Which are the most religious countries?
This map shows the importance of religion in different countries of the world.
Image: Wikipedia
It’s based on a Gallup survey and counts the number of people in each country who said religion is an important part of their daily lives.
The most religious countries are found in Africa and Southeast Asia.
Gallup’s post about the survey points out that while on average the USA is less religious than many countries, ‘religiosity’ varies a lot between different states. So people from Alabama are as likely as Iranians to say religion is an important part of their lives.
And since everyone is talking about Iran this week, let’s also note that according to this poll Iranians are less religious than their secular neighbours in Turkey.
Another interesting chart shows belief in creationism in various countries (via Common Sense):
Read More:
Iran as you don’t see it on the news
Turkey debates the role of religion in daily life
Religion in the USA
Wired Africa? Internet use in Africa is surging
at 7:18 am
WOW thats so interesting!
Africa is one of the most religious yet we have so much turmoil and conflict here
at 9:42 am
It’s very interesting. Sad too. It should be the other way round shouldn’t it?
Thanks for dropping by Laura. Nice to hear from you!
at 2:19 pm
hello
it is really interesting…i cannot believe iranians are less religious than turkish..bravo to them…
In Turkey it is getting day by day worse….
believe me 10 years ago you can behave more relaxed than today…nowadays the rules are getting stronger about religion..especially social pressure is very high…:(
at 3:07 pm
Hi Senem and thanks for your comment. It’s interesting that you write that… in many places it seems being religious is seen as a good thing. Can you see any good effects from the religion in Turkey?
at 9:05 pm
It’s good to find that India is in Average position
neither too high nor too low…
Peace to all
jai hind. jai karnataka
at 12:06 pm
Yes, India is right in the middle isn’t it? Thanks for commenting Abhi!
at 11:04 am
how do u think that being religious is abad thing!! all religions encourage people to be good persons and to improve themselves because they believe that they will be repayied because having good religious manners and moral background are what spiritualy help them to overcome hard times and difficulties they face in life
at 11:08 am
problems in africa are not because being religious in fact they are because of the people who act like religious but indeed they are not
at 5:57 am
Nora religions don’t generally teach people to be good. The morals that they instil are more often outdated by about 3000 years, and misleading to the less educated. You’ll find that generally, the more educated a country, the more atheist. Africa’s situation is 60% location, and 40% foreign involvement. Since AIDs began religion has not been a help at all, and the popes telling people not to use condoms certainly hasn’t done any good. I don’t mean to sound rude or less than passionate, but I think it’s quite clear that religion is a bad thing.
at 9:57 am
@lmao: we have a comment policy and I’ve had to enforce it here.
Everyone is welcome on PocketCultures, regardless of background, culture, religious and other beliefs. However we do ask that you respect other points of view, even when you don’t agree.
at 6:36 pm
we should not talk about religion in a general way.for exaple, Islam insites muslims to be a good person (and by the way Ian ,condoms are lawful
)
at 7:02 pm
I think I know why the richest countries are less religious than the more poor countries. You know why people were so religious in the medieval period? Because life was hard, and they needed to have some sort of comfort, some sort of promise that there was a life after death. In the richest countries, life isn’t so hard anymore, and therefore they’re getting less religious. And as for what the others have said here about religion being a bad thing, I don’t completely agree with that. While I do agree that a lot of conflicts are caused by religion, religion in itself isn’t really a bad thing, it’s just when people start getting too religious – fanatics – that it starts becoming bad, because then they go crazy whenever someone says anything bad about their religion, and they try to force their views on others, which only leads to conflicts and fighting. And about the outdated stuff in religions, that is partly true. Some of the stuff in the bible is very outdated and shouldn’t be followed, but some other things, like for example that stuff about “love thy neighbour” and all that is very good. Too bad the most religious people tend to not follow that one, and instead tell people that they’ll go to hell if they don’t share their opinion. = In any case, most of the stuff in the bible should not be taken literally, as there are many metaphores and such. Many people take it literally, though, which is not so good…
at 7:04 pm
Oh, also forgot the fact that religious leaders also have a lot to do with wether a country is religious or not (and it’s partly why people in the medieval period were so religious).
at 10:27 am
Belief in evolution or creationism should not be used as a barometer to determine the level of someone’s faith. evolution vs. creationism is something only the abrahamic religions face..majority of the eastern religions hold evolution to be true…with God’s will and in accordance to God’s laws.
at 12:26 am
I disagree that religion (or at least spirituality) is a bad thing. Fundamentalism is a bad thing, but if a 3000 year old religion teaches you to be good to others and yourself (most do), how can that be bad? Only some bad apples ruin the message. And also, just because one lives in a rich, developed country doesn’t mean that he or she is immune to devastating things happening in life- death, loss of loved ones, divorce, loss of money, job or home, serious or chronic incurable illness, the list goes on- any of these things could happen in a second and just show how impermanent life is. In those cases- especially facing one’s own mortality, for example- spirituality and/or religion becomes a necessary, unless you can fill that void with a better substitute like food, drugs, alcohol, family support, therapy etc. But often those aren’t enough to handle all the pain and give hope.
at 11:32 pm
I believe In God and I try to follow his will… and principles. But I`m not religious. I believe in evolution and I`m not catholic but protestant, but if the pope told about not to use condoms it`s because “sex” is only for married people… but if we act like animals sex is very important and we can do it whenever we want which is sad, only for animals sex is important they just follow their instinct and not control themself… a real human would know and follow real values and would domain itself to be an excellent person, anyway… if we do it to satisfy a pleasure, we would become empty people or some sort of animal
at 11:29 pm
hopefully with ion a few years we’ll see the end of religion and therefore the end of war. proverty,and most other ills
at 5:01 pm
lets imagine that there is no religion. A neighbor comes over to you, gives you a hug, helps out in the backyard, gives you a kiss and wishes you a good day.
next day he curses at you, takes your car, lies to you about something and stabs with the knife in the back.
now you meet another person, who you really like and want to have him as a friend. do you hug him or stab him?
do you need religion, bible and god to understand that one is bad and painful and the other one is not?
at 4:05 am
I agree whole hardheartedly with what Nora and “A” said. I think people like Ian and otherworld base their beliefs on bias and ego without truly looking at the enormous amounts of good that religion and spiritual development give to human beings! EVERY major study shows extremely good health benefits of people who are more religious and spiritual, that is a fact and done by Universities such as Harvard. Just because someone has faith that genuinely helps their lives, has nothing to do with how well educated they are whatsoever! It’s no secret that our Universities are filled with mostly very liberal left of center Professors who only spew one point of view, and just like many religions, expect the youth the accept it as scripture, very sad!!
at 9:21 pm
In responde to laura at the top:
LOL.
A world without religion now would be fantastic.
Back in the day, people needed to explain things that were otherwise unexplainable by science, they needed hope of life after death, because death was so common.
And hence, people created what would later be the most devastating thing to plague humanity – religion.
It’s interesting that the most intelligent/wealthy countries are majority atheist. It makes perfect sense.
My uncle is a firm believer in god. He lost his life as a result of saying “god will heal me” and refusing to let the hospital deal with it.
Religion is a burden we no long need to bare.
The world would no doubt be considerably better without religion.
at 8:28 am
I fail to understand GOD’s ways! why on earth should Africa be deprived of so many basic things when we are the most GOD fearing continent? GOD help us…Does GOD still love HIS people or He only loves white people
at 8:35 pm
To anonymous
It’s the nature of human beings that forget the creator when they found some sort of power.
Dead IS common in any time and every one dies once not more, It’s the Satan’s game that keeps you busy in this mundane temporary world and show it to you so glamorous and gaudy in order to stop you from thinking about your death and that’s why you can imagine death of everyone except yourself. If you look at your past, you see, It went so fast and YES the rest of it will pass so fast too.
Pleasures of this world are mixed with pain, the pleasure are temporary but pain are permanent, and all the pleasures have a lot of side effects, so don’t be happy about denying god and stick to this world.
To Bernard Kumwenda
This is the God’s way:
It doesn’t matter where you born. You can ask yourself why I,m not the son of Bill Gates or some rich guys. Getting richer and more powerful is not the goal of life (even though you have work hard in this world).
Buddy, The whole life is a test. When you are in poverty you have to keep your dignity and immaculacy, When you are rich to have to help others and spot yourself of doing sin cause you are powerful and you can do whatever you want.
And for all people It’s necessary to connect themselves to god, be happy when he’s happy be unhappy when he’s so. Be God,s will. When you connect yourself to the supreme power of god you don’t get mad cause of some problems.
Don’t see some rich people kill themselves or get heart attacked in some economic recession or don’t see how poor people thieve or sell their dignity. All because they don’t truly believe in GOD.
at 9:58 pm
@Mohammed, thanks so much for your write up.
God made both the rich and the poor. And nothing ever last forever. Ask the people of the first empire if they had known they’ll be gone by today. Everything was born in an appointed time and for a reason.
Also, God never made a world that He never wanted to be part of: just like every man who builds a house with a desire to be part of the house.
The world is in phases by time and season, controlled by one God. Man needs Him to live and not Him needing us to survive. Even the great scientist Charlse Dorwin who never believed in the existence of God confessed before death that there was a God who made the heavens and the earth.
Because you are rich today does not make you better than the poor neither had you the power to create even a life. And one being religious does not mean he/she knows all that is inside his/her holy book to make him/her all he/she can ever be.
America’s constitution was enshrined under some of the principles of God found in the holy book via the founding fathers. May God help the children of our fathers and, friends of hope understand the principles of the One who has been in all the regimes of the empires of this world.
at 9:56 am
I thought India is the most religious country in the world. India is a free land and anybody can believe in any religion and anybody can spread their religion. I am proud to be the citizen of such a great country
at 6:34 am
India is the most religious conutry in the world