World religion stats

Pages:

1. Religion in Britain

2. Numbers of Adherents of Established Religions Become Exaggerated

3. Secularisation Theory: Religion in the Developed World Will Continue to Decline

On this page:

1. Misc World stats
2. Random note on divorce stats
3. Self Disclosure Polls

1. World

"...the ongoing, growing, and powerful movement called secularism, a way of understanding and living that is indifferent to religion -- in fact, not even concerned enough to pay it any attention, much less oppose it."

National Council of Churches, Handbook of Denominations. Quotes page

"About 33% of the world's population regard themselves as Christian. This percentage has been stable for decades. (The second most popular religion is Islam at about 20%. It is growing. If its present growth rate continues, it will to become the dominant religion of the world during in a few decades.) About 75% of American adults and a similar number of Canadians identify themselves as Christian. This number has recently been dropping about one percentage point per year."

From Ontario Consultants for Religious Tolerance

In the US, from 1978-1997, the seven of the biggest non-fundamentalist churches lost 7 million members, in comparison with the US's population rise of 60 million.

2. Random note on divorce stats

Divorce statistics are sometimes a shock for Christians. The average divorce rate for born-again type Christians (27%) and others (24%) are both higher than that for atheism, which is 21%_[2]. Empirically, atheists are more devoted to each other and commit to more stable relationship patterns than theists, yet the theists are the ones who say they stand for family values. There is a saying that those who shout loudest are normally the least capable. The Christian Churches shout loudly about love but... atheists are more capable. Seriously though, perhaps it is that atheists only get married if they're sure, while Christians feel pressurized more to marry, so sometimes marry prematurely in relationships that aren't permanent, Christian culture might exert unnatural pressure on relationships.

My page on marriage includes historical and present data on divorce statistics, including data from more recent studies that have also shown that atheists/agnostics/non-christians have better commitment rates.

3. Self Disclosure Polls

When polling, there is an interesting trend that people often say, or think, that they attend services or participate in religious events at twice the extent to which they actually do. So, the value obtained when asking people "How often do you go to Church?" gives twice amount of people who can be counted actually entering Churches for any given event. More on this phenomenon:

• "Religion in the Modern World" by Steve Bruce (Info / Quotes): p130-131. He cites sources and comprehensive studies that have shown this trend to be universal.

• "C of E: The State It's In" by Monica Furlong (Info / Quotes): p216-217

• From ReligiousTolerance.org, "How many people go regularly to church?"