Religion Matters To Just One Third Of British People, New Figures Reveal

Britain Is One Of The Least Religious Countries In The World
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The UK is among the least religious countries in the world, with less than a third of Britons identifying as religious, according to a new poll.

In a global ranking of 65 countries, the UK came six places from last with just 30% of the population calling themselves religious.

The new figures revealed that more than half of those polled (53%) described themselves as "not religious", just 13% said they were a "convinced atheist" and the remainder "did not know".

This is in contrast to the 94% of people in Thailand who are religious and 93% of people in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco.

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Less than a third of British people identified as religious

At the bottom of the list was China, where only 6% of people said they are religious and 61% said they are convinced atheists.

It was followed by Japan, where just 13% of people are religious, Sweden with 19% , Czech Republic with 23%, and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 26%.

Jean-Marc Leger, president of Win/Gallup International Association, said globally an average of two-thirds of people still consider themselves religious.

He said: "Religion continues to dominate our everyday lives and we see that the total number of people who consider themselves to be religious is actually relatively high.

"Furthermore, with the trend of an increasingly religious youth globally, we can assume that the number of people who consider themselves religious will only continue to increase."

Overall, those under 34 tend to be more religious than other age groups, as do those without a formal education but, worldwide, religious people are a majority in all educational levels.

The poll was carried out by market research company WIN/Gallup International, which questioned 63,898 people - around 1,000 in each country - at the end of last year.