◯ Modern secularisation, 19th century onward
Religiously unaffiliated
Atheists, agnostics and 'nothing in particular' — the single biggest net winner from religious switching anywhere on the planet.
Adherents
1.9bn
Share of world
24.2%
Median age
34
Net from switching
+96m
Where it is actually moving
Gains dominate in the rich world: Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Canada, Australia, Chile, Uruguay and South Korea all show large net flows out of religion and into no religion.
Largest unaffiliated populations
China
874m · 62%China holds the largest unaffiliated population on Earth — roughly 875 million people — alongside one of the fastest-growing Protestant communities.
United States
97.2m · 29%For every American raised with no religion who has since joined one, about six raised Christian have left — the largest raw switching flow in the Western hemisphere.
Japan
70.7m · 57%Most Japanese take part in Shinto and Buddhist ritual while reporting no religious affiliation — the clearest case anywhere of practice without belonging.
Germany
35.3m · 42%More than half a million Germans formally deregistered from a church in a single record year, a legally recorded act because of the church tax.
France
34.7m · 51%France hosts both Western Europe's largest Muslim population and one of its largest unaffiliated majorities.
United Kingdom
30.6m · 45%England and Wales became majority non-Christian for the first time in the 2021 census — the fastest recorded religious change in British history.
Vietnam
29.7m · 30%Protestant Christianity has grown fastest among the Hmong of the northern highlands, from almost nothing in 1985 to several hundred thousand.
South Korea
27.0m · 52%South Korea went from 1% Christian in 1900 to about a third today, and is now secularising faster than almost any country in Asia.
Brazil
23.8m · 11%Catholic share fell from 92% in 1970 to about 57% today, but most of that moved to Evangelical Protestantism rather than out of religion entirely.
Russia
21.6m · 15%One of the few countries with net movement *into* religion: Orthodox identification rose from about 31% in 1991 to over 70% after the Soviet collapse.
Spain
20.2m · 42%Pew records Spain's largest net switching loss of any Catholic country: about 36% of adults raised Catholic now identify with no religion.
Canada
14.0m · 35%Canada's Sikh population has more than doubled since 2001 and now exceeds 770,000, the largest share of any country outside India.