Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Religion is one of the oldest human philosophies. According to researchers, the oldest religion appeared around 150,000 years ago with Neanderthals as the first humans to bury their dead.
However, over time, atheism, aka a view that rejects or does not believe in God or divine entities, is increasingly popular among the world’s people. In fact, the popularity of atheism is associated with economic progress.
One University of Bristol study found that secularization (life that is not based on religious teachings) contributed 40 percent to global economic development in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, research from Mississippi State University and West Virginia University found that all religion metrics studied were negatively correlated with productive entrepreneurship, while atheist and agnostic variables were positively correlated.
“The percentage of the population that is majority atheist or agnostic is positively and significantly correlated with a state’s score of productive entrepreneurship,” the research report wrote, quoted from Yahoo!Wednesday (16/8/2023).
According to the researchers, one of the factors driving the positive results of the business is that a number of people around the world are starting to choose to spend their time doing business instead of worshiping.
So, which countries have the largest atheist population in the world? The following is a list of the 20 countries with the most atheist population according to data Pew Research Center’s Religious Composition by Country, to be published in 2022.
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Photo: Charles Bridge (REUTERS/David W Cerny)
FILE PHOTO: A bird flies over the medieval Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic, January 20, 2017. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo |
1. Czech Republic
Atheist Population Percentage: 78.4 percent
2. North Korea
Atheist Population Percentage: 71.3 percent
3. Estonia
Atheist Population Percentage: 60.2 percent
4. Japan
Atheist Population Percentage: 60 percent
5. Hong Kong
Atheist Population Percentage: 54.7 percent
6. China
Atheist Population Percentage: 51.8 percent
7. South Korea
Atheist Population Percentage: 46.6 percent
8. Latvian
Atheist Population Percentage: 45.3 percent
9. The Netherlands
Atheist Population Percentage: 44.3 percent
10. Uruguay
Atheist Population Percentage: 41.5 percent
11. New Zealand
Atheist Population Percentage: 39.6 percent
12. Mongolia
Atheist Population Percentage: 36.5 percent
13. France
Atheist Population Percentage: 31.9 percent
14. Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Atheist Population Percentage: 31.2 percent
15. Belgium
Atheist Population Percentage: 31 percent
16. Vietnamese
Atheist Population Percentage: 29.9 percent
17. Sweden
Atheist Population Percentage: 29 percent
18. Australia
Atheist Population Percentage: 28.6 percent
19. Belarus
Atheist Population Percentage: 28.6 percent
20. Luxembourg
Atheist Population Percentage: 26.7 percent
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
(hsy/hsy)