TJA 25th March 2013 |
I'm so surprised to see such low church attendance rates around the globe in so many countries, such as Iceland, Norway, Russia, Japan, etc. People... Please wake up & see the beauty & love of Jesus Christ. He promises eternal life & it's for real. Like he says "Pick up your cross & follow me!!" You have to make a little effort...Jesus & the Holy Spirit will do the rest... |
HERMAN WILLS- BELIZE CENTRAL AMERICA 1st February 2013 |
The bible says "good religion is to help the fatherless and the widows and others in need."
A world without God and good religion is a world without hope.
I believe in a loving, forgiving, long suffering, gentle God who will bring justice to a world of sin and sadness.
The GREATEST EVIDENCE OF this loving, patient and forgiving God are the many Atheist who open their GOD GIVEN MOUTH, USING THEIR GOD GIVEN BREATH, SWINGING THEIR GIVEN ARMS, STANDING ON THEIR GOD GIVEN LEGS, DENYING THE POWER AND EXISTENCE OF GOD!!!
The Anvil OF God's word
Last eve i paused beside a blacksmith's door,
and heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, i saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time
"How many anvils have you had," said i,
to wear and batter all these hammers so?
"Just one," said he, and then with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
"And so,"i thought, "The Anvil of God's word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unchanged, the hammers all gone."
-John Clifford.
Friedrich Nietzsche German HAMMER ---GONE!
Mao Zedong CHINESE Hammer---GONE!
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet, FRENCH HAMMER----GONE!
Joseph Stalin RUSSIAN HAMMER GONE! VIVE LA PALABRA DE DIOS!!!! God BLESS. |
HERMAN WILLS- BELIZE CENTRAL AMERICA 1st February 2013 |
The bible says "good religion is, to help the fatherless and the widows and others in need."
A world without God and good religion is a world without hope.
I believe in a loving, forgiving, long suffering, gentle God who will bring justice to a world of sin and sadness.
The GREATEST EVIDENCE OF this loving, patient and forgiving God are the many Atheist who open their GOD GIVEN MOUTH, USING THEIR GOD GIVEN BREATH, SWINGING THEIR GIVEN ARMS, STANDING ON THEIR GOD GIVEN LEGS, DENYING THE POWER AND EXISTENCE OF GOD!!!
The Anvil OF God's word
Last eve i paused beside a blacksmith's door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, i saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time
"How many anvils have you had," said i,
to wear and batter all these hammers so?
"Just one," said he, and then with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
"And so,"i thought, "The Anvil of God's word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon,
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unchanged, the hammers all gone."
-John Clifford.
Friedrich Nietzsche German HAMMER ---GONE!
Mao Zedong CHINESE Hammer---GONE!
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet, FRENCH HAMMER----GONE!
Joseph Stalin RUSSIAN HAMMER GONE! VIVE LA PALABRA DE DIOS!!!! God BLESS. |
Anonymous Agnostic 30th January 2013 |
The stats are biased about Nigeria because of suposed beliefs in magic etc. What about no of muslims? Church attendance in Nigeria is not a half as high as that. Atimes you see 29 people in congregations of which 49% are octogenarians and 49% are toddlers. Its an okay news though with excellent comments. |
Vasili 27th January 2013 |
For Russia 2% is too much, I think |
Good News! 24th January 2013 |
The more people understand, that there's no god, the less churches have their tax-free business going. 21 century makes it real! |
Gabriel 30th November 2012 |
@Sam - Imagine a world with out morality... |
kellogs 26th March 2012 |
People are not attending church for whatever reason or excuse as it's raining, too cold, other important matters. Where are the priorities of so called Christians and even born-againers? Is God really FIRST in their lives? So, there seems to be a Spring Slump, causing us to be on our knees before God the Creator, and asking what is going on? On the other hand, I think Christians need to keep our eyes on the Lord, not on climate, not on circumstances, not on the people, but on the Lord. Amen. |
Daniel 24th November 2011 |
Is this weekly or annually? |
le dal 15th August 2011 |
where do these figures come from in the UK the number attending an Easter service never exceeds 5% on the churches own estimates, divide the figures given by 10 and it will still be an exaggeration |
stives 9th May 2011 |
@random guy - Keep up the good work for being a broad-minded person! It’s nice to hear someone who does not limit one’s self from other people’s beliefs and knows how to respect others. =) |
stives 9th May 2011 |
Hey Rick, you see it does not mean that if these countries listed above have the highest number of Church goers then you should avoid them already. I don’t see any reason why you’re already speculating that Church goers are boring idiot assholes. It’s like you’re already judging them without even knowing their personalities. Further, you should learn to broaden your horizon and your perspective towards the beliefs of other people because our differences, behavior, and personality as an individual are not solely based if he or she is a consistent Church goer or not. Again, though being religious may have an impact on one’s personality, this is not a reason to avoid someone or worse to avoid the whole country. |
Mike+From+USA 5th May 2011 |
This graph is complete off and outdated. There is no way that 44% of Americans attend church regularly. I live in America and we have the fastest growing atheist population in the world.
The latest polls indicate that only about 10% of Americans attend church regularly...if even that. Religion is rapidly declining here. |
FabianQuebec 15th March 2011 |
The church attendance in Quebec province is very low and decreasing.
A statistician proposed, instead of the heavy question "how often do you go to church ?" another one,
"What did you do last Sunday ?"
He obtained a very, very low attendance level, ever for the USA.
I love NationMaster, but some of their results ARE SO OFF the chart that I question the reliability of the ones I am able to check independently. |
Michael Franklin 7th March 2011 |
Presumably then , from the above listing, no one goes to church in Germany...? |
Seamus 29th January 2011 |
I was looking for some reliable data for Poland but clearly this data is flawed. The latest figures for Ireland are around the 40% mark. The figures quoted above for Ireland would be for around 1980! |
dutchmen 29th November 2010 |
even the most optimistic source for Dutch church attendance - the CBS - is quoting less than 20 %. The churches do take stock of sunday churchgoers and came up to less than 10 %. The quoted figure of 35 % seems unbelieveable high |
Rebecca 7th November 2010 |
Wait ... 27% of Brits attend Church. I don't know any of them! |
pingu 9th October 2010 |
There's no way in hell that church attendance in Belgium is 44%.
Last time I went to a church here was about 10-15 years ago and even then it was pretty much empty, only a few old people who are probably dead by now. |
Fr. Savvas Anastasiou 26th August 2010 |
This survey is very deceiving. It implies that 43% of the entire population of Turkey (or 31,390,000 people) are church-goers? What is probably closer to the truth is that of the approximately 120,000 Christians in Turkey (in a country of 73 million or 0.164384% of the population), 43% (51,600 people or 0.070685% of the population) are actually church goers. There's a big difference between these two renderings. |
asian 10th August 2010 |
i think this survey is talking about only christians who live in a nation but not a nation as a whole.....indian church attendance is more than 70% among christians in india.....during festivities it is more than 90%... |
asian 10th August 2010 |
i m proud dat india is a among the top 15. but i probably estimate 70% of christians in india including myself attend church regularly..and during religious festivities, it is above 90%...churches r completely or fully packed. |
meadows 27th June 2010 |
utter garbage, stats are clearly wrong.
Ireland 84 precent.
i don't know anybody that goes,
there are a few that go at Christmas with the parents once a year. even then it wouldn't be remotely close.
Atheistism on the rise and no new prests to be found. |
blah 21st June 2010 |
uhmmm, there isn't even a date on this graph? so how are we meant to know:
a) when it was made/surveyed/etc.
OR
b) if it is reliable or not (which it probably isn't)
to me, this is just a waste of everyone's time. |
Paul 3rd June 2010 |
Some of these don't seem correct. I've read articles that cited only 5-7% weekly church attendance in Britain, and big drop (down to about 55%) in Ireland. Having lived in France, I question the 21%. One is hard-pressed to find even 1 out of 20 adults there who attend church with any regularity. I think one thing is clear here: many people polled probably exaggerate their church attendance. |
random guy 27th May 2010 |
@Rick - I may not be a church goer myself, but I know many who are. I find religious people to be very kink moral people, at least the ones I have met. You should learn some tolerance towards people who believe in something different than you. |
Wow 24th May 2010 |
How come so many people are shallowly stating that Religion is not important? If you are deeming Christianity as a religion than it is important. However, I see Christianity as a relationship with our creator God, through Jesus Christ. For those, like Mark who hold to the position that:
"Good will, common sense, and logical thinking is all we need"-I would respond with a philosophical question.... Who decides what is good will, common sense, and logical thinking? I forgive you for such a child like argument Mark. LETS GET ON WITH IT.
Atheists are now worried about aliens finding them- AND they're considered the intellectuals?! please... Mark, seriously consider praying to God for insight into a beautiful world you have yet to see.... because once you see the world from the lenses of God's love- you will never be the same.
If you want to change your life-you need only say this prayer whole-heartedly:
Jesus Christ forgive me for my sins. I now ask you to come into my heart. I accept you Jesus as my one and only Savior. Lead my life and fill me with your love. In Jesus' name, Amen. |
wow 8th May 2010 |
rick rick rick. people like you make me laugh. i bet your a racist as well. i love how people stereotype. have you met every church going person to know if they are all boring idiots? |
Funny 25th March 2010 |
I find it hysterically funny that people seem to think they know, or can estimate, the percentage of the population that attends church regularly by mentally surveying the people residing in the microenvironment of their lives.
A.N. "You'd be hard-pressed to find ANY Christians in this country, let alone committed ones."
Alaric "I can't believe the US is so high on the list. Absolutely no one i know goes to church."
Just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they don't exist. |
charts.1 20th March 2010 |
I believe the numbers from this poll are exaggerated on the high side.
Christianity in western europe has been dropping for over 30 years and secularism is replacing it. In the USA over 35% of catholics are Latinos. In Canada secularism is growing quickly replacing organzied religions.
The new christianity is coming from Africa/Asia and within a generation or 2 more priests/bishops/cardinals will come from these regions changing the whole complextion of the vatican and how the church operates. Soon western culture christian customs will make way for new middle eastern customs. Depictions of jesus will go from a white man to a dark skinned man reflecting the image of the millions of new catholics from the east, just like he should have been in the first place.
Liberal catholics now outnumber conservative catholics in america. Most catholics don't follow the churches teachings on pre-marital sex, birth control, mass attendance, don't follow much of what the pope says, and many doctrines the church teaches. Church attendance, baptisms, and other catholic traditions are dropping rapidly.
Within 50 years western culture catholicism will just be a mere shell of its current status. Interesting times are coming! |
John 18th March 2010 |
WHat about all the countries not listed? There are only 53 countries on the list. Most of Africa is missing. South America has a number of countries missing. The whole Middle East - including Israel. Is there data for these "missing"countries? |
Kevin 8th March 2010 |
Do I want to live by the word of Man or the Word of God? And what version of "God" are these survey participants professing? Turkey, as an example noted, is 95% Muslim, therefore, they are not "the Church" but of the Mosque. I'm a Christian, I believe in Jesus, the Christ and Son of God as my personal Savior. Am I wrong? then when I die I have lost nothing. If I choose to live by the Bible, I am a better person until I rot away. But if I'm correct, than I have gained everything in eternity in the presence of the Almighty. Perhaps the survey should clarify what is viewed as "church". "Church" is not a building. |
Bob 25th February 2010 |
I think there is truth in both Science and Religion. For Christianity it doesn't say that God never created the earth through evolution but evolution does need to start somewhere. And for all the religions they nearly all say to live peacefully with each other. I think we should be able to put aside our difference and live peacefully and create a peaceful world |
Mark 15th February 2010 |
"Religion is not important. Good will, common sense, and logical thinking is all we need, not illogical cults like religion. Long live science."
Okay, can you prove that statement scientifically? Of course not, it's an assertion, as much so as any religious dogma. So you make a religion of science. Kind of like the Bolsheviks with their "scientific socialism," who built the first concentration camps in Europe. Or the French Revolutionary rationalists, who built a statue to the goddess of reason, while the guillotines were working overtime. Despite its faults, I'll take religion. |
emmanuel 20th January 2010 |
i love thou my great God...Long live Roman catholicism and christianity....i pray for all world specially for dear pape... |
Jasper 9th January 2010 |
Religion in Europe seems not to be that important anymore. People as a whole don't have a religious approach to life right here. I just don't believe some figures... Belgium, 44%?, no way, maybe in the sixties, but not now... Spain, 25%? Are you kidding? The Catholic Church is the less popular institution of this country, and the magnificient churches are almost empty. There aren't many priests or nuns anyway, and the bulk of them are pretty old, even in their eighties.. All about religion in my country rhymes with one old-fashioned word : "past". Furthermore, I guess real attendance could hardly be 10-12%. I think the only real religiuos european countries are Portugal, Poland and Ireland, for some historical reasons, but I don't know if their proved strong faith could be mantained in the times to come. |
source 24th December 2009 |
If you click on the source link "World Values Survey" it looks like this might have been from 10 years ago. |
I am a Christian 5th December 2009 |
I don't know if this is true or not, but it is scary to se so little of the world holding onto their religion. |
Mark Mergaerts 1st December 2009 |
Same remark for Belgium. 44% is ludicrous, all recent research (and "recent" here means 1980s and later) puts the figure at less than 10%. |
grandmaster 19th November 2009 |
There's not a chance in hell that 27% of people in the UK attend church at least once a week. The real figure is probably closer to 2.7% (no exaggeration).
Even more ridiculous is the figure stating that more than a third of people in Turkey are regular church goers. Turkey is like 95% Muslim! |
Bethany 27th August 2009 |
I must disagree with you Sam.
*Religion is important. Love, goodness, and faith are all we need, not self-righteousness like us humans so easily resort to. Jesus reign...forever!*
Our religion...our beliefs...they're the legs we stand on, and to ignore that fact, is to ignore the very thing that supports us. |
florence 10th May 2009 |
continue to pray that God's people shall truly be commited to their spiritual life. Jesus shall come...for those who truly believe Him will save. |
Chris (London) 6th April 2009 |
Church is used here as a term to indicate all religious attendance - so for instance Turkey on 43% would obviously refer to mosques, if nothing else for brevity. It's a fact that where societies modernise there is less need for religion by the populace. This is true except in the case of cultural defence - where the source modernisation is negatively valued eg Communist regime in Poland vs Catholic Church and also Cultural Transition where religion helps immigrants assimilate into a new country for instance USA. An interesting addition to the argument is the attendance to religous ceremonies in states where the church as been 'disestablished' - there attendance seems to hold up. |
bill (england) 27th November 2008 |
All the crappy, depressed, ex-communist countries are at the bottom of the list. |
Rev. Rick Poirier (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) 20th September 2008 |
I only wish that 38% of Canadians truly went to church at least once per week or even once per month. I believe, from experience and other reliable sources the number to be closer than less than 10%. Many Scriptural references point us to the time of the Great Apostacy, an event occuring shortly before the Rapture of the Church, where many will "fall away" be deceived and believe the lie of new age. Many might agree that revival is happening in many regions of the free world but that this revival is connected to the new age movement. For example, the gospel of Oprah has had tremendous response from those who have had little Scriptural teaching and for those who have been deceived away from the truth. Jesus' warnings are unheeded by even the "very elect." |
Jade (US) 14th September 2008 |
Pascal: "If you believe in God and He doesn't exist, then you lose nothing."
Perhaps we do lose something. If we accept religious dogma unquestionly, we forfeit our abilty to think critically and seek truth; our world-view is no longer based on reason and observation, but on unseen, unproven assumptions.
The ability to reason is at the heart of what it means to be human. If we give this up, we give up everything. |
ORMIERES (FRANCE) 21st August 2008 |
France 21% figure is uncorrect: the number of people going to church is less than 10%! |
Asher (India) 10th August 2008 |
India 42% figure is not correct, as in last 25 years only few no. of church buildings were constructed.In rapid Indian urbanisation during these years existing facility hardly caters less then 20%, many churches are less then half filled as people resides in satelite towns where no church building of their affiliation is available. |
Twilight (Japan) 15th June 2008 |
I can't believe Japan's only 3%.
Most of my Catholic friends go to church, and going to church is mandatory in my brother's school so... |
USian (US) 29th April 2007 |
From the source link:
These numbers are somewhat suspect. Church attendance data in the U.S. has been checked against actual values using two different techniques. The true figures show that only about 20% of Americans and 10% of Canadians actually go to church one or more times a week. Many Americans and Canadians tell pollsters that they have gone to church even though they have not. Whether this happens in other countries, with different cultures, is difficult to predict. |
ITALIAN (verona) 5th April 2007 |
i only want say that italian people going to church is 25%, more or less, and also CIA says that. 45% is really too much. |
Alex (Belgium) 6th March 2007 |
According to wikipedia, attendance in Belgium is closer to 5% which makes sense. 44% is a ridiculous number. |
Diggy (Missouri) 29th January 2007 |
These are the percentages of people who CLAIM to go to church monthly, not the actual percentage of church attendance. Many people lie about this either consciously or unconsciously, e.g. in the USA the REAL rate of church attendance is approximately 30%. |
FiatLux1860 20th June 2006 |
All right all you atheists and egotistical agnostics who claim to know everything ("If I don't know, you don't either" is a highly puffed up thing to say, "John".). I need you guys to explain to me how much sense it makes to be anything other than a theist. Familiar with Pascal's wager? Goes a little something like this:
If you believe in God and He doesn't exist, then you lose nothing; whereas, if you believe in God and He DOES exist, you gain everything. If you DON'T believe in God, and He doesn't exist, you lose nothing, but if you DON'T believe in God and He DOES exist, you lose everything.
Chew on that a little while. |
Jimmy 4th April 2006 |
Many comments. Many beliefs. One thing we cannot deny and that is that death is real. We've seen it, we've mourned it, and one day we will experience it. The Bible speaks of death (Heb. 9:27) and we know death is true so what is the possibility of the the remainder of the Bible being true? Do you want to chance it? One thing about God, he leaves the choice to you, but YOU must live with the choice. |
BootBoy 26th March 2006 |
Ottawan - 'secular' does not mean 'not religious', it just means that the church and state are separated. |
Alexis 4th February 2006 |
Belgium's position is clearly overestimated. The real number would be between 5 and 15%. |
Sallyusa 8th December 2005 |
Religion appears to separate itself from reality of the world like science and politics ,blaming it's ill to materialism.Believing Jesus coming on the cloud, Christian rising from the tomb sound so far fetch. May be the bible was right but misunderstood!!!!! clear,logical minded are beginning to doubt the infallibility of the church. |
Me 25th November 2005 |
Susan people one millennium before would die to God and there were whores on the streets murders everywhere blackmail and war. Also Jeff you're talking rubbish good on you "Sam" |
Enlightened One 25th November 2005 |
Fizzy brain I could not have said it better so I am not going to try.I am an Atheist and i really am happy for the decline of religion in Europe. I hope people realize more and more how very damaging religion is in our daily lives. |
Susan 13th November 2005 |
I believe that the lack of religious attendance is having an affect on our society. We are corrupt, we have a messed up justice system and an awful government. People don't have a sense of right and wrong. We are going down the drain. |
Larry Houchen 28th October 2005 |
I would like a break down of the percentage of women who attend church in the USA as opposed to the number of men. Do you have such a statistic? |
Jeff 20th October 2005 |
I am an Christian and I really am sorry for the increase of atheists in Europe. I hope people realize more and more how very damaging atheists are in our daily lives. |
Salih 1st October 2005 |
I agree with Ottawan, as a Turk, I know that the 43% of people does not attend the church.Turkey is not a christian country.. |
Salih 1st October 2005 |
I agree with ottawan, as a Turk, I know that the 43% of people attend the church.Turkey is not a christian country.. |
Canadian 22nd September 2005 |
The Stat is based on surveyed people. So (ironically) there is significant possibility for lying. Secondly, no where does it specify the religion. Secondly, the political impact and methods on which religion is permitted to affect a country or their foreign policy is not necessarily and indicator of it's devotion to said religion. Just because a country's government understands the necessity of separation of church and state doesn't mean the populace is any less devoted to a religion (the Belgium/USA reference). Also the internal transportation, such as public transit or frequency of motor vehicles could play an important factor in the ability to attend church. Ie a country with less ability to travel to a church, obviously can't attend as often. Also, 38% for Canada seems low (I'm an athiest, by the way). |
Aaron 21st August 2005 |
I would imagine that "Church" means Christian as well as other religions like Islam and such. |
AC 17th August 2005 |
If you go to the quoted source (www.religioustolerance.org)they make this comment:-
"These numbers are somewhat suspect. Church attendance data in the U.S. has been checked against actual values using two different techniques. The true figures show that only about 20% of Americans and 10% of Canadians actually go to church one or more times a week. Many Americans and Canadians tell pollsters that they have gone to church even though they have not. Whether this happens in other countries, with different cultures, is difficult to predict."
PS As an atheist I applaud the decline of religion. It does little good and much harm. |
John 1st August 2005 |
* Based on 1990-1991 survey data
If you checked now, Irish church attendance would be < 10%
I am Agnostic. If I don't know, you don't either |
Molly 18th July 2005 |
I am doing a project and was amazed to find out that only 16% of Australians go to church, isn't Australia ment to be Church of England? |
Ottawan 24th June 2005 |
Also, India, which about 2.3% of its people CLAIM to be Christian, wouldn't have 42% "church"-goer, and I, a Canadian, know that the Canadian figure is not 38%, but much closer to 20%. (I really want to know the source now.) I think these figures include Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus. (I have a suggestion: mosques, at least to logical people, are not classified as "churches".) |
Ottawan 24th June 2005 |
Does "church" mean "Christian church"? Because it is hard to believe that Turkey, a clearly Muslim country, wouldn't have 43% Christians. I also think that Belgium is much more secular than 44%. It is definitely not as "religious" as countries like the US. I want to know what the source of the data is. |
Alaric 23rd June 2005 |
I can't believe the US is so high on the list. Absolutely no one i know goes to church. |
A.N. 23rd June 2005 |
Let me get this right...Over a quarter of the adults in the UK are meant to go to the church at least once every week! What a bunch of claptrap!!! You'd be hard-pressed to find ANY Christians in this country, let alone committed ones. |
Seth 20th June 2005 |
The "*" means " * Based on 1990-1991 survey data. ". However, another survey from 1981 shows that France had 18% church attendance per MONTH. And it only decreased since that time. I think the credibility of this source should be put in question. |
Seth 20th June 2005 |
These stats are quite old apparently (quite old = a few decades).
French monthly church attendance (2004) = 7,7%.
Weekly church attendance is of course even less.
A bit different from the fantasy we see here - 21%! wtf?
Search the net for any other source if you don't believe me... |
Lindsay 20th June 2005 |
The data is based on a survey that is nearly 15 years old. Things have changed. Many older Christians that regularly attended church on Sunday have died and Ireland is experiencing a radical decline that one day may leave it like Quebec in Canada. |
Ken 3rd June 2005 |
There's no way 84% of Irish go to church!!! |
wu 24th May 2005 |
Is this indicative of percentage of Christians or the whole country's population? |
sigurd_sieg@yahoo.com 18th April 2005 |
I am a Catholic and i really fear for the decline of religion in Europe. I hope people realize how very important religion is in our daily lives. |
justin 2nd December 2004 |
its interesting to note in the developed countries we are seeing less attendance. is it because they have it all? |