Islam is currently fastest growing religion. What about irreligion?

[andym118]

Hope you can help me out to improve my knowledge on world religiosity.

Muslims say and spread quite a lot, Islam is the fastest growing religion.

I also sometimes hear things like a 'no religion' is growing faster, and people not having a religion is growing by over 3% a year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion
It says 36% of the world population is not religious. Between 2005 and 2012 world religiosity decreased by 9%. Great news =D. It also has some individual countries that are non religious (Vietnam was surprising).

I understand this is difficult to measure as well because things like death penalty for apostasy in over 10 countries.

Are there any reliable studies, stats that shows irreligion is growing faster than Islam in the world? Also what countries is irreligion growing at a faster rate than any religion.

Thanks

[Fidel_Castronaut]

2011 Census data in the UK: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/201...igion.html
Compare with the 2001 census to see the difference (atheism/non religion from 13% to around 25~% in less than 10 years).

British Social Attitudes Surveys in the UK have shown repeatedly that non-religion/atheism (and variants therein) have grown in every year the study has been conducted in recent years:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/tag/british-s...es-survey/

Academic Steve Bruce has done multiple studies over the past two decades into the decline of the Christian churches in England and Wales:

http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=e...C5&as_sdtp=

There are similar results for other countries in Europe however I am only strongly familiar with the story in the UK/England and Wales as I study it for me PhD research.

(Also welcome! )

[Lemonvariable72]

The issue us that Muslims are breeding faster then anyone

[Fidel_Castronaut]

It's generally people from poorer strata's in society or from areas of the world where breeding is seen as a way to ensure survival (akin to Victorian Europe I guess where the poor would have many children and send them out to work).

Issue in rich countries is that obviously breeding for survival is no longer needed as survival is more or less guaranteed so long as you are healthy and don't get into an accident or anything.

Unfortunately I don't have any statistics to back up the claim that families who are Muslim tend to have more children, but anecdotally I can certainly say it's true. I live near a women's hospital and the vast majority of people I see in or outside it are families who adhere to Islam, and they almost always have 4 or 5+ children+ a very large extended family around them .

[andym118]

Thanks for your replies. Interesting studies in the UK.

Hopefully these young Muslim children (or labelled Muslim children should I say) can have a good education where they explore other ideas, learn about evolution and learn to question their beliefs.

[Angrboda]

Determining what percentage of a given society believes in God – or doesn’t -- is fraught with methodological hurdles. First: low response rates; most people do not respond to surveys, and response rates of lower than 50% cannot be generalized to the wider society. Secondly: non-random samples. If the sample is not randomly selected – i.e., every member of the given population has an equal chance of being chosen -- it is non-generalizable. Third: adverse political/cultural climates. In totalitarian countries where atheism is governmentally promulgated and risks are present for citizens viewed as disloyal, individuals will be reluctant to admit that they do believe in God. Conversely, in societies where religion is enforced by the government and risks are present for citizens viewed as non-believers, individuals will be reluctant to admit that they don’t believe in Allah, regardless of whether anonymity is “guaranteed.” Even in democratic societies without governmental coercion, individuals often feel that it is necessary to say that are religious, simply because such a response is socially desirable or culturally appropriate. For example, the designation “atheist” is stigmatized in many societies; even when people directly claim to not believe in God, they still eschew the self-designation of “atheist.” Greeley (2003) found that 41% of Norwegians, 48% of the French, and 54% of Czechs claimed to not believe in God, but only 10%, 19%, and 20% of those respondents self-identified as “atheist,” respectively. A final methodological problem: terminology. Definitions of specific words seldom translate well cross-culturally. Signifiers such as “religious” or “God” have different meanings in different cultures (Beyer, 2003), making cross-national comparisons of beliefs between markedly different societies tenuous.

Atheism: Contemporary Rates and Patterns : Phil Zuckerman

[Mister Agenda]

I've often thought that the reply to the question 'Do you believe in any God or gods' is all you need to determine the number of atheists. Any other question makes it more likely your assessment will be confounded.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I've often thought that the reply to the question 'Do you believe in any God or gods' is all you need to determine the number of atheists. Any other question makes it more likely your assessment will be confounded.

Nominal Christianity in the UK is the biggest reason why the official census results reflect such a high proportion of people who identify as Christian.

As apo's quote says its the cultural aspect that informs the answer more than the actual belief.

[Dystopia]

In many States such as the UK or northern european ones (and for that matter even the southern and the US, Canada, Australia and NZ) non religion is the fastest growing 'belief'. However Islam spreads rapidly and Muslims procreate intensively..

[A-g-n-o-s-t-i-c]

1- Muslim birth rates are high.
2- based on Islamic law should be giving money to the poor people of other religions for changing their religions to Islam. Government of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and ... government do this around the world do.