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Originally Posted by Tyche Shepherd  Sorry those figures for the UK are not the number of Atheists - They come from the Annual British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS) and are based on the answer to the question "Do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?" - The latest figure I have access to is the 2006 figure where 44.77% say they don't belong to a particular religion - This is not the same as being an Atheist and doesn't preclude belief in God, Gods or other higher powers.
The BSAS did ask a question about this in 2000 , where 12.27% said they had no belief in God or a higher power, with another 14.65% who didn't know . The No religious affiliation figure for 2000 was 39.5% .
These figures are in line with the Census figures from the following year which I posted earlier |
I find these stats hard to believe as being representative - they just don't jibe with my experience at all. The only factor I can think of which could be responsible for the discrepancy is age - Being under 40 myself, I've probably mixed with more people under that age in my life than those over, and it certainly makes sense to me that Atheism would be more prevalent within a younger demographic.