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Irreligion may be defined as the absence of religion, an indifference towards religion, a rejection of religion, or hostility towards religion.^[1] When characterized as the rejection of religious belief, it includes atheism and secular humanism. When characterized as hostility towards religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as indifference to religion, it includes apatheism. When characterized as the absence of religious belief, it may also include agnosticism, ignosticism, nontheism, religious skepticism, and freethought. Irreligion may even include forms of theism depending on the religious context it is defined against, as in 18th century Europe where the epitome of irreligion was deism.^[2]

Sixteen percent of the world population (1.1 billion people) are considered non-religious.^[3] Some evidence suggests that the fastest growing religious status in the United States is "no religion".^[4]

Demographics[link]

Gallup Religiosity Index 2009 (light colour indicates religious, dark non-religious^[5]

Irreligion in the world[link]

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Estonia 75.7 [6]  Azerbaijan 74 [7]  Sweden 46-85 (average of 65.5) [8]  Czech Republic 64.3 [6]  Vietnam 46.1-81 (average of 63.55) [6][8]  Denmark 43-80 (average of 61.5) [8]  Albania 60 [9][10][11]  United Kingdom 39-65 (average of 52) [12]  Japan 51.8 [6]  China 8-93 (average of 50.5) [6][8][13]  France 43-54 (average of 48.5) [8]  Russia 48.1 [6]  Belarus 47.8 [6]  Hungary 42.6 [6]  Ukraine 42.4 [6]  Netherlands 39-44 (average of 41.5) [8]  Latvia 40.6 [6]  South Korea 36.4 [6]  Belgium 35.4 [6]  New Zealand 34.7 (from 87.3% who answered the optional question) [14]  Germany 34.6 [15]  Chile 33.8 [6]  Luxembourg 29.9 [6]  Slovenia 29.9 [6]  Venezuela 27.0 [6]  Spain 23.3 [16]  Slovakia 23.1 [6]  Mexico 20.5 [6]  Lithuania 19.4 [6]

Country Percentage of population that is non-religious Source  Australia 18.7 (from 88.8% who answered the optional question) [17]  Italy 17.8 [6]  Canada 16.2 [18]  United States 16.1 [19]  Argentina 16.0 [20]  South Africa 15.1 [21]  Croatia 13.2 [6]  Austria 12.2 [6]  Finland 11.7 [6]  Portugal 11.4 [6]  Puerto Rico 11.1 [6]  Bulgaria 11.1 [6]  Philippines 10.9 [6]  India 6.6 [6]  Serbia 5.8 [6]  Peru 4.7 [6]  Poland 4.6 [6]  Ireland 6.0 [22]  Iceland 4.3 [6]  Greece 4.0 [6]  Turkey 2.5 [6]  Romania 2.4 [6]  Tanzania 1.7 [6]  Malta 1.3 [6]  Iran 1.1 [6]  Uganda 1.1 [6]  Nigeria 0.7 [6]  Bangladesh 0.1 [6]

See also[link]

	Atheism portal
	Religion portal

• Humanism
• Importance of religion by country
• Irreligion by country
• Nontheistic religions
• Pantheism
• Post-theism
• Skepticism
• Spiritual But Not Religious
• Transtheistic

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Irreligion

• John Allen Paulos (9 June 2009). Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don't Add Up. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-8090-5918-8. http://books.google.com/books?id=1piKjiQR9ZAC&pg=PP1. 
• Richard Henry Popkin; Arie Johan Vanderjagt (1993). Scepticism and irreligion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-09596-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=D0XL3vwPX0kC&pg=PP1. 
• Eric Wright (November 2010). Irreligion: Thought, Rationale, History. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 978-1-171-06863-1.