ZAP
It is already close to less than half, but the Portuguese average is far higher than European. Each country’s income gives rise to contrasts.
Gallup International International Inquiry (EOY) was conducted in 42 countries around the world. In Portugal, it was conducted by Intercampus.
After more than 43,000 interviews on positioning religion, between October 2024 and February 2025, it was found that Portugal is a “distinct case” in Europeas read in a statement sent to zap.
A European average is 37% of religious believers and practitioners. But in Portugal the percentage rises to 52%. It has been going down but is still above half of the population.
33% of respondents in Portugal said they were not religious and only 11% answered that they are convinced atheists.
It is a “unique position” in the European context, since in Europe the largest percentage (44%) is people who are not a religious practitioner. 11% replied to be an atheist.
Thus, the 52% of religious in Portugal are clearly closer to the world average (55%) instead of 52% in Europe.
The country with more believers and religious practitioners is the Pakistan (94%), ahead of Kenya (93%), Georgia (93%) and Iraq (92%).
At the other extreme, the China It is the country with more atheist (58%), followed by Japan (31%) and South Korea (23%).
This study also shows that the connection to religion is strongly associated with factors such as gender, education and income of countries.
As women (58%) are more religious than men (51%), as was already the case.
Among respondents with studies More advanced, 50% is a believer; Among those who have the least level of education, the percentage clearly rises to 67%.
The most evident difference is in the country income: In the richest countries, 36% of respondents said they were religious; In countries with lower income, there were 78%.
Global, the fall is evident: 20 years ago, 68% of respondents across the planet said they were religious; Now there are 55%.
