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Global Poll Shows Religious Belief Plummeting in Western Nations

Since 1992 importance of religion to Canadians declined from 61% to 39%, in U.S dropped from 83% to 63%, Muslims have by far highest belief

By Gudrun Schultz

VANCOUVER, B.C., November 14, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Religious belief is rapidly deteriorating in Canada and much of Europe, a new global poll conducted by Angus Reid for Maclean‘s Magazine shows, with just over a third of Canadians and only about one quarter of Europeans polled indicating religion is important to them.

The Angus Reid World Poll surveyed adults from 20 countries world wide on how important religion was to their daily lives. Over all, the response was evenly divided, with 48 percent of global respondents saying religion was very important to them, and 52 percent saying it was not.

The poll found a significant decrease in religious interest in Canada over the past 14 years. In 1992, 61 percent of Canadians said religion was important for their daily lives. In this years’ poll, only 39 percent said religion was important to them.

In European countries, respondents showed even less interest in religion. France had the lowest percentage of respondents indicating religion was important to them, at only 17 percent. Great Britain showed 23 percent, Germany 24 percent, and Roman Catholic Spain 31 percent. Religious interest remained high in Italy, with 51 percent of respondents indicating religion held an important place in their lives.

Middle Eastern countries, India, Mexico and South Africa all showed high levels of religious interest among the population.

The predominantly Muslim nations of Saudi Arabia  and Egypt scored highest of all 20 nations surveyed, with 96 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population stating that the official religion of Islam was very important in their lives. 89 percent of Egyptians agreed.

South Africa scored third highest, with 70 percent of respondents saying religion was very important to them.

The U.S. population showed a greater interest in religion than its Western counterparts, with 63 percent of those polled saying religion was important in their lives. That number showed a marked decrease from 1992 results, however, which were recorded as 83 percent.

Mexican respondents indicated 65 percent of the population consider religion to be an important part of their lives, the highest response of predominately Catholic nations surveyed.

The poll results showed that while religious interest appears to be disintegrating in the West, religion continues to have a significant impact on the outlook of those who still consider it important. When asked if they felt optimistic about the future, 60 percent of respondents who expressed optimism in the future also said religion was very important to their daily lives.

Of the respondents who said they felt pessimistic about the future, 63 percent said religion was not important to them.

The poll was conducted in online interviews between Sept. 22 to Oct. 6, 2006, with 5,800 adults in 20 participating countries.

See poll results:
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/13764

Read commentary by Angus Reid Global Monitor:
http://www.angus-reid.com/analysis/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewItem&itemID=1376...

For poll methodology:
http://www.angus-reid.com/admin/collateral/pdfs/analysis/Methodology.pdf

http://www.angus-reid.com/admin/collateral/pdfs/analysis/RELI_Charts.pdf

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