Which countries are the most and least religious? The WIN-Gallup International "Religion and Atheism Index" collected data from 57 countries in order to find out.
The Religiosity Index represents the percentage of the population who self-describe themselves as ‘a religious person’ in the question worded as: Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious persons or a convinced atheist?
Some interesting takeaways:
1. The poor are more religious than the rich. People in bottom income groups are 17% more religious than those in the top income groups.
2. Globally, the number of those claiming to be religious has dropped by 9% from 2005 to 2011, while the number of people identifying themselves as atheists has risen by 3%.
3. Four countries have experienced a drop in religiosity in their populations that is greater than 20% between 2005 and 2012. France and Switzerland saw decreases of 21%, while Ireland's number of faithful declined by 22% and Vietnam's by 23%.