Atheism statistics - what do you know about your country

[Jenny A]

I stumbled over a set of statistics concerning belief and disbelief in my country, which would be Austria. And the numbers are a bit of a paradoxon.

First there are church statistics. According to them, 63 percent of our general population are Roman Catholics. 3,8 percent are protestants of any given denomination.

But there's a Gallup poll too. The „Global Religiosity and Atheism Index“. According to that, only 42 percent of the population considers themselves as in any way religious. 43 percent say, they're not religious and 10 percent claim to be strong atheists.

So for some reason, people stay with their churches although they don't believe in their doctrines.

I would be interested if you have some material about the situation in your particular country.

A large part of religious affiliation is cultural. I'm a lifetime atheist, but a cultural protestant, Lutheran in particular. My suspicion is that the odd poll numbers have to do with how the question is asked. I also suspect churches of counting anyone who uses their services whether for a wedding or a funeral.