irreligion: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

Coloured world map indicating irreligion in the world.

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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 or general secularism.

Irreligion has at least three related yet distinct meanings:

absence of religion (either due to not having information about religion or to not believing 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, not all are necessarily without 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, but still hold spiritual beliefs, might describe themselves as irreligious.

Statistics by country

Irreligion around the world
Country	Percentage stating they have no religion	Source
Sweden	46%-85%	Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns", chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, ed. by Michael Martin, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK (2005). - [1]
China	59-71%	Various publications - [2]
Albania	60%	US Department of State - International Religious Freedom Report 2006 - [3] L'Albanie en 2005 - [4] Various publications - [5]
Czech Republic	59% (plus additional 8% did not fill in anything)	Czech Statistical Office (2001 census) [6]
Japan	51.8%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000) (Japanese) [7]
Russia	48.1%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000) (Japanese) [8]
The Netherlands	44.0%	(SCP) [9]
South Korea	36.4%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000) (Japanese)[10]
New Zealand	34.7% (of the 87.3% who answered an optional question)	Statistics New Zealand (2006 census) [11]
Germany	32.7%	(German Worldview Research Group) (2004) [12]
France	27.2% (23.9% of women, 30.6% of men)	INSEE (2004 survey) [13]
Denmark	19%	Eurobarometer(2005)^[1]
Spain	19%	Centre of Sociological Investigations (2005) (Spanish)[14]
Australia	18.7% (of the 88.8% who answered an optional question)	Australian Bureau of Statistics (2006 census) [15]
United Kingdom	16.8% (of the 92.7% who answered an optional question)	UK National Statistics (2001 census) [16]
Canada	16.2%	Canada 2001 Census [17]
South Africa	15.1%	Statistics South Africa Census 2001[18]
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 [19]
India	6.6%	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000) (Japanese)[20]
Ireland	4.5%	Central Statistics Office Ireland Census 2006, Final Principal Demographic Results 2006
Iran	1.1% (Atheism and Agnosticism are illegal)	Dentsu Communication Institute Inc, Japan Research Center (2000) (Japanese)[21]

Footnotes and Specific References

^ Eurobarometer on Social Values, Science and technology 2005 - page 11. Retrieved on 2007-05-05.

Irreligion
Atheism	List of atheists · Demographics · Religion · History · State atheism · Criticism · Discrimination · Persecution · Weak and strong · Agnostic atheism · Implicit and explicit · Antitheism · Antireligion · Atheist Alliance International
Agnosticism	List of agnostics · Agnostic theism · Agnostic atheism · Weak agnosticism · Strong agnosticism · Ignosticism · Apatheism
Nontheism	Humanism · Freethought · Secularism · Criticism of religion · Freedom From Religion Foundation · Brights movement · Flying Spaghetti Monster · Invisible Pink Unicorn · Russell's teapot

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911 Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Irreligion". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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irreligion

Statistics by country

Footnotes and Specific References

See also

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