world is difficult.<ref name=AtheismThroughouttheWorld>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-atheism/atheism-throughout-the-world/5437753323F426D7A1E7E7D7341EE14B|title=The Cambridge History of Atheism|chapter=59 - Atheism Throughout the World|first=Stephen|last=Bullivant|date=2021 |pages=1095–1112 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108562324.060|isbn=978-1-108-56232-4}}</ref><ref name=Britannica/> Those who do not affiliate with a religion are diverse. In many countries censuses and demographic surveys do not separate atheists, agnostics and those responding "nothing in particular" as distinct populations, obscuring significant differences that may exist between them.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016>{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Todd|last2=Zurlo|first2=Gina|editor1-last=Cipriani|editor1-first=Roberto|editor2-last=Garelli|editor2-first=Franco|title=Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion: Volume 7: Sociology of Atheism|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305177249|date=2016|publisher=Brill Publishers|location=Leiden |isbn=9789004317536|pages=50–74|chapter=Unaffiliated, Yet Religious: A Methodological and Demographic Analysis|access-date=30 November 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=60}} People can feel reasonable anxieties about giving a politically ‘wrong’ answer – in either direction.<ref name=AtheismThroughouttheWorld/> Measurement of irreligiosity requires a high degree of cultural sensitivity, especially outside the West, where the concepts of "religion" or "the secular" are not always rooted in local culture and may not even be present.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=31–34}} The sharp distinction, and often antagonism, between "religious" and "secular" is culturally and historically unique to the West since in most of human history and cultures, there was little differentiation between the natural and supernatural and concepts do not always transfer across cultures.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=31}} Forms of secularity always reflect the societal, historical, cultural and religious contexts in which they emerge, and distinctions are sharp in religiously dominant contexts.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=31}} Also, there's considerable prevalence of atheism and agnosticism in ancient Asian texts.<ref name=SigneCohen>{{Cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/atheism-has-been-part-of-many-asian-traditions-for-millennia-113535|title=Atheism has been part of many Asian traditions for millennia|last=Cohen|first=Signe|date=1 April 2019|website=The Conversation|publisher=The Conversation Media Group Ltd|access-date=22 December 2024}}{{Creative Commons text attribution notice|cc=by4|url=https://theconversation.com/atheism-has-been-part-of-many-asian-traditions-for-millennia-113535|author(s)=Signe Cohen}}</ref> Atheistic traditions have played a significant part in those cultures for millennia.<ref name=SigneCohen/> "Cultural religion" must be taken into account: non-religious people can be found in religious categories, especially where religion has very deep-seated religious roots in a culture.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} Many of the religiously unaffiliated have some religious beliefs and participate in religious practices.<ref name="glo">{{cite web |title=4. Religiously Unaffiliated Population Change |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/religiously-unaffiliated-population-change/#:~:text=What%20do%20the%20religiously%20unaffiliated,than%20religiously%20affiliated%20people%20do. |website=Pew Research Center |date=9 June 2025 |quote=What do the religiously unaffiliated believe? The religiously unaffiliated aren’t necessarily devoid of religious beliefs and practices. Research shows that many people who don’t belong to a religious group may still hold religious or spiritual beliefs and participate in religious or spiritual activities.}}</ref><ref name=Pew2012/><ref name="East">{{cite web |last1=Lesage |first1=Jonathan Evans, Alan Cooperman, Kelsey Jo Starr, Manolo Corichi, William Miner and Kirsten |title=Religion and Spirituality in East Asian Societies |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/06/17/religion-and-spirituality-in-east-asian-societies/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=17 June 2024 |quote=A survey in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and neighboring Vietnam finds many people don’t identify with a religion but say they believe in unseen beings, venerate ancestors’ spirits and engage in ritual practices.}}</ref><ref name="asi">{{cite web |last1=Evans |first1=Jonathan |title=6 facts about Religion and Spirituality in East Asian societies |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/17/6-facts-about-religion-and-spirituality-in-east-asian-societies/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=17 June 2024 |quote=Table - Few East Asians consider religion very important in their lives but many believe in god or unseen things}}</ref>
In 2016, Zuckerman, Galen and Pasquale estimated there were 400 million nonreligious or nontheistic people.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasquale2016chapter2>{{Cite web|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924950.003.0003|title=Secularity around the World|last1=Zuckerman|first1=Phil|last2=Galen|first2=Luke W.|last3=Pasquale|first3=Frank L.|date=March 2016|website=Oxford Academic|pages=30–52 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199924950.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-992495-0 |access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref> A 2022 Gallup International Association (GIA) survey, done in 61 countries, reported that 62% of respondents said they are religious, one in four that they aren't, 10% that they're atheists and the rest are not sure.<ref name=Gallup2022>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gallup-international.com/survey-results-and-news/survey-result/more-prone-to-believe-in-god-than-identify-as-religious-more-likely-to-believe-in-heaven-than-in-hell|title=More Prone to Believe in God than Identify as Religious. More Likely to Believe in Heaven than in Hell.|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=4 December 2023|publisher=Gallup International Association|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref> In 2016, it found similar results (62%, 25%, 9% and 5%), also in 2014.<ref name=Gallup2022/><ref name="WIN/GallupInternational2016">{{cite web|author=<!--Not stated-->|title=Religion prevails in the world|publisher=WIN/Gallup International|url=http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/370/file/370.pdf|pages=9|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114113506/http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/370/file/370.pdf|archive-date=14 November 2017|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=1}}{{rp|p=3}} People in the European Union, East Asia and Oceania were the least religious.<ref name=Gallup2022/> In 2010, according to Pew, the religiously unaffiliated numbered more than 1.1 billion, about one-in-six people (16.3% of an estimated 6.9 billion).<ref name="Pew Global">{{cite web|author=<!--Not stated-->|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/|title=The Global Religious Landscape|work=The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010|publisher=Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life|date=18 December 2012|access-date=4 November 2024|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226054851/http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-exec/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Pew2012>{{cite web|author=<!--Not stated-->|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-unaffiliated/|title=Religiously Unaffiliated|work=The Global Religious Landscape: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010|publisher=Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life|date=18 December 2012|archive-date=9 July 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709030137/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-unaffiliated/|access-date=30 November 2024}}</ref><ref name=Pew2012pdf>{{cite web|last1=Hackett|first1=Conrad|last2=Grim|first2=Brian J.|url=https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/01/global-religion-full.pdf|title=Religiously Unaffiliated|work=The Global Religious Landscape:A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Major Religious Groups as of 2010|publisher=Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life|pages=82|date=December 2012|access-date=30 November 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=24}}{{rp|p=25}} 76% of them resided in the 60 countries of Asia-Pacific.<ref name="Pew2012" /><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=25}}{{rp|p=46}}{{rp|p=66}} China, officially an atheist state and considered to be the world's first or second most populous country,{{NoteTag|Depending on whether or not the special administrative regions of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are included in the population statistics of China. The table in the transcluded source excludes all three, referring to the population of Mainland China only.}} alone held the majority (62.2% or about 700 million).<ref name=Kuo2017OxfordAcademic>{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28028/chapter-abstract/211853241|title=15 Sacred, Secular, and Neosacred Governments in China and Taiwan|author=<!--Not stated-->|editor-first1=Phil |editor-first2=John R. |editor-last1=Zuckerman |editor-last2=Shook |website=Oxford Academic|date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199988457.013.16|isbn=978-0-19-998845-7 |access-date=22 December 2024}}</ref><ref name=Kuo2017>{{cite book|last1=Kuo|first1=Cheng-tian|editor1-last=Zuckerman|editor1-first=Phil|editor2-last=Shook|editor2-first=John|url=https://ah.lib.nccu.edu.tw/item?item_id=83894|title=The Oxford Handbook of Secularism|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=2017|isbn=9780199988457|chapter=15. Sacred, Secular, and Neo-sacred Governments in China and Taiwan|access-date=22 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=1}}<ref name=Britannica/><ref name="Pew2012" /><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=25}}{{rp|p=46}}{{rp|p=66}} Shares were relatively similar in three of the six regions: Asia-Pacific (21.2% of more than 4 billion), Europe (18.2% of more than 742 thousands) and North America (17.1% of more than 344 thousands).<ref name="Pew2012" /><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=25}} Men, younger people, and whites, Asians, and people of Jewish heritage are more likely to be secular.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016Conclusion/>
== Etymology== Irreligion is either a borrowing from French or from Latin.<ref name=OED>{{Cite OED|irreligion|id=99697}}</ref> The term ''irreligion'' is a combination of the noun ''religion'' and the ''ir-'' form of the prefix ''in-'', signifying "not" (similar to ''irrelevant''). It was first attested in French as {{lang|fr|irréligion}} in 1527, then in English as ''irreligion'' in 1598. It was borrowed into Dutch as {{lang|nl|irreligie}} in the 17th century, though it is not certain from which language.<ref name="INT">{{cite web |url=http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?actie=article_content&wdb=WNT&id=A009369 |title=Irreligie |work=Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie |publisher=Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal |date=2007 |access-date=29 January 2019 |archive-date=29 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129181639/http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?actie=article_content&wdb=WNT&id=A009369|url-status=live }}</ref>
==Definition== According to the encyclopedia ''Britannica'', the term irreligion is frequently characterized differently depending on context.<ref name=Britannica/> Sometimes, surveys of religious belief use lack of identification with a religion as a marker of irreligion.<ref name=Britannica/> This can be misleading: in some cases a person may identify with a religious cultural institution but not hold the doctrines of that institution or take part in its religious practice.<ref name=Britannica/>
Some scholars define irreligion as the active rejection of religion, as opposed to the mere absence of religion.<ref name=Britannica/> The ''Encyclopedia of Religion and Society'' defines it as: "Active rejection of religion in general or any of its more specific organized forms. It is thus distinct from the secular, which simply refers to the absence of religion. [...] In contemporary usage, it is increasingly employed as a synonym for unbelief [...]"<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|editor-last=Swatos|editor-first=William H. Jr.|title=Irreligion|first=Colin|last=Campbell|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society|publisher=AltaMira Press|publication-place=Walnut Creek, California|date=1998|isbn=0-7619-8956-0|oclc=37361790|page=239|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6TMFoMFe-D8C&pg=PA239}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Campbell|first=Colin|editor-last=Swatos|editor-first=William H. Jr.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society|title=Irreligion|url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/irreligion.htm|location=Hartford Institute for Religion Research|publisher=AltaMira Press|access-date=1 December 2024|archive-date=25 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525143631/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/irreligion.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Sociologist Colin Campbell also describes it as "deliberate indifference towards religion", in his 1971 ''Towards a Sociology of Irreligion''.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1474225X.2023.2292397|title=Increasing irreligious trends among a younger demographic in Ireland: are there potential benefits?|last=Mc Bennett|first=Padraig|date=31 January 2024|journal=International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church|volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=365–381 |publisher=Taylor & Francis|doi=10.1080/1474225X.2023.2292397|access-date=14 December 2024|url-access=subscription}}</ref>
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' has two definitions, one of which is labelled obsolete (first published in 1900).<ref name=OED/> It is want of religion; hostility to or disregard of religious principles; irreligious conduct.<ref name=OED/>
The ''Merriam Webster Dictionary'' defines it as "the quality or state of being irreligious" and "irreligious" as "neglectful of religion: lacking religious emotions, doctrines, or practices", also "indicating lack of religion".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-04-18 |title=Definition of IRRELIGIOUS |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irreligious |access-date=2025-04-27 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref>
Also for "religion", there is no universally agreed-upon definition, even within the social sciences.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=15}}
==Types==
* Agnostic atheism is a philosophical position that encompasses both atheism and agnosticism. Agnostic atheists are ''atheistic'' because they do not believe in the existence of any deity and ''agnostic'' because they claim that the existence of a deity is either unknowable in principle or unknown in fact. * Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, the divine, and the supernatural are unknown or unknowable. * Alatrism or alatry (Greek: from the privative ''ἀ''- + ''λατρεία (latreia)'' = worship) is the recognition of the existence of one or more gods, but with a deliberate lack of worship of any deity. Typically, it includes the belief that religious rituals have no supernatural significance and that gods ignore all prayers and worship. * Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. * Antireligion is opposition to or rejection of religion of any kind. * Antitheism is the explicit opposition to theism. The term has had a range of applications. It typically refers to direct opposition to belief in any deity. * Apatheism is the attitude of apathy or indifference toward the existence or non-existence of any deity. * Atheism is the lack of belief that any deities exist; in a narrower sense, positive atheism is specifically the position that there are factually no deities. There are ranges of negative and positive atheism. * "Cultural religion"<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} * Deism is a philosophical position and rationalistic theology that rejects revelation as a source of knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe. * Freethought.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=14}} It holds that positions regarding truth should be formed on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism rather than authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma. * Ietsism is an unspecified belief in an undetermined transcendent reality. * Ignosticism, also known as ''igtheism'', is the idea that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because the word "God" has no coherent, unambiguous definition. * Naturalism is the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the universe. * New Atheism is the position of some atheist academics, writers, scientists, and philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett. * Nones can be used to refer to those who are unaffiliated with any organized religion. This use derives from surveys of religious affiliation, in which "None" (or "None of the above") is typically the last choice. Since this status can be chosen because of lack of organizational affiliation or lack of personal belief, it is a more specific concept than irreligion. A 2015 Gallup, Inc. poll concluded that in the United States "nones" were growing as a percentage of the population, while Christians were declining and non-Christians also increasing but to a much lesser degree, since the 1950s.<ref name="gallup">{{cite web|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/187955/percentage-christians-drifting-down-high.aspx|title=Percentage of Christians in U.S. Drifting Down, but Still High|date=24 December 2015|website=Gallup|first=Frank|last=Newport|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240106163050/https://news.gallup.com/poll/187955/percentage-christians-drifting-down-high.aspx|archive-date=Jan 6, 2024|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref> * Nontheism<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=14}} * Post-theism is a variant of nontheism that proposes that the division of theism and atheism is obsolete and that the God-idea belongs to a stage of human development now past. Within nontheism, post-theism can be contrasted with antitheism. * Religious skepticism is a type of skepticism about religion. * Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties, such as logic, empathy, reason, and ethical intuition, and not derived from belief in supernatural revelation or guidance—a source of ethics in many religions. * Secular humanism is a system of thought that prioritizes human rather than divine matters. * Secular liberalism is a form of liberalism in which secularist principles and values, and sometimes non-religious ethics, are especially emphasized. * Secular paganism is an outlook that upholds the virtues and principles associated with paganism while maintaining a secular worldview. * Secularism<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasquale2016/><ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=14}} is used to describe a political conviction in favor of minimizing religion in the public sphere that may be advocated for regardless of personal religiosity. Sometimes, especially in the United States, it is also a synonym for naturalism or atheism.<ref>Jacques Berlinerblau, ''How to be Secular: A Call to Arms for Religious Freedom'' (2012, Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt). p. 53.</ref> * "Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) is a designation coined by Robert C. Fuller for people who reject traditional or organized religion but have strong metaphysical beliefs. The SBNR may be included under the definition of nonreligion,<ref>Zuckerman, Galen et al., p. 119.</ref> but are sometimes classified as a wholly distinct group.<ref>Zuckerman, Shook, (in bibliography), p. 575.</ref> * Theological noncognitivism is the argument that religious language—specifically, words such as ''God''—are not cognitively meaningful. It is sometimes considered synonymous with ignosticism. * Transtheism refers to a system of thought or religious philosophy that is neither theistic nor atheistic but beyond them.
==History==
In the early 1970s, Colin Campbell began a sociological study of irreligion.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=13}}
==Human rights== {{Main|Freedom of religion}} In 1993, the United Nations Human Rights Committee declared that article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights "protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.minorityrights.org/3273/normative-instruments/ccpr-general-comment-22-300793-on-iccpr-article-18.html |title=CCPR General Comment 22: 30/07/93 on ICCPR Article 18 |work=Minority Rights Group |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116043952/http://www.minorityrights.org/3273/normative-instruments/ccpr-general-comment-22-300793-on-iccpr-article-18.html |archive-date=2015-01-16 }}</ref> The committee further stated that "the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief necessarily entails the freedom to choose a religion or belief, including the right to replace one's current religion or belief with another or to adopt atheistic views." Signatories to the convention are barred from "the use of threat of physical force or penal sanctions to compel believers or non-believers" to recant their beliefs or convert.<ref name="fdih1">{{cite web|date=1 August 2003|title=Discrimination against religious minorities in Iran|publisher=International Federation for Human Rights|access-date=3 March 2009|url=http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ir0108a.pdf|archive-date=31 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031221624/http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ir0108a.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview/archives/2002/2/dav2.pdf |title=The Evolution of Religious Liberty as a Universal Human Right: Examining the Role of the 1981 United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief |work=BYU Law Review |access-date=3 March 2009 |last=Davis |first=Derek H. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723210828/http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview/archives/2002/2/dav2.pdf |archive-date=23 July 2011 }}</ref>
Most democracies protect the freedom of religion or belief, and it is largely implied in respective legal systems that those who do not believe or observe any religion are allowed freedom of thought.
A noted exception to ambiguity, explicitly allowing non-religion, is Article 36 of the Constitution of China (as adopted in 1982), which states that "No state organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const03.html |title=Chapter two – the fundamental rights and duties of citizens |work=Constitution of the People's Republic of China |publisher=Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor |access-date=2013-06-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323100707/http://www.hkhrm.org.hk/english/law/const03.html |archive-date=2018-03-23 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Article 46 of China's 1978 Constitution was even more explicit, stating that "Citizens enjoy freedom to believe in religion and freedom not to believe in religion and to propagate atheism."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%8D%8E%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%85%B1%E5%92%8C%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%AA%E6%B3%95_(1978%E5%B9%B4)#%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%89%E7%AB%A0_%E5%85%AC%E6%B0%91%E7%9A%84%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%9D%83%E5%88%A9%E5%92%8C%E4%B9%89%E5%8A%A1|via=Wikisource|trans-title=People's Republic of China 1978 Constitution|script-title=zh:中华人民共和国宪法 (1978年)|language=zh|year=1978|access-date=24 May 2021|archive-date=24 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210524133527/https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%8D%8E%E4%BA%BA%E6%B0%91%E5%85%B1%E5%92%8C%E5%9B%BD%E5%AE%AA%E6%B3%95_(1978%E5%B9%B4)#%E7%AC%AC%E4%B8%89%E7%AB%A0_%E5%85%AC%E6%B0%91%E7%9A%84%E5%9F%BA%E6%9C%AC%E6%9D%83%E5%88%A9%E5%92%8C%E4%B9%89%E5%8A%A1|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Demographics== {{main|List of countries by irreligion}} [[File:Countries by percentage of Unaffiliated–Pew Research 2010.svg|thumb|upright=2.5|Nonreligious population by country, in 2010<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/|title=Religious Composition by Country, 2010–2050|date=2 April 2015|website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-27|archive-date=5 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405134913/https://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projection-table/|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Women, when in the labor force, are similar to men in their religiosity. When out of the labor force, women tend to be more religious.<ref name="NationalGeographic2016">{{cite magazine |last=Bullard |first=Gabe |date=22 April 2016 |title=The World's Newest Major Religion: No Religion |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/160422-atheism-agnostic-secular-nones-rising-religion |access-date=9 December 2024 |magazine=National Geographic |publisher=National Geographic Society}}</ref>
In many countries censuses and demographic surveys do not separate atheists, agnostics and those responding "nothing in particular" as distinct populations.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=60}} Both "religion" and "secular" are Western concepts and are not universal across cultures, languages, or time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Eller |first1=David |title=Varieties of Secular Experience |journal=The Oxford Handbook of Secularism |date=2017 |pages=500–501, 512 |url=https://www.jimmunol.org/edited-volume/28028/chapter-abstract/211860078?redirectedFrom=fulltext |publisher=Oxford University Press|quote=It is commonplace today to note that the term “secular” is of Western origin—and not originally antagonistic to religion (“secular priests” were hardly averse to religion). Frankly, “secular” is not inherently related to religion at all: denoting “of the current age” or “of the present generation,” it could apply to any subject...Some societies, as anthropology has discovered, do not even have a term or concept for “religion” and therefore obviously do not have a concept akin to our “secular.” For the purposes of the present chapter, they do not have “secular experience” at all, since “the secular”—like religion—is nowhere and everywhere...What investigators can and should do is discover how particular groups, institutions, and societies talk about and practice secularism—if in fact they do at all—rather than to impose a speciously unified concept, derived from one society’s experience, on all places and times.}}</ref>
In 2020, of the global atheist and non-religious population, 78% live in Asia and the Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (10%), North America (6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (1.5%) and the Middle East and North Africa (.1%).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fahmy |first1=Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia |title=Religiously Unaffiliated Population Change |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/religiously-unaffiliated-population-change/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=9 June 2025}}</ref> Eleven countries have nonreligious majorities. In 2020, the countries with the highest percentage of "Non-Religious" ("Term encompassing both (a) agnostics; and (b) atheists") were North Korea, the Czech Republic and Estonia.<ref>{{cite web|author=<!--Not stated-->|title=World Religion|publisher=Association of Religion Data Archives|url=https://www.thearda.com/world-religion/np-sort?var=ADH_704&var=ADH_1679|access-date=30 November 2024}}</ref> According to the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey, China had the largest count of unaffiliated people: about one billion adults.<ref name=PewAugust2023>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/30/is-china-a-religious-country-or-not-its-a-tricky-question-to-answer/|title=Is China a religious country or not? It's a tricky question to answer |last=Hackett|first=Conrad |date=30 August 2023|website=Pew Research Center|publisher=The Pew Charitable Trusts|access-date=7 December 2024|quote=Yet religion still permeates the everyday lives of many Chinese people who do not claim a religion. Among the total population, minority shares say they believe in religious figures and supernatural forces. But most Chinese people engage in practices premised on belief in unseen forces and spirits. Chinese people, in other words, are more religious in their practices than in their identities or beliefs...Based on common survey measures of formal religion (zongjiao), China is not a very religious country. In fact, based on the ideology of the ruling Chinese Community Party, China is an atheist nation. And yet, based on common behaviors, China is a country in which religion, broadly understood, continues to play a significant role in the lives of a large share of the population.}}</ref> According to Pew Research in 2025, China alone makes up 67% of the global religiously unaffiliated demographic.<ref name="unaf 2025">{{cite web |last1=Fahmy |first1=Conrad Hackett, Marcin Stonawski, Yunping Tong, Stephanie Kramer, Anne Shi and Dalia |title=Religiously Unaffiliated Population Change |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/religiously-unaffiliated-population-change/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=9 June 2025 |quote=As of 2020, the majority of people with no religious affiliation live in the Asia-Pacific region, mostly in China. (The Chinese government promotes atheism.. About 78% of all religiously unaffiliated people worldwide reside in the Asia-Pacific region, down from 83% in 2010...China is home to 67% of the world's religiously unaffiliated people}}</ref> Some broadly religious practices continue to play a significant role in the lives of a substantial shares of the Chinese population.<ref name=PewAugust2023/> The Asia-Pacific region alone accounts for 78% of the global unaffiliated demographic.<ref name="unaf 2025" />
Determining objective irreligion, as part of societal or individual levels of secularity and religiosity, requires a high degree of cultural sensitivity from researchers. This is especially so outside the Western world, where the concepts of "religious" and "secular" are not necessarily rooted in local culture or even exist.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=31–34}} "Cultural religion" is a vivid reality.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} It must be taken into account when trying to ascertain the numeric strength of atheism and agnosticism in a country.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} It is generally not considered more important than self-identification measures.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} Non-religious people can be found in religious categories.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} And many of the unaffiliated still hold religious beliefs or practices.<ref name="glo" /><ref name="asi" /><ref name="East" /> This is especially the case where religion has very deep-seated religious roots in a culture, such as with Christianity in Europe, Islam in the Middle East, Hinduism in India, and Buddhism in South-east Asia.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=59}} For instance, Scandinavian countries have among the highest measures of nonreligiosity and even atheism in Europe. For example, 58% of the Swedish population identify with the Church of Sweden.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/statistik|title=Svenska kyrkan i siffror|website=www.svenskakyrkan.se|date=11 November 2024|language=Swedish|archive-date=1 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101191748/https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/statistik|url-status=live|access-date=30 November 2024}}</ref> Yet, 47% of atheists who live in those countries are still formally members of the national churches.<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Zuckerman|editor1-first=Phil|title=Atheism and Secularity Vol.2|date=2010|publisher=Praeger|isbn=978-0313351815|chapter=Ch. 9 Atheism And Secularity: The Scandinavian Paradox|page=191}}</ref> In much of East Asia, ritual behavior holds greater salience than belief.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasqualebook2016/>{{rp|p=31}} China has state atheism and is a Leninist religious state, which maintains dominance over all other religions.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Kuo2017OxfordAcademic/><ref name=Kuo2017/>{{rp|p=1}} About 85% of its population practice various kinds of religious behaviors with some regularity.<ref name=Kuo2017/>{{rp|p=2}} Many East Asians identify as "without religion" ({{Transliteration|zh|wú zōngjiào}} in Chinese, {{Transliteration|ja|mu shūkyō}} in Japanese, {{Transliteration|ko|mu jong-gyo}} in Korean), but "religion" in that context refers only to Buddhism or Christianity. Most of the people "without religion" practice Shinto and other folk religions. In the Muslim world, those who claim to be "not religious" mostly imply not strictly observing Islam, and in Israel, being "secular" means not strictly observing Orthodox Judaism. Vice versa, many American Jews share the worldviews of nonreligious people though affiliated with a Jewish denomination, and in Russia, growing identification with Eastern Orthodoxy is mainly motivated by cultural and nationalist considerations, without much concrete belief.<ref>Zuckerman, Galen et al., "Secularity Around the World". pp. 30–32, 37–40, 44, 50–51.</ref> In the United States, the majority of the "Nones", those without a religious affiliation, have belief in a god or higher power, spiritual forces beyond the natural world, and souls.<ref>{{cite web |title=Are all religiously unaffiliated adults in the US nonbelievers? |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/are-all-nones-nonbelievers/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=January 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128115906/https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/are-all-nones-nonbelievers/ |archive-date=January 28, 2024 |quote=Not all 'nones' are nonbelievers. Far from it. While the "nones" include many nonbelievers, 70% of "nones" say they believe in God or another higher power, and 63% say they believe in spiritual forces beyond the natural world...Roughly two-thirds of “nones” say they think humans have souls or spirits in addition to their physical bodies. This includes 60% of agnostics and 78% of U.S. adults whose religion is “nothing in particular.” By comparison, 31% of atheists believe a person has a soul or spirit in addition to a body.}}</ref> Even 23% of self-identified atheists believe in a higher power, but not a god as described in the bible.<ref name="Pew 2">{{cite web |last1=Lipka |first1=Michael |last2=Tevington |first2=Patricia |last3=Starr |first3=Kelsey |title=8 facts about Atheists |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/07/8-facts-about-atheists/|website=Pew Research Center |date=7 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510084502/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/02/07/8-facts-about-atheists/ |archive-date=May 10, 2024 |quote=About three-quarters of U.S. atheists (77%) do not believe in God or a higher power or in a spiritual force of any kind, according to our summer 2023 survey. At the same time, 23% say they do believe in a higher power of some kind, though fewer than 1% of U.S. atheists say they believe in “God as described in the Bible.” This shows that not all self-described atheists fit the literal definition of “atheist,” which is “a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods,” according to Merriam-Webster.}}</ref> A 2024 report by Pew on Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam found that though many in those countries are not affiliated with any religion, many of the unaffiliated still have beliefs in gods or unseen beings and engage in religious practices.<ref name="East" /> According to Pew in 2023, many unaffiliated Chinese believe in deities or other religious beliefs and participate in religious practicies.<ref name=PewAugust2023/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Nadeem |first1=Reem |title=Non-religion in China |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/08/30/non-religion/ |website=Pew Research Center |date=30 August 2023 |quote=Nearly 4 in 10 Chinese believe in one or more deities..In China, many adults without zongjiao [religious] affiliation engage in traditional religious beliefs and practices.}}</ref>
Secular people are complex and not always devoid of religious or spiritual involvement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Blankholm |first1=Joseph |title=The Secular Paradox : On the Religiosity of the Not Religious |date=2022 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=9781479809509 }}</ref> They persist in various forms of religiosity and spirituality.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Robert C. |title=Secular Spirituality |journal=The Oxford Handbook of Secularism |date=2017 |pages=571–586 |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28028/chapter/211861053 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en}}</ref> "Secular churches" or "atheist churches" such as Sunday Assembly and others have emerged in multiple countries (e.g. USA, Britain, Australia) which deal with community needs that religious services often provide.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Frost |first1=Jacqui |title=Inside the "secular churches" that fill a need for some nonreligious Americans - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/secular-churches-atheist-congregations-sunday-assembly-worship-oasis/ |work=www.cbsnews.com |publisher=CBS News |date=11 January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Sanburn |first1=Josh |title=Atheist "Churches" Gain Popularity—Even in the Bible Belt |url=https://time.com/3028061/atheist-churches-gain-popularity-even-in-the-bible-belt/ |magazine=TIME |language=en |date=24 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wheeler |first1=Brian |title=What happens at an atheist church? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21319945 |website=BBC News |date=4 February 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Winter |first1=Caroline |title=Church for atheists comes to Australia |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-09/church-for-atheists-comes-to-australia/5080996 |website=ABC News |language=en-AU |date=9 November 2013}}</ref> Atheists are diverse with some engaging spiritual practice and others having strong beliefs in that they seek to evangelize to others.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Frost |first1=Jacqui |title=Religion for Atheists? Transhumanism, Mindfulness, and Atheist Churches |journal=The Cambridge History of Atheism |date=2021 |pages=1080–1094 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-atheism/religion-for-atheists-transhumanism-mindfulness-and-atheist-churches/3373F661578F30E4D1AAD51155823FA9 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108562324.059 |isbn=978-1-108-56232-4 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Nontheistic religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, along with atheistic schools in Hinduism, and other Indian schools like Carvaka, Ajivika have played a significant part in Asian cultures for millennia.<ref name="SigneCohen" /> Anthropologist Jack David Eller states that "atheism is quite a common position, even within religion" and that "surprisingly, atheism is not the opposite or lack, let alone the enemy, of religion but is the most common form of religion."<ref name="Eller">{{cite book|last=Eller|first=Jack|title=Atheism and Secularity Vol.1: Issues, Concepts, Definitions|year=2010|publisher=Praeger|isbn=9780313351839|editor=Phil Zuckerman|chapter=1. What Is Atheism?}}</ref> In the Czech Republic, one of the most secular countries in the world, most nonbelievers are not atheists but are more religious skeptics fulfill their spiritual needs outside of traditional religion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Furstova |first1=Jana |last2=Malinakova |first2=Klara |last3=Sigmundova |first3=Dagmar |last4=Tavel |first4=Peter |title=Czech Out the Atheists: A Representative Study of Religiosity in the Czech Republic |journal=The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion |date=2 October 2021 |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=288–306 |doi=10.1080/10508619.2020.1844967 |quote=According to Nesporova and Nespor (2009), those Czechs who do not identify themselves with any church or who refuse to answer the question (in the national census) about their religious beliefs tend to have supernatural beliefs. Even among religiously unaffiliated Czechs, 52% believe in at least one of the following concepts: the existence of the soul (44%), fate (43%), miracles (37%), heaven (27%), magic, sorcery or witchcraft (24%), reincarnation (23%), the evil eye (21%) or hell (19%) (Evans, 2017). According to Janu et al. (2018), secular Czechs do not distinguish between God and evil spirits and perceive them jointly as supernatural forces. Overall, Czechs are much more likely to believe in the existence of the soul and fate than they are to believe in God (Evans, 2017). For Czechs, their search for spirituality can be referred to as “believing without belonging”, very often even accompanied by strong anti-church feelings (Davie, 2000; Luzny & Navratilova, 2001; Nespor, 2004). This even results in people declaring themselves nonbelievers, even though they simply mean that they are not church members (Nespor, 2004; Vaclavik, 2014)."(289-290)...The authors have shown that the respondents’ religious upbringing is a very important factor in their present religious beliefs. The link between the religiosity of the respondents and their sociodemographic characteristics is not very strong, except for education. A high percentage of Czech believers are not members of a church and seldom attend religious services or pray. They resemble Christians in Western Europe in their practice and in their views. The authors also argue that Czech nonbelievers are actually not atheists; they are just religious skeptics who tend to fulfill their spiritual needs outside traditional religion.}}</ref>
In 2014, Zuckerman, Galen and Pasquale estimated there were 400 million nonreligious or nontheistic people.<ref name=ZuckermanGalenPasquale2016chapter2/> In their 2013 essay, Ariela Keysar and Juhem Navarro-Rivera estimated there were about 450 to 500 million nonbelievers, including both "positive" and "negative" atheists, or approximately 7% of the world population.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/37199|title=36 A World of Atheism: Global Demographics|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=Oxford Academic|date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press|doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199644650.013.011|isbn=978-0-19-964465-0 |access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref> These estimates come from the International Social Survey Programme 2008 survey in which 40 countries took part.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.prri.org/academic/book-chapter-world-atheism-global-demographics/|title=Book Chapter The Oxford Handbook of Atheism|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=31 January 2014|publisher=Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI)|access-date=9 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161209075803/https://www.prri.org/academic/book-chapter-world-atheism-global-demographics/|archive-date=2016-12-09}}</ref> In 2010, the religiously unaffiliated numbered more than 1.1 billion (around 1,126,500,000 persons), about one-in-six people (16.3% of an estimated 6,9 billion world population), according to Pew Research Center.<ref name="Pew Global"/><ref name=Pew2012/><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=24}}{{rp|p=25}} In Pew reports, "unaffiliated" are atheists, agnostics, and people who checked "nothing in particular".<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{rp|p=60}} 76% of them resided in one of the six regions: Asia-Pacific.<ref name="Pew2012" /><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=25}} A 2012 WIN/Gallup International report on a poll from 57 countries reported that 59% of the world's population identified as a religious person, 23% as not a religious person, 13% as "convinced atheists", and also a 9% decrease in identification as "religious" when compared to the 2005 average from 39 countries.<ref name="GallupInt2012">{{cite web|url=http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RED-C-press-release-Religion-and-Atheism-25-7-12.pdf |title=Global Index of Religion and Atheism |publisher=WIN/Gallup International |access-date=13 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121016062403/http://redcresearch.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/RED-C-press-release-Religion-and-Atheism-25-7-12.pdf |archive-date=16 October 2012}}</ref> A 2015 WIN/Gallup International poll found that 63% of the globe identified as a religious person, 22% as not a religious person, and 11% as "convinced atheists".<ref name=GallupInt2015>{{cite web|title=Losing our Religion? Two Thirds of People Still Claim to be Religious|date=13 April 2015 |publisher=WIN/Gallup International |url=http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/290/file/290.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150430232945/http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/290/file/290.pdf|archive-date=30 April 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Their 2016 survey found that 62% of the globe identified as a religious person, less than 25% as not a religious person, 9% others as "convinced atheists" and 5% others "Do not know/no response".<ref name="WIN/GallupInternational2016"/> Keysar and Navarro-Rivera advised caution with these figures since other surveys have consistently reached lower figures for the number of atheists worldwide.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Keysar|first1=Ariela|last2=Navarro-Rivera|first2=Juhem|editor1-last=Bullivant|editor1-first=Stephen|editor2-last=Ruse|editor2-first=Michael|title=The Oxford Handbook of Atheism|date=1 October 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199644650|chapter=36. A World of Atheism: Global Demographics|url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/37199/chapter-abstract/327369979|pages=553–586|access-date=9 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=553}}{{rp|p=554}}
Inverse association between intelligence and religiosity, and the inverse correlation between intelligence and fertility might lead to a decline in non-religious identity (contra-secularization hypothesis) in the foreseeable future.<ref name=EvolutionaryPsychologicalScience2017/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Ellis|first1=Lee|last2=Hoskin|first2=Anthony W.|last3=Dutton|first3=Edward|last4=Nyborg|first4=Helmuth|title=The Future of Secularism: a Biologically Informed Theory Supplemented with Cross-Cultural Evidence|journal=Evolutionary Psychological Science|date=8 March 2017|volume=3|issue=3|pages=224–242|doi=10.1007/s40806-017-0090-z|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314324341|access-date=7 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=2}} In 2007, sociologist Phil Zuckerman's global studies on atheism have indicated that global atheism may be in decline due to irreligious countries having the lowest birth rates in the world and religious countries having higher birth rates in general.<ref name=zucker>{{cite book|last1=Zuckerman|first1=Phil|editor1-last=Martin|editor1-first=Michael|title=The Cambridge Companion to Atheism|url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00mart_852|url-access=limited|date=2007|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|isbn=978-0521603676|page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani00mart_852/page/n79 59]}}</ref> A Pew 2015 global projection study for religion and nonreligion, projected that between 2010 and 2050, there will be some initial increases of the unaffiliated followed by a decline by 2050.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010–2050|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/|publisher=Pew Research Center|date=5 April 2012|access-date=18 May 2015|archive-date=25 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225050553/http://www.pewforum.org/2015/04/02/religious-projections-2010-2050/|url-status=live}}</ref> Some theorists think religion will fade away but Pew reveals a more complicated picture.<ref name=Pew2022/> Pew predicts the unaffiliated share of the world population will decrease, at least for a while, from 16.4% to 13.2% by 2050.<ref name=Pew2015>{{cite web|last=Lipka|first=Michael|title=7 key changes in the global religious landscape|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/02/7-key-changes-in-the-global-religious-landscape/|website=Pew Research Center|date=2 April 2015|archive-date=19 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220119170649/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/02/7-key-changes-in-the-global-religious-landscape/|url-status=live|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref><ref name=Pew2022/> Pew states that religious areas are experiencing the fastest growth because of higher fertility and younger populations.<ref name=Pew2022/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/06/13/the-age-gap-in-religion-around-the-world/|title=The Age Gap in Religion Around the World|author=<!--Not stated-->|date=13 June 2018|website=Pew Research Center|access-date=1 December 2024}}</ref> By 2060, Pew says the number of unaffiliated will increase by over 35 million, but the overall population-percentage will decrease to 13% because the total population will grow faster.<ref>{{cite web|title=Why People With No Religion Are Projected To Decline As A Share Of The World's Population|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/03/why-people-with-no-religion-are-projected-to-decline-as-a-share-of-the-worlds-population/|publisher=Pew Research Center|date=7 April 2017|access-date=29 June 2015|archive-date=1 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701075906/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/03/why-people-with-no-religion-are-projected-to-decline-as-a-share-of-the-worlds-population/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Changing Global Religious Landscape: Babies Born to Muslims will Begin to Outnumber Christian Births by 2035; People with No Religion Face a Birth Dearth |website=Pew Research Center |date=5 April 2017 |url=http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/ |access-date=2 June 2018 |archive-date=6 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406033738/http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This would be mostly because of relatively old age and low fertility rates in less religious societies such as East Asia, particularly China and Japan, but also Western Europe.<ref name=Pew2015/><ref name=Britannica/> By 2019, 43 out of 49 countries studied continued to become less religious.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=110}}<ref name=InglehartWorldValuesSurvey2021/>
Relatively few unbelievers select ‘Atheist’ or ‘Agnostic’ as their preferred (non)religious or secular identity.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://research.kent.ac.uk/understandingunbelief/wp-content/uploads/sites/1816/2019/05/UUReportRome.pdf|title=Understanding Unbelief Atheists and agnostics around the world|last1=Bullivant|first1=Stephen|last2=Farias|first2=Miguel|last3=Lanman|first3=Jonathan|last4=Lee|first4=Lois|date=28 May 2019|website=University of Kent|publisher=St Mary's University, Twickenham|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref>{{rp|p=3}} Being nonreligious is not necessarily equivalent to being an atheist or agnostic. Many of the nonreligious have some religious beliefs.<ref name=Pew2012/><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=24}} Also, some of the unaffiliated engage in certain kinds of religious practices.<ref name=Pew2012/><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=24}} For example, "belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7% of Chinese unaffiliated adults, 30% of French unaffiliated adults and 68% of unaffiliated U.S. adults.<ref name=Pew2012/><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=24}} Being unaffiliated with a religion on polls does not automatically mean objectively nonreligious since there are, for example, unaffiliated people who fall under religious measures, just as some unbelievers may still attend a church or other place of worship.<ref name=JohnsonZurlo2016/>{{Pages needed|date=November 2024}} Out of the global nonreligious population, 76.2% reside in Asia-Pacific, while the remainder reside in Europe (12%), North America (5.2%), Latin America and the Caribbean (4%), sub-Saharan Africa (2.4%) and the Middle East and North Africa (0.2%).<ref name=Pew2012/><ref name=Pew2012pdf/>{{rp|p=24}}
===2020 Population Estimate=== Irreligious individuals constitute 24.2% of the global population, with a total population of 1,905,360,000. 88.5% of this irreligious population is concentrated in ten countries, ranked by the size of their respective populations: China, the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, Russia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. China hosts more than 1,270,000,000; the United States more than 100,000,000; Japan more than 70,000,000; Vietnam more than 60,000,000; Germany more than 30,000,000; and Russia, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, and South Korea each contain more than 20,000,000 irreligious individuals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/religiously-unaffiliated-population-change/|title=How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020: 4. Religiously unaffiliated population change|date=9 June 2025|access-date=11 February 2026|website=Pew Research Center}}</ref>
==Historical trends== thumb|An abandoned church in Australia Since 2007, there has been a sharp trend away from religion.<ref name=InglehartWorldValuesSurvey2021/><ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/> From about 2007 to 2019, 43 out of 49 countries studied became less religious.<ref name=InglehartWorldValuesSurvey2021/> Past influential thinkers from Karl Marx to Max Weber to Émile Durkheim thought that the spread of scientific knowledge would dispel religion throughout the world.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} Industrialization also didn't cause religion to disappear.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=110}} Political scientists Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris argue faith is "more emotional than cognitive", and both advance an alternative thesis termed "existential security." They postulate that rather than knowledge or ignorance of scientific learning, it is the weakness or vulnerability of a society that determines religiosity. They claim that increased poverty and chaos make religious values more important to a society, while wealth and security diminish its role. As need for religious support diminishes, there is less willingness to "accept its constraints, including keeping women in the kitchen and gay people in the closet".<ref name="Ikenberry-review-2004">{{cite journal |last1=Ikenberry |first1=G. John |title=Book review. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=November–December 2004 |volume=83 |issue=November/December 2004 |doi=10.2307/20034150 |jstor=20034150 |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2004-11-01/sacred-and-secular-religion-and-politics-worldwide |access-date=20 September 2020 |archive-date=1 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901222649/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/capsule-review/2004-11-01/sacred-and-secular-religion-and-politics-worldwide |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
===Prior to the 1980s=== Rates of people identifying as non-religious began rising in most societies at least as early as the turn of the 20th century.<ref name="nones">{{cite journal |last1=Vernon |first1=Glenn M. |title=The Religious "Nones": A Neglected Category |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion |date=1968 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=219–229 |doi=10.2307/1384629|jstor=1384629 }}</ref> In 1968, sociologist Glenn M. Vernon wrote that US census respondents who identified as "no religion" were insufficiently defined because they were defined in terms of a negative. He contrasted the label with the term "independent" for political affiliation, which still includes people who participate in civic activities. He suggested this difficulty in definition was partially due to the dilemma of defining religious activity beyond membership, attendance, or other identification with a formal religious group.<ref name="nones"/> During the 1970s, social scientists still tended to describe irreligion from a perspective that considered religion as normative for humans. Irreligion was described in terms of hostility, reactivity, or indifference toward religion or as developing from radical theologies.<ref name=schumaker>{{cite book |last1=Schumaker |first1=John F. |title=Religion and Mental Health |date=1992 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506985-4 |page=54}}</ref>
===1981–2019=== {{One source section | date = July 2022 }} In a study of religious trends in 49 countries (they contained 60 percent of the world's population) from 1981 to 2007, Inglehart and Norris found an overall, but not universal, increase in religiosity.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=110}} Respondents in 33 of 49 countries rated themselves higher on a scale from one to ten when asked how important God was in their lives. This increase occurred in most former communist and developing countries. Most high-income countries became less religious.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} A sharp reversal of the global trend occurred from 2007 to 2019, when 43 out of 49 countries studied became less religious. This reversal appeared across most of the world.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/> The decline in belief was not confined to high-income countries and appeared across most of the world.<ref name=InglehartWorldValuesSurvey2021/> In virtually every high-income country, religion has continued to decline.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} At the same time, many poor countries, together with most of the former communist states, have also become less religious.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} From 2007 to 2019, only five countries became more religious, whereas the vast majority of the countries studied moved in the opposite direction.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} India is the most important exception to the general pattern of declining religiosity.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/>{{rp|p=112}} The United States was a dramatic example of declining religiosity{{snd}}with the mean rating of importance of religion dropping from 8.2 to 4.6{{snd}}while India was a major exception. Research in 1989 recorded disparities in religious adherence for different faith groups, with people from Christian and tribal traditions leaving religion at a greater rate than those from Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist faiths.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Duke |first1=James T. |last2=Johnson |first2=Barry L. |title=The Stages of Religious Transformation: A Study of 200 Nations |journal=Review of Religious Research |date=1989 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=209–224 |doi=10.2307/3511506|jstor=3511506 }}</ref>
Inglehart and Norris speculate that the decline in religiosity comes from a decline in the social need for traditional gender and sexual norms, ("virtually all world religions instilled" pro-fertility norms such as "producing as many children as possible and discouraged divorce, abortion, homosexuality, contraception, and any sexual behavior not linked to reproduction" in their adherents for centuries) as life expectancy rose and infant mortality dropped. They also argue that the idea that religion was necessary to prevent a collapse of social cohesion and public morality was belied by lower levels of corruption and murder in less religious countries. They argue that both of these trends are based on the theory that as societies develop, survival becomes more secure: starvation, once pervasive, becomes uncommon; life expectancy increases; murder and other forms of violence diminish. As this level of security rises, there is less social/economic need for the high birthrates that religion encourages and less emotional need for the comfort of religious belief.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/> Change in acceptance of "divorce, abortion, and homosexuality" has been measured by the World Values Survey and shown to have grown throughout the world outside of Muslim-majority countries.<ref name=InglehartForeignAffairs2020/> Several very comprehensive surveys in the Middle East and Iran have come to similar conclusions: there is an increase in secularization and growing calls for reforms in religious political institutions.<ref>{{cite news |last=Holleis|first=Jennifer|date=2 April 2021|title=Middle East: Are people losing their religion?|url=https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-are-people-losing-their-religion/a-56442163|work=Deutsche Welle|access-date=14 December 2024}}</ref>
==See also== <!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order ♦♦♦---> * Apostasy * Faith deconstruction * Growth of religion * Importance of religion by country * Infidel * Laїcité * Pantheism * Secular religion * Atheism
==Notes== {{reflist|group=note}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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==External links== {{Commons category|Irreligion}} * The ''[https://research.kent.ac.uk/understandingunbelief/ Understanding Unbelief]'' program in the University of Kent. * [http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141219-will-religion-ever-disappear "Will religion ever disappear?"], from BBC Future, by Rachel Nuwer, in December 2014
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Category:Irreligion