A majority of Australians believe in a God, spirit, or life force. According to our 2024 Australian Community Survey, nearly six in 10 Australians say they believe in God or a higher power (58%). One in five say they don't know (21%) and one in five say they do not believe (21%).
Majority believe in God
Not only does most of Australia identify with Christianity, but more than half (55%) of the population believes in God, as defined as the Creator of the universe, the Supreme Being.
Story Highlights. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup's trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God.
This belief has been persisting for centuries (if not millennia) and will likely to continue perhaps even after we colonise the moon and Mars (will there be ghosts there?). More than 33% of Australians believe that ghosts exist and in some polls the number is up to 50%.
Relative to its own populations, Zuckerman ranks the top five countries with the highest possible ranges of atheists and agnostics: Sweden (46–85%), Vietnam (81%), Denmark (43–80%), Norway (31–72%), and Japan (64–65%).
Whilst atheism has been prominent in our culture for some time – be it through Karl Marx, George Eliot, or Ricky Gervais – it is only now that atheists have begun to outnumber theists for the first time in our history."
Atheism is prohibited in Saudi Arabia and can come with a death penalty, if one is charged as an atheist.
However, Christianity may experience the largest net losses in terms of religious conversion, according to expectations.
Gen Z's turn toward Christianity reflects a desire for stability, community, and meaning in uncertain times.
As per 2021 census, Hindus form 2.7% of Australia's total population. From 2011 to 2021, in 10 years Hindus have increased from 275,521 to 684,002, a growth of 408,462 or 148.2%, making Hinduism fastest growing religion of Australia.
Belief in God over time
Since 2007, most religiously affiliated groups have seen a decline in the share who are certain that God exists. For example, the share of Christians who say they are absolutely certain that God exists has ticked down from 80% in 2007, to 76% in 2014, to 73% in 2023-24.
Forty-eight per cent said they agreed that the Bible, "like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true," while 43 per cent disagreed. Another eight per cent said they weren't sure.
When discussing the Australian population by race, the majority of the population is considered to be white. A white person is defined as a person who has European ancestry. In Australia, about 90.2 percent of the nation's population is white.
"A comprehensive study conducted in the US found that millennials are turning their backs on traditional religious institutions but continuing their search for spirituality. Sociological findings suggest that young people are severing ties with religious structures that conflict with their individual values.
Whilst boomers and millennials may use the 😂 emoji, this has long since been deemed 'uncool' (or 'cheugy') by Gen Z. Instead, this has been replaced by the skull (💀) or the crying emoji (😭), dramatising the idea of 'dying with laughter'.
Statistics commonly measure the absolute number of adherents, the percentage of the absolute growth per-year, and the growth of converts in the world. Studies in the 21st century suggest that, in terms of percentage and worldwide spread, Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world.
Currently, China, North Korea, and Vietnam, are officially atheist. Cuba was an atheist state until 2019, when a change in its constitution declared it a secular state.
Trump was raised in his Scottish-born mother's Presbyterian faith, and publicly identified with it for most of his adult life, including during his 2016 presidential campaign. However, in October 2020, Trump declared that he no longer identified as Presbyterian and now considered himself a nondenominational Christian.
Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion. If current trends continue, by 2050 … The number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.
Islam is one of the most widely practiced religions in the world, with followers present in almost every country. Besides India, many nations have a significant Muslim population. But there is one country where there is not a single Muslim resident. Vatican City is the world's smallest independent country.
Islamic states
A 2023 Gallup International survey found that Sweden was the country with the highest percentage of citizens that stated they do not believe in a god. In 2020, the majority (78%) of the global nonreligious or unaffiliated demographic resided in Asia-Pacific.