Richard Dawkins observed:
In terms of head counts, then, it is not obvious that a properly organized atheist lobby should have less political clout than the Jewish lobby which it outnumbers ninefold. But when political analysts are asked why the Jewish lobby is so much stronger politically than voting numbers would suggest, they typically draw attention such factors as wealth, influence in the media, education, and intelligence.
So - where are all these atheists? This thread is simply an attempt to look around the world at the nations with the most atheists. A difficult prospect for several reasons: it depends on the question asked, and where in a country you ask it, and who is doing the asking. Many people will respond to "What religion are you?" with the religion they culturally belong to even if they are non-practising or not actually a believer. In some nations the fear of identifying oneself as a certain religion or as an atheist may deter people from answering honestly. For example in China, there are many people who are superstitious and hold a mixture of religions and philosophy (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, Christianity and animism for example: they are syncretic) - but the communist government is anti-religious in nature (aggressively so in recent history) so responses such as 'no answer' or 'unspecifie' and even 'none' are not uncommon under certain circumstances.
Using a variety of sources here are some of the big names in atheists. First, the CIA world factbook - mostly based on Census data, where they identified as having "Religion: none".
Vietnam: 81%
South Korea: 49%
Netherlands: 41%
Mongolia: 40%
Ukraine: 38%
New Zealand: 26%
Mozambique: 23%
United Kingdom: 23%
Jamaica: 21%
Botswana: 21%
A
Time/Harris poll that asked, "Thinking now about religion, would you say that you are a ... ?"
" Agnostic (one who is sceptical about the existence of God but not an atheist) "
Great Britain: 35%
France: 32%
Italy: 20%
Spain: 30%
Germany:25%
USA: 14%
" Atheist (one who denies the existence of God) "
Great Britain: 17%
France: 32%
Italy: 7%
Spain: 11%
Germany:20%
USA: 4%
Next is from
Zuckerman, Phil. "Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns" which observes that some people state that they do not believe in God but do not identify themselves as atheist. As such these figures are for 'atheist/agnostic or non believer' (conservative figures):
Vietnam 81.0%
Japan 64.0%
Czech Republic 54.0%
Estonia 49.0%
Sweden 46.0%
Denmark 43.0%
France 43.0%
Belgium 42.0%
Germany 41.0%
Netherlands 39.0%
So for discussion, what to make of these figures? Does anyone have any better figures (or preferred figures)?
I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of places with over 20% no belief, I'm thinking even that some of these countries have reached critical mass, so that we can expect these figures to rise. Something interesting to consider is, how many of the above named governments represent the number of atheists in their country? And likewise with the religious people in the country.
Faith and belief I guess - though Social Issues... could work too
™ Version 4.2