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USAToday: Religion Takes Back Seat in Western Europe

When it rains it pours: Yet more sad news from across the pond, this time with lots of numbers.

In 1900, almost everyone in Europe was Christian. Now, three out of four people identify themselves as adherents to Christianity. At the same time, the percentage of Europeans who say they are non-religious has soared from less than 1% of the population to 15%. Another 3% say they don't believe in God at all, according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

In 12 major European countries, 38% of people say they never or practically never attend church, according to the World Values Survey in 2000. France's 60% non-attendance rate is the highest in that group. In the USA, only 16% say they rarely go to church.

Posted by Greg Griffith at August 12, 2005 02:06 PM (GMT -6:00)
Comments

This is a good overview of the decline of Christianity over most of Europe. I'd love to see a companion piece on what religious practices are on the ascendancy. Obviously, Islam is. I've read that satanism and witchcraft are as well, but have never seen any numbers to document it.

# Posted by: Jill Woodliff at August 13, 2005 02:34 PM

Jill-

I looked for a bit to find some figures in regards to your question. According to missionfrontiers.org, since 1900 the percentage of worldwide Christians and Buddhists have declined slightly, Islam has increased markedly, and Hinduism (however one defines it) has stayed pretty constant. I would guess you're right about a large increase in Wicca, though as it exists now, neo-Paganism is pretty new, and with numbers under one million worldwide, one would expect substantial growth to occur. Another site I found actually mentioned that the number of people who claimed "no religion" is in the decline, while Atheism (how they define that and what the difference is is open for discussion as well) accounts for only 2% of the world population.

Take that for what it's worth, the numbers are interesting, regardless. Thanks for prodding me to look around on it.

Anon

# Posted by: at August 15, 2005 03:31 PM