A new study from the the University of Chicago looks at how people in differ- ent countries believe—or don’t believe—in God. The survey measured believe in theism (a basic belief in God), not any particular religious belief.
The study found that the most religious nation in the world is the Philippines. Specifically, 83.6 percent of people in the Philippines say they “know God really exists” and “have no doubts about it.” And 93.5 percent of Filipinos say they “believe in God now and always have.”
The United States also ranks fairly high in belief in God. A vast 80.8 percent of Americans say they have always believed in God and continue to do so, and 60.6 say they don’t have any doubts about their belief. To be fair, that lower number probably doesn’t include a number of Christians who doubt their faith on occa- sion, as doubt is hardly a foreign concept in Christianity.
Inversely, the least Christian countries are almost all in Europe. Former Communist regions like the Czech Republic and the eastern portion of Germany mostly don’t believe in God at all. In fact, 59.4 percent of people in eastern Germany say they don’t believe in God and never have. Only 3 percent of Americans say they don’t believe in God—an indication that political history matters.
