+15
Religion
Non-religion/Atheism
1.9 billion
People worldwide
24.2%
Of world population
China
Where most live
Where most live
China
626M followers
United States
100.6M followers
Vietnam
32.6M followers
Germany
25.6M followers
United Kingdom
24.2M followers
England
21.5M followers
Brazil
21.5M followers
Russia
21.5M followers
Spain
18.7M followers
North Korea
18.2M followers
France
17.4M followers
South Korea
16M followers
Mexico
11.2M followers
Netherlands
10.7M followers
Italy
8.3M followers
Ukraine
7.6M followers
Czechia
7.5M followers
Canada
7.4M followers
Kazakhstan
7.1M followers
Japan
6.3M followers
Australia
6M followers
Sweden
4.1M followers
Argentina
4M followers
Poland
3.8M followers
Estimate: the religion's percentage in each country multiplied by the country's population.
What it is
Overview
Non-religion and atheism bring together people who do not identify with any organized religion, including agnostics, avowed atheists and those who simply do not practice any faith. It is not a movement founded by anyone, nor does it have a sacred book: it is rather an absence of religious ties, which may come from philosophical conviction, from being raised in officially atheist settings or simply from indifference to the subject.
Today this group numbers about 1.9 billion people, 24.2% of the world’s population, according to the Pew Research Center (2020 data). China is home to about two-thirds of them, the result of decades of officially atheist policy. The United States comes next, with a number that is growing especially among young people, and Japan also ranks among the countries with the most people of no religion. The group is also large in Europe, Vietnam, South Korea and Brazil, which shows that the phenomenon cuts across very different cultures and political systems.
For Christianity, this is one of the largest fields for dialogue in the world today. Many who drift away from organized religion do not necessarily reject the existence of God, but rather institutions, empty traditions or bad experiences with communities of faith. This makes room for a conversation that starts from honest questions about meaning, suffering and truth, rather than from imposing dogma.
It is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities for the Christian faith today: reaching hearts that begin with no prior religious framework.
Pillars and practices
1
Scientific and skeptical reasoning
A way of knowing the world based on observation, evidence and the testing of hypotheses, given priority as the most reliable path to knowledge over claims of faith that cannot be verified.
2
No organized religious rituals
There are no services, formal prayers or required ceremonies, although some humanist groups organize gatherings and secular celebrations of life events (weddings, funerals).
3
Secular and humanist ethics
An effort to live in a morally responsible way based on reason, empathy and life in society, without appeal to commandments or divine authority, with wide variation from person to person.
4
Emphasis on individual autonomy
The conviction that each person should build their own sense of meaning and values, without an outside religious authority dictating beliefs or behavior.
Beliefs and practices
What is believed
Atheism: not believing in god(s)
The position of those who do not believe in any divine being. Some assert that God does not exist; others simply say they see no sufficient evidence to believe, and hold that the phenomena of the universe can be explained without a supernatural cause.
Agnosticism: doubt or suspended judgment
The position that the existence of god(s) is unknown or unknowable. Atheism answers whether a person believes; agnosticism answers whether it is possible to know, and says it does not know, or considers the question unanswerable.
Primacy of reason and empirical evidence
The conviction that beliefs about the world should rest on verifiable data and scientific method, and not on revelation, tradition or religious authority.
Morality without divine command
The view that ethical values can and should be grounded in reason, empathy and social agreement, and do not depend on a god to be valid or compelling.
Dates and practices
No religious calendar
Atheists and agnostics do not follow a calendar of religious festivals of their own, since they do not profess a faith organized around rituals or sacred dates.
Cultural holidays given new meaning
Many atheists celebrate holidays such as Christmas and Easter as cultural and family occasions, for getting together and resting, without giving them any religious meaning.
How they live
No organized religious practice
With no attendance at services, no regular prayer and no religious calendar to observe, everyday life follows the civil calendar and each individual's personal choices.
Meaning sought elsewhere
Family, work, social causes, science, art and personal relationships are usually the main sources of purpose and community, in place of church or temple life.
Wide variation in rites of passage
Weddings and funerals may be purely civil, or keep cultural and family elements with no religious content at all, varying greatly from person to person.
Engagement in public debate
Many atheists and agnostics take an active part in discussions about science, the secular state and freedom of belief (and of unbelief) in public life.
Brief history
5th to 3rd centuries BC
Greek philosophers, such as some of the Sophists in the 5th century BC and later Epicurus in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, were already raising doubts about whether the gods exist or intervene in human life.
17th and 18th centuries
The European Enlightenment elevates reason and the scientific method as the central paths to knowledge, feeding religious skepticism and deism among European thinkers.
19th century
Charles Darwin's publication of the theory of evolution intensifies debates between science and religion about the origin of life and of human beings.
19th century
Philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche produce influential critiques of religion, feeding modern currents of atheism.
20th century
Officially atheist states, such as the Soviet Union, carry out state suppression of religion, a chapter distinct from individual and philosophical atheism.
21st century
Global surveys record steady growth in the group with no religion, above all in developed countries and among young people.
How to engage in dialogue
Point of contact
Many atheists and agnostics have a genuine ethical concern for justice, truth and care for others, a real point of contact for conversations about the character of God revealed in Christ.
Point of contact
The value they place on an honest search for evidence and coherence can open the way to present historical and rational reasons for the Christian faith, and not only an emotional appeal.
What to avoid
Avoid the stereotype that every atheist is arrogant or hostile to faith. Many came to this position through sincere doubts, disappointment with religion or careful philosophical reflection.
What to avoid
Avoid the caricature that atheists have no ethics or live without purpose. Experience shows atheists and agnostics living with moral integrity and a sense of meaning.
What to ask
Ask what led the person to this conclusion about God. Often there is a personal story behind it (a doubt, a pain, an unanswered question), not just an abstract argument.
What to ask
Ask where they think the sense of right and wrong that guides their decisions comes from. This invites a genuine conversation about the origin of morality.
Countries where it is the majority religion 10
Unreached peoples of this religion 10 in total
What to pray for
Intercession
For non-religious people in China, the largest such group in the world, that they may find the freedom to seek and explore questions of faith.
For those who left the faith out of disappointment with religious institutions, that they may not confuse the institution with the person of Jesus.
For young atheists and agnostics in the United States and Europe, that they may ask sincere questions about meaning and truth.
For Christians who live alongside non-religious friends and relatives, for patience, respect and the witness of a consistent life.
For genuine dialogue between believers and unbelievers, without arrogance on either side.
For people who are indifferent to matters of faith, that they may open up to deeper questions about existence.
Pray that Christian love, lived out in concrete acts, may speak louder than any religious talk.
