Do Pakistani doctors taking care of patients in America and Britain, of which there are a lot, still think their religion remains the only acceptable one? At both extremes, the poll reflects places that are largely insular. While China has a lot of ethnicities, they have a unified culture, much of it mandated by their government. The poorer Islamic nations now have a fair number of their citizens migrating to Europe and America. Do their views remain what they were or does the inevitable exposure to others in school, employment, or shopping malls change that? It would be interesting to see how a immigrants to Canada, US, Britain compare to the responses of their native country and how the next generation of native born become more like the only place they have lived.
There are countries not on the list that might also offer insight. Some Buddhist countries appear. Technically Buddhism has no God. Neither does Confucianism or Taoism which still have a presence in China. And India has a polytheistic religion, though with a dominant God. Not part of the survey. The concept of the Abrahamic faiths in monotheism is not shared by everyone, yet the survey question seems to present it as if it was.
Yup - this is always the issue in measuring religion. The questions are almost always written from a Judeo-Christian assumption.
I'll have more to say about this in a future post that digs deep into American religious beliefs. The metrics work well for some faiths, but not others.
Below is data on immigrants born outside Canada, which will be a mixed bag. I'm an "immigrant" because I was born in UK of British mother and Canadian father (soldier) right after WW2 in 1946. Came when I was 2 or so. Keeping that in mind, immigrants still appear more religious than Canada-born. I'm pretty sure effect would be even stronger separated by religiosity of home country, as in Ryan's graph. More generally, literature on acculturation of migrants is complex, depending on several factors such as age of immigration. And as you note, generation. My Greek wife grew up in Greece. Her relatives in Canada are certainly more active in the church and seemingly more religious than she is or her relatives here in Greece are. But Orthodox church in Canada serves many non-religious functions, including language maintenance, so hard to interpret. Preserving religion may be one way to preserve native culture.
Japan, Korea and China are strongly religious. Their traditions define the basic concepts differently from the Abrahamic religions. I don't know how a survey could capture this, but obviously the phrasing in this survey doesn't get there.
Religious "tolerance" is also fraught among populations that believe they have no religion: If I do not believe in any religion, I can hardly say that my religion is the correct one. But that does not mean that I am tolerant of religious pluralism. China is a great example of this, with both the lowest percentage of people who believe in God, and also 88% of people disagreeing with the statement that their religion is the correct one. But this obviously does not mean that China is religiously tolerant, what with their whole throwing religious believers in jail or worse.
There are less brutal examples that are found in Western countries. The Netherlands, for instance, has the third lowest percentage of people who believe in God, and 85% of people who disagree that their religion is the correct one. This doesn't stop Dutch government officials coming into worship services* with mandatory announcements about improper religious opinions (mainly about sexuality; the traditional Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Confucianist, and Taoist take that marriage is among men and women, not same-sex partners, is considered discriminatory and not allowed.) Meanwhile in irreligious Iceland, a Catholic priest is facing jail time for expressing the church's stance on marriage, as expressing any negative opinion on homosexuality violates that country's ban on conversion therapy. (See here, for instance: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/03/13/tensions-grow-in-iceland-as-priest-upholds-churchs-moral-teaching/ ) So while these countries might consider themselves open-minded and religiously tolerant because most of their citizens have no religion, they most certainly are not.
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*On my Dutch island colony, where >85% of citizens self-identify as Christians, this was on Easter Sunday.
I would not have guessed that 96% of Myanmars (88% who are Buddhist) believe "the only acceptable religion is my religion." However Thailand is 93% Buddhist and only 46% think their religion is exclusively acceptable. So it is very culturally dependent.
However, big picture these results show religious tolerance tends to be in Christian cultures, definitely not in Muslim cultures or even Buddhist cultures. There may be more tolerance in secular cultures too but the question isn't a good one to measure that with someone who doesn't believe they have a personal religion.
Bob, I address religious tolerance in secular cultures in my comment above. Short version: being secular means never having to say you're sorry for intolerance, you just get to redefine intolerance of religious beliefs as tolerance.
A fascinating topic and well covered. But it leads to a question. I have a family member who was born and raised in China and left as a young adult. She has shared many things from her life in China, notably how omnipresent, intrusive, and coercive is the present government. Knowing this, is the data from China valid? Are people able to respond to the survey in complete honesty and not in fear of their government?
Ah, the stories she tells. Especially about the underground church.
Fascinating article. I just went down a deep rabbit hole on why Czechia is so irreligious. What was interesting to me was that about 50% of the population believes in no religion, and yet it's not some progressive/liberal haven that some people on the left in the US would believe would come about if you abolished religion here. The ruling parties are right/far-right, same-sex marriage is illegal, and there's a 12-week limit to abortion. I wonder how much of this could be examined to gain a glimpse of the future of a US with a decline in Christianity but ascendant right-populist politics. (Or more bluntly: with a religion that upholds the value of life, community, and marriage in decline, what forms the basis of people's cultural conservatism? Deeply engrained rallying around certain in-group/out-group values because of growing 21st century economic scarcity and demographic decline? Just vibes? I'd honestly love to read about that.)
There is more to religion than belief in God or gods. Reincarnation, ancestors, the efficacy of sacrifices are all components of religion. Are there questions in the survey you used that address such issues or is the whole study just another example of the Abraham-centric (that is, Western) approach to religion?
I don't think I've ever read a book recommendation that feels more targeted at me... 😅
I really enjoyed this book (and the author is a great follow--especially for sports stuff--on Bluesky)
We have DM'ed. Can confirm.
Do Pakistani doctors taking care of patients in America and Britain, of which there are a lot, still think their religion remains the only acceptable one? At both extremes, the poll reflects places that are largely insular. While China has a lot of ethnicities, they have a unified culture, much of it mandated by their government. The poorer Islamic nations now have a fair number of their citizens migrating to Europe and America. Do their views remain what they were or does the inevitable exposure to others in school, employment, or shopping malls change that? It would be interesting to see how a immigrants to Canada, US, Britain compare to the responses of their native country and how the next generation of native born become more like the only place they have lived.
There are countries not on the list that might also offer insight. Some Buddhist countries appear. Technically Buddhism has no God. Neither does Confucianism or Taoism which still have a presence in China. And India has a polytheistic religion, though with a dominant God. Not part of the survey. The concept of the Abrahamic faiths in monotheism is not shared by everyone, yet the survey question seems to present it as if it was.
Yup - this is always the issue in measuring religion. The questions are almost always written from a Judeo-Christian assumption.
I'll have more to say about this in a future post that digs deep into American religious beliefs. The metrics work well for some faiths, but not others.
Below is data on immigrants born outside Canada, which will be a mixed bag. I'm an "immigrant" because I was born in UK of British mother and Canadian father (soldier) right after WW2 in 1946. Came when I was 2 or so. Keeping that in mind, immigrants still appear more religious than Canada-born. I'm pretty sure effect would be even stronger separated by religiosity of home country, as in Ryan's graph. More generally, literature on acculturation of migrants is complex, depending on several factors such as age of immigration. And as you note, generation. My Greek wife grew up in Greece. Her relatives in Canada are certainly more active in the church and seemingly more religious than she is or her relatives here in Greece are. But Orthodox church in Canada serves many non-religious functions, including language maintenance, so hard to interpret. Preserving religion may be one way to preserve native culture.
https://www.cardus.ca/research/faith-communities/research-brief/religion-and-belief-among-immigrants-to-canada/
Japan, Korea and China are strongly religious. Their traditions define the basic concepts differently from the Abrahamic religions. I don't know how a survey could capture this, but obviously the phrasing in this survey doesn't get there.
Always the pernicious problem in trying to do a cross-national survey. Very few concepts travel well across borders and cultures.
Add in social desirability bias issues, language barriers, etc. It's really an impossible task.
Religious "tolerance" is also fraught among populations that believe they have no religion: If I do not believe in any religion, I can hardly say that my religion is the correct one. But that does not mean that I am tolerant of religious pluralism. China is a great example of this, with both the lowest percentage of people who believe in God, and also 88% of people disagreeing with the statement that their religion is the correct one. But this obviously does not mean that China is religiously tolerant, what with their whole throwing religious believers in jail or worse.
There are less brutal examples that are found in Western countries. The Netherlands, for instance, has the third lowest percentage of people who believe in God, and 85% of people who disagree that their religion is the correct one. This doesn't stop Dutch government officials coming into worship services* with mandatory announcements about improper religious opinions (mainly about sexuality; the traditional Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Confucianist, and Taoist take that marriage is among men and women, not same-sex partners, is considered discriminatory and not allowed.) Meanwhile in irreligious Iceland, a Catholic priest is facing jail time for expressing the church's stance on marriage, as expressing any negative opinion on homosexuality violates that country's ban on conversion therapy. (See here, for instance: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/03/13/tensions-grow-in-iceland-as-priest-upholds-churchs-moral-teaching/ ) So while these countries might consider themselves open-minded and religiously tolerant because most of their citizens have no religion, they most certainly are not.
-----------------------
*On my Dutch island colony, where >85% of citizens self-identify as Christians, this was on Easter Sunday.
I would not have guessed that 96% of Myanmars (88% who are Buddhist) believe "the only acceptable religion is my religion." However Thailand is 93% Buddhist and only 46% think their religion is exclusively acceptable. So it is very culturally dependent.
However, big picture these results show religious tolerance tends to be in Christian cultures, definitely not in Muslim cultures or even Buddhist cultures. There may be more tolerance in secular cultures too but the question isn't a good one to measure that with someone who doesn't believe they have a personal religion.
Bob, I address religious tolerance in secular cultures in my comment above. Short version: being secular means never having to say you're sorry for intolerance, you just get to redefine intolerance of religious beliefs as tolerance.
I agree. Not true of all but I feel like secular people are less tolerant than Christian-Jewish ones.
A fascinating topic and well covered. But it leads to a question. I have a family member who was born and raised in China and left as a young adult. She has shared many things from her life in China, notably how omnipresent, intrusive, and coercive is the present government. Knowing this, is the data from China valid? Are people able to respond to the survey in complete honesty and not in fear of their government?
Ah, the stories she tells. Especially about the underground church.
Fascinating article. I just went down a deep rabbit hole on why Czechia is so irreligious. What was interesting to me was that about 50% of the population believes in no religion, and yet it's not some progressive/liberal haven that some people on the left in the US would believe would come about if you abolished religion here. The ruling parties are right/far-right, same-sex marriage is illegal, and there's a 12-week limit to abortion. I wonder how much of this could be examined to gain a glimpse of the future of a US with a decline in Christianity but ascendant right-populist politics. (Or more bluntly: with a religion that upholds the value of life, community, and marriage in decline, what forms the basis of people's cultural conservatism? Deeply engrained rallying around certain in-group/out-group values because of growing 21st century economic scarcity and demographic decline? Just vibes? I'd honestly love to read about that.)
There is more to religion than belief in God or gods. Reincarnation, ancestors, the efficacy of sacrifices are all components of religion. Are there questions in the survey you used that address such issues or is the whole study just another example of the Abraham-centric (that is, Western) approach to religion?
The full set of questions under the heading "religious values" can be examined here:
https://i.imgur.com/uxvnsuL.png
And just to be absolutely clear -- I have nothing at all to do with the collection of data for the World Values Survey.
Which is also the case with 95% of the data that I employ on this newsletter.