Phineas Flapdoodle
March 12, 2004, 07:35 PM
This is meant as a 'discussional' type thread, AFAIC (as far as I'm concerned)- anyway, this page sparked my interest, renewed as it is, in this topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Statistics
excerpt:
Statistics
Due to some societies strongly promoting atheism, and some strongly condemning it, atheism may both be over reported and underreported in different countries. There is a great deal of room for debate as to the accuracy of any method of measurement, as the opportunity for misreporting (intentional and otherwise) a belief system without an organized structure is high.
The following surveys are in chronological order, but as they are different studies with different methodologies it would be inaccurate to infer trends on the prevalence of atheism from them:
A 1995 survey [http://www.zpub.com/un/pope/relig.html] attributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica indicates that non-religious are about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%.
A 2001 survey by the CIA in the World Factbook [http://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xx.html#People] estimates about 12.5% non-religious and about 2.4% for atheists.
A 2002 survey by Adherents.com [http://adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html] estimates the number of "secular, non-religious, agnostics and atheists" as about 14%.
A 2004 survey by the BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwtgod/3518375.stm] in 10 countries showed the proportion of "people who don't believe in God nor in a higher power" varying between 0% and 30%, with an average close to 10% in the countries surveyed. About 8% of the respondents stated specifically that they consider themselves atheists.
Any thoughts or criticisms? FYI, I've been recently quoting an estimated number of 30 million "atheists and/or secularists" existing currently in the USA. Roughly estimating, that amounts to a little less than 10% of the US population. I would be grateful to see any additional or more current/or accurate data - yes, indeed.
yours truly,
Phineas Flapdoodle
(last edited to add links)
__________________
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Wisdom demands both: intelligence shaped by experience and information softened by understanding. ~ Stephen Jones, 2003
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Statistics
excerpt:
Statistics
Due to some societies strongly promoting atheism, and some strongly condemning it, atheism may both be over reported and underreported in different countries. There is a great deal of room for debate as to the accuracy of any method of measurement, as the opportunity for misreporting (intentional and otherwise) a belief system without an organized structure is high.
The following surveys are in chronological order, but as they are different studies with different methodologies it would be inaccurate to infer trends on the prevalence of atheism from them:
A 1995 survey [http://www.zpub.com/un/pope/relig.html] attributed to the Encyclopedia Britannica indicates that non-religious are about 14.7% of the world's population, and atheists around 3.8%.
A 2001 survey by the CIA in the World Factbook [http://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/xx.html#People] estimates about 12.5% non-religious and about 2.4% for atheists.
A 2002 survey by Adherents.com [http://adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html] estimates the number of "secular, non-religious, agnostics and atheists" as about 14%.
A 2004 survey by the BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwtgod/3518375.stm] in 10 countries showed the proportion of "people who don't believe in God nor in a higher power" varying between 0% and 30%, with an average close to 10% in the countries surveyed. About 8% of the respondents stated specifically that they consider themselves atheists.
Any thoughts or criticisms? FYI, I've been recently quoting an estimated number of 30 million "atheists and/or secularists" existing currently in the USA. Roughly estimating, that amounts to a little less than 10% of the US population. I would be grateful to see any additional or more current/or accurate data - yes, indeed.
yours truly,
Phineas Flapdoodle
(last edited to add links)
__________________
----------
Wisdom demands both: intelligence shaped by experience and information softened by understanding. ~ Stephen Jones, 2003