Which European country is the most atheistic?

Answer 1

One must be careful to distinguish between totalitarian nations where atheism is forced upon an unwilling population (such as China, Vietnam or the former soviet Union) and open, democratic nations where atheism is freely chosen by well educated people (as in Sweden, the Netherlands,or Japan). The "totalitarian" which are described as "coereive atheism" is plagued by corruption, economic stagnation, censorship, depression... with every nation with high levels of "organic atheism" is a picture of societal health.

According to Free Inquiry magazine (August/September 2006) in an article entitled "
Sects and Violence: Is Religion Good for Us? Lists in table 1 the top 25 nations with the highest percentage of non believers.
Self-Reporting as Atheist
1. Sweden 64 - 85 %
2. Denmark 48 - 80 %
3. Norway 54- 72 %
4. Japan 65%
5. Czech 54-61%
6. Finland 45- 60%
7. France 41- 60%
8. South Korea 30 - 52 %
9. Estonia 49%
10. Germany 41 - 49%
11. Russia 30 - 48%
12. Hungary 35 - 46%
13. Netherlands 42 - 44%
14. Great Britain 32 - 39%
15. Belgium 43%
16. Bulgaria 34 - 40%
17. Solvenia 35-38%
18. Israel 37%
19. Canada 19 - 30%
20. Latvia 20 - 29%
21. Slovakia 10-28%
22. Switzerland 17 - 27%
23. Austria 18-26%
24. Australia 25%
25. Taiwan 24%

According to the 2004 United Nations' Human Development Report rank 177 indicators of societal health as life expectancy, adult literay, per-capita income, educational attainment and so on and according to this report, the top 5 nations were Norway, Sweden, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. All of which have high levels of organic atheism.

The countries that ranked lowest on these indicators were highly religious and lacked statistically significant levels of organic atheism.

Irreligious countries have the lowest infant mortality rate and religious countries have the highest infant mortality rates...just for your information.

Answer 2

I would say France. Long before Marx, the French people revolted against the French government and the Catholic Church, and they even went from house to house, dragging people out to arrest and execute anyone even remotely religious.In the time following this revolt, the churches were empty and possession of the Bible could mean your head. They attempted to have a purely atheistic state, but after about a generation or so this proved to create such moral corruption and poverty that France was looked upon as a "hellhole" by most other Europeans. Finally, they began to see the error of their ways and gradually began to ease off their anti-religious grip on the country, allowing people to return to church. Even the France that helped our Christian country during the Revolutionary War was still decidedly atheistic. Today, even though France is considered a "Catholic" country, it is still very much an atheistic government, and the young people are more and more so all the time. You will find very few, if any, young people in French churches today, and abortion is so common that the original French population is dying off, being replaced by immigrants. In fact, a few decades ago, France even had a slogan that said, "France needs babies". Ironically, this is the same country that produced RU-486.
In any case, I'd be willing to bet I'd find more religious people in the former Soviet Union or Cuba than in France today.

Answer 3

Iceland scores the highest when it comes to people that know evolution is the truth, with 89% of the people stating that.

Besides Iceland, most sources tell us that Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands are the most atheistic.

Exact numbers are hard to find on this subject. I'm an atheist from Holland, have been an atheist all my life. But in all the statistics you will find me as Catholic, simply because it seems that churches count people who's grandparents where Catholic, as a member of their church.

Answer 4

It's going to depend a lot on your definition.
In the UK, for example, more than 50% might identify themselves at least notionally as "Church of England" but only about 6% of the population go to church on any Sunday.

The answer to your question is probably France.

"12507 people were polled, finding that only 35% in Great Britain believe in any kind of God or supreme being, compared to 27% in France, 62% in Italy, 48% in Spain, 41% in Germany and 73% in the USA."
Financial Times/Harris Poll December 2006.

Answer 5

France

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Communist countries say they are but most have religious in hiding I'd say one of the most atheistic is the Czech republic... which is ironically one of the most immoral countries in the world (I've lived there). Some countries seem religious but the members don't actually believe in God but are still involved in the churches due to it being part of the society.

Answer 8

Russia and third world countries. I have realized the Brittish Isles though they fight over religion are atheist. France and Italy are most religious in my mind

Answer 9

Estonia, followed by Sweden, Denmark, UK, Netherlands and France in no particular order. Estonia surprised me too.

Answer 10

I don't know how exactly you would measure a country's atheism level. It's not like looking up a country's Gross Domestic Product or Average Rainfall or something like that.