[Muslim]

Recent survey by Gallup.

Interesting. And Egypt is number one!!

[Igor Antunov]

Why do they always skip china with these?

[Prosthetic Conscience]

Igor, I imagine it's because the Chinese government don't like people taking polls about religion, and they'd rather it all went away. Foreign companies can take polls there.

On the other hand, Shanghai University did take a poll in 2007 described as the "country's first major survey on religious beliefs" by official media. And it estimated the religious at 31.4%, about 3 times the figure the government had been claiming.

Egypt is number one!!

Or number 143, depending on your point of view.

[Abood]

14% is the least religious? I want to kill myself.

[Grognonours]

Thank you, Muslim, that was a very interesting read. I am glad the article pointed out how different the views are across America instead of lumping us all together. As I would expect, the Bible Belt was where we see the most religiosity, and the northeast and northwest had the least.

[Maas]

Igor, I imagine it's because the Chinese government don't like people taking polls about religion

could also be that the people behind the interview are from an American country.

[Grognonours]

could also be that the people behind the interview are from an American country.

Are you implying that the Chinese government doesn't allow phone calls from the US? We have a fairly large Chinese population here and I haven't heard of anything like that happening.

[pikachu]

Azerbaijan is the 6th least religious? Wow, that's a surprise.

[xtc]

The non-religious people surveyed are not morally obliged to tell the truth. They may have stated that they ARE religious.
I dont trust the results of this survey.

[Ter]

Looking at the map of sub-Sahara Africa : the missionaries have done an excellent job.
Christianity rules there.

Looking at Muslim countries, I see a lot of 99% countries.
Maybe because apostasy means a death sentence ?

Israel = 50%, less than I had expected.


Ter

[Verv]

That is good for yout o mention, Prosthetic.

I have noticed that a surprising amount of the Chinese students in Korea are religious in some form or another, a very surprising amount as Christians.

I was also surprised by Serbia to some extent but then again thought of this as a fundamentally ethnic conflict, again, and then I felt better.

[Okonkwo]

Looking at Muslim countries, I see a lot of 99% countries.
Maybe because apostasy means a death sentence ?

Not necessarily. If you look at Sénégal for example (it is in the top list with 98%) you can say that it's mainly because of the huge influence, both political and on a smaller level that religion yields in this country. While there is total religious freedom and no laws against atheism, most people are very religious and deeply value their religion on a cultural basis.
These figures and numbers must not necessarily be skewed by any laws or fear of punishment, religion does mean a lot for many people, especially Muslims.

[Abood]

Looking at Muslim countries, I see a lot of 99% countries.
Maybe because apostasy means a death sentence ?

You can't be serious.

First, culture and education play a huge role. In a successful society, the law is only there to enforce the values taught. It's not depended on.

Second, no one would actually believe something just because it's illegal not to. They would just not say that they disbelieve. I see no reason why they'd lie to an international pollster about it, though.

[QatzelOk]

All the survey tells you is what percentage of the people will respond "yes" to one single question.

The religiosity of people is still a complete mystery. The data doesn't help the reader understand anything. So many polls are just empty manipulation.

[Oblisk]

These types of polls are useless. Many countries can be very spiritual, but atheist. Religion and spirituality don't always go together.

[Doctor State]

China's answer would be meaningless even if they were included. Their religious beliefs are very different from our western concept of religion.

[Lucky Strike]

These types of polls are useless.

How so? All the poll did was ask a question and present an answer. It doesn't say anything about percentages of organized religion, atheists, or anything else. It just asks whether religion is an important part of the respondent's daily life. The data clearly helps the reader understand what countries are more or less religious, without going into details like theism and its subtypes.

[QatzelOk]

The data clearly helps the reader understand what countries are more or less religious

I think you'd have to visit the countries to determine that. And even then, you'd only have the vaguest idea of what you're talking about.

These numbers say nothing. The question was translated into different languages, so there is too much room for error just in the translation. Then there are the different social norms regarding polls that contribute another parasitic variable - reporting.

In the end, all we know is that Egyptians answer "yes" to a particular question. Whether they're telling the truth or responding to the same question as Danes is not clear, so the results are meaningless.

Numbers only have numerical values, not metaphysical ones.

[Bosnjak]

In the middle is the best.