The unaffiliated rank third among world religion groups, Pew study says

[cbayer]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/18/15993849-the-unaffiliated-rank-third-among-world-religion-groups-pew-study-says?lite


Franciscan nuns and Nigerian Christians pray inside St. Catherine's Church, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, traditionally accepted as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Monday.

By Becky Bratu, NBC News

Roughly one in six people around the world has no religious affiliation, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life found, making the unaffiliated the third-largest religious group worldwide, behind Christians and Muslims, and about equal in size to the world’s Catholic population.

The religiously unaffiliated population includes atheists, agnostics and people who do not identify with any particular religion in surveys, the study issued Tuesday reads. Many of the religiously unaffiliated, however, hold religious or spiritual beliefs, the study emphasized.
Advertise | AdChoices

"For example, belief in God or a higher power is shared by 7 percent of Chinese unaffiliated adults, 30 percent of French unaffiliated adults and 68 percent of unaffiliated U.S. adults," it read.

Making up 16.3 percent of the world population, this group comprises a majority of the population in six countries. China's number of religiously unaffiliated is the largest, with a 62 percent share.

more at link

[okasha]

1. I wonder how the Chinese numbers would run

if Beijing didn't set up its own puppets in religious positions and punish any religious group it can't control.