In many countries around the world, every fifth person or more people of the total adults have left the religion that they got with birth and in which they grew up.
According to a survey by the think tank Pew Research Center located in Washington, USA, Christianity and Buddhism have suffered a major loss with this ‘religious change’.
A survey conducted on adults of about 80,000 people in 36 countries revealed that the number of people who do not believe in any religion and have no religious connection.
Surveys show that the rates of religious changes in countries around the world are quite different.
Changing religion is very rare in some countries. In India, Israel, Nigeria and Thailand, 95% or more adults say that they are still associated with the same religious group in which they grew up.
But it has become very common to leave your religion in East Asia, Western Europe, North America and South America. For example, 50% adults in South Korea, 36% in Netherlands, 28% in the US and 21% in Brazil no longer add to their childhood religion.
What religion are people adopting?
The interesting thing here is that most people have come in the category which we call religiously unaffilized. That is, it includes those who answer the question asked about their religion by saying that they are atheists, agnostists (Agnostics- ie a person who believes that nothing is known or known about the existence or nature of God) or ‘no special’.
In other words, most people leave their childhood religion and then do not connect themselves with any religion.
Many of these people have grown up in Christianity. For example, 29% of adults in Sweden say that they have grown up in Christianity but now they call themselves atheists or Agnostics religiously or Agnostics.
Buddhists are also leaving religion
In some countries, followers of Buddhism are also separating from their religion. For example, 23% of adults surveyed in Japan and 13 percent of people in South Korea said that they were going to believe in Buddhism but today they do not connect themselves with any religion.
Religious to be born in an atheist family
However, not all changes do not go away from religion. Some people are also going in the opposite direction. During the survey, 36 countries have the highest number of people in South Korea, who say that they are not raised by any religion, but today their religion is (9%). Most of them (6%of all South Korean adults) say that they are not raised in any religion and now they are Christians.
Apart from this, one of about ten or more adults in Singapore (13%), South Africa (12%) and South Korea (11%) has switched between two religions.
Still domination of Christianity
Although these figures reflect religious trends in 36 countries included in the survey, they do not necessarily represent the population of the whole world. According to an estimate of Pew Research Center, Christianity – the largest and geographically the world’s largest and geographically – is either majority religion or historically surveyed 25 countries have been a major religion.
Islam is the second largest religion in the world, six out of the 36 countries conducted, historically prominent religion. Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tunisia and Türkiye. (Although we believe that Nigeria is dominated by both Christianity and Islam which is very divided religiously.
Buddhism is still the largest among these countries
Buddhism has been a major religion among the five other countries involved in the survey. Japan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Thailand. (South Korea also counts two major religions, Buddhism and Christianity.)
Only one country (India and Israel) included in the survey are Hinduism and Judaism are prominent religions.
In the survey, most countries have the highest proportion of people who have left Christianity compared to people involved in Christianity. That is, this religion has suffered the most.
The survey also shows that this change in Buddhism is causing a lot of damage due to this change, especially due to the separation of people in some countries like Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
However, in the survey countries, there is not a huge difference between those who leave Buddhism and those who adopt it as in Christianity. For example, in Japan – the country where the highest percentage of people say that they have grown up in Buddhism, but are no longer Buddhists – the ratio of those who leave Buddhism and those who adopt Buddhism is 1.0 at 11.7.
Which religion benefited from this religious change?
The category, which is the most profitable from this religious change, is ‘religiously unrelated’ (ie no religion who does not believe). That is, people left their religion and then they did not join any other religion.