What Is the Most "Godless" City on Earth?

December 10, 2016 by PAUL RATNER

Whether you fervently believe in a deity or flat our reject any religious teachings, opting for an atheist mindset, chances are you would rather be surrounded by like-minded people.

Outside of the extreme religious control exercised by ISIS or the state-mandated atheism of countries like North Korea, most places are somewhere in between on the religiosity scale. But if you wanted to know what is the most "godless" place you can live, where would you go?

This place is most likely a city, at least according to how some scientists have described atheists.

“Those with no religious affiliation have been found to be younger, mostly male, with higher levels of education and income, more liberal, but also more unhappy and more alienated from wider society,” said Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, professor of psychology at the University of Haifa, about atheists in a psychological profile.

To biopsychologist and author Nigel Barber, these people are more likely to be in a major population center, and not a rural area, because cities tend to be more prosperous, and as such their inhabitants will feel less need for religion. In fact, he thinks that by 2038 most countries will have less than 50% of their populace thinking that religion is important to them, crossing what he calls “the atheist threshold”.

What are some places that have already passed this point?

In a WIN/GALLUP survey from 2015, China was declared the world's least religious country, with twice the amount of “convinced atheists” (at 61%) than any other country. Following it was Japan at 31% and the Czech Republic at 30%. In general, Western Europe was the least religious area according to the survey, with 51% of the population either not religious or decidedly atheist. Scandinavia, in particular, often leads the way in such polls, as Sweden, Denmark and Norway have large populations of non-believers.

What about specific cities?

Berlin has been called the “atheist capital of Europe” since 60% of Berliners do not associate with any religion.

As far as the U.K. is concerned, according to a 2011 Census, Norwich had the most people (42.5%) marking “no religion”. This is compared with 25.1% for the whole of England and Wales.

In the U.S., the American Bible Society’s rankings for 2016 point to Albany/Schenectady/Troy area in New York State as being the least “Bible-minded,” which means only 10% of the respondents there read the Bible in the last week and lead their lives accordingly. Boston was the least Bible-minded city in the survey, with just 11% of its population having the book as a part of their lives.

The most Bible-friendly city? Chattanooga, Tennessee. Not surprisingly, the South leads the U.S in religiosity, with cities in Tennessee, Alabama, Virginia and Louisiana topping the chart.

In a separate survey, the 2016 Public Religion Research Institute identified Portland, Seattle and San Francisco as the least religious cities in America, with 37% of the people there practicing no religion. Boston was number 8 in their findings.

So what is the least religious city in the world? While the numbers could surely vary based on how you define religiosity, the largest city in China, the least religious country in the world, would likely be the most atheist population center in the world. And that would be Shanghai, a city of 24 million people of whom 86.9% say they are not affiliated with any religion. That could amount to about 21 million atheists.

I was hoping Nigeria would make the list of the most religious.

Look at China topping the list of atheist nations and still being ahead of Nigeria in every aspect of human endeavour except religion.

I suppose you haven't heard of Neitherland. I so love that place, If you tell some one you going to church, they would so laugh at you and tell you that, you a cave man or you living in stone age.

Next country is Sweden, Majority are Atheists and if you told some one you going to church, thay would also laugh at you.

Next is China, In China, a law has recently been passed that if you force your child to practice any religion against their will, you would be arrested and possibly lose custody of the child.

Nigeria!!!!! No, Not our black a ss, This is a place where President(s) conducts prayer sessions to miraculously upturn and improve the nation Economy. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahha

I love my country.

K

menxer:
I was hoping Nigeria would make the list of the most religious.

Look at China topping the list of atheist nations and still being ahead of Nigeria in every aspect of human endeavour except religion.

I don't think China is necessary the perfect country(they are still a third world country),swenden and Norway/Denmark should be our role model

Godgay:
I don't think China is necessary the perfect country(they are still a third world country),swenden and Norway/Denmark should be our role model

Who is looking for perfection, you?

China is the biggest in economy/technology after America. What's your beef?

If Nigeria is a quarter of what China is today, we wouldn't be complaining this much.

This gist was about religious beliefs.

Godgay:
..(they are still a third world country),swenden and Norway/Denmark should be our role model

I doubt that you have ever been to China , or even read up on the China of today.

menxer:


Who is looking for perfection, you?

China is the biggest in economy/technology after America. What's your beef?

If Nigeria is a quarter of what China is today, we wouldn't be complaining this much.

This gist was about religious beliefs.

wait wait,are you talking about China a communistic country of about 1.3 billion people where 700 million are only able to live above the poverty line,only India has more poor people than China,let's not forget the massive over population low wages,human right abuse and totalitarian government (except hong Kong and Taiwan),dude this is a same country that is going to run out of water.I have no beef with China whatsoever and they are light years ahead of most countries including Africa comebine in terms of millatary,economy and tech,but if u really want us(Nigeria)to be a first world country u wouldn't want us to be China.

plaetton:


I doubt that you have ever been to China , or even read up on the China of today.

dude China is a third world country, (no offence)read up on them.

Godgay:
dude China is a third world country, (no offence)read up on them.

Dude.
You're knowledge is 30yrs out of date.

China is an economic, military and technological superpower.
By far the biggest exporter in the world, the biggest trade surplus in the world, the biggest foreign reserve in the world, the biggest gold reserve in the world, and with a modern space program right behind Russia and the USA .
The larges economy by GDP, the largest and burgeoning middle class in the world.

If those are your definition of third world, then maybe I need to go back to school.

Godgay:
wait wait,are you talking about China a communistic country of about 1.3 billion people where 700 million are only able to live above the poverty line,only India has more poor people than China,let's not forget the massive over population low wages,human right abuse and totalitarian government (except hong Kong and Taiwan),dude this is a same country that is going to run out of water.I have no beef with China whatsoever and they are light years ahead of most countries including Africa comebine in terms of millatary,economy and tech, but if u really want us(Nigeria)to be a first world country u wouldn't want us to be China.

@bolded, It's enough if we can emulate that much from China.

menxer:


@bolded, It's enough if we can emulate that much from China.

western European and us,Canada australia also have that,we should emulate them not a country that does not practice democracy in 2016

plaetton:

Dude.
You're knowledge is 30yrs out of date.

China is an economic, military and technological superpower.
By far the biggest exporter in the world, the biggest trade surplus in the world, the biggest foreign reserve in the world, the biggest gold reserve in the world, and with a modern space program right behind Russia and the USA .




If those are your definition of third world, then maybe I need to go back to school.

China is a communist, over populated,pollution poor shit hole,first I never denied there were a superpower,I never said they didn't have a big economy or technology(they are behind US,EU,Japan,)but what about what matters?do they have it,no they don't,check their GDP per capita(average wealth) it is a has low as 9,567 USD,all European countries are richer than china in terms of average wealth,look out their life expeancy,look at their human development index.being better than Nigeria don't make them a developed country.

Godgay:
western European and us,Canada australia also have that,we should emulate them not a country that does not practice democracy in 2016

We are not talking democracy here, are we?

If you want to go that way, what's the volume of trade between Nigerian business men and Australian businesss men compared to the Chinese and Nigerians?

Nigeria is not even practicing democracy, we are practicing gerontocracy right now.

There is nothing to be sentimental about, there is something the chinese are getting right which we don't with all our years of running after the west.

Is it that the Western form of capitalism and democracy the best for use to emulate?

plaetton:

Dude.
You're knowledge is 30yrs out of date.

China is an economic, military and technological superpower.
By far the biggest exporter in the world, the biggest trade surplus in the world, the biggest foreign reserve in the world, the biggest gold reserve in the world, and with a modern space program right behind Russia and the USA .
The larges economy by GDP, the largest and burgeoning middle class in the world.

If those are your definition of third world, then maybe I need to go back to school.

lol
I was also confused