According to the 2021 census, only 2.25% of the population said they were Atheist, a decrease from the 2009 Census. [1] According to one study, Atheists constituted 18.8% of those who participated in the 2019 study, which was conducted by a government-affiliated think tank. However, another 2019 CRA study shows that 92.8 percent of the population self-identified as religious. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Religious affiliation of the responders | Population | Share of the population % |
---|---|---|
Islam | 12,870,000 | 70.19 |
Christianity | 4,130,000 | 26.17 |
Judaism | < 10,000 | 0.03 |
Buddhism | 60,000 | 0.09 |
Other religions | 90,000 | 0.19 |
No religion | 720,000 | 2.81 |
Did not answer | < 10,000 | 0.51 |
Total | 17,880,000 | 100.00 |
Ethnic group | Islam | Christianity | Judaism | Buddhism | other religions | unbelievers | did not answer | total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kazakhs | 9928705 | 39172 | 1929 | 749 | 1612 | 98511 | 26085 | 10096763 |
Russians | 54277 | 3476748 | 1452 | 730 | 1011 | 230935 | 28611 | 3793764 |
Uzbeks | 452668 | 1794 | 34 | 28 | 78 | 1673 | 722 | 456997 |
Ukrainians | 3134 | 302199 | 108 | 49 | 74 | 24329 | 3138 | 333031 |
Uighurs | 221007 | 1142 | 34 | 33 | 63 | 1377 | 1057 | 224713 |
Tatars | 162496 | 20913 | 47 | 58 | 123 | 16569 | 4023 | 204229 |
Germans | 2827 | 145556 | 89 | 66 | 192 | 24905 | 4774 | 178409 |
Koreans | 5256 | 49543 | 211 | 11446 | 138 | 28615 | 5176 | 100385 |
Turks | 96172 | 290 | 7 | 6 | 20 | 321 | 199 | 97015 |
Azerbaijanis | 80864 | 2139 | 16 | 16 | 24 | 1586 | 647 | 85292 |
Belarusians | 526 | 59936 | 25 | 9 | 20 | 5198 | 762 | 66476 |
Dungan | 51388 | 191 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 179 | 148 | 51944 |
Kurds | 37667 | 203 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 285 | 144 | 38325 |
Tajiks | 35473 | 331 | 2 | 6 | 30 | 307 | 128 | 36277 |
Poles | 235 | 30675 | 14 | 4 | 45 | 2486 | 598 | 34057 |
Chechens | 29448 | 940 | 6 | 3 | 16 | 653 | 365 | 31431 |
Kirghiz | 22500 | 206 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 352 | 200 | 23274 |
Other nationalities | 54533 | 82254 | 1286 | 1433 | 210 | 13266 | 4233 | 157215 |
All: | 11239176 | 4214232 | 5281 | 14663 | 3688 | 451547 | 81010 | 16009597 |
The demographics of Kazakhstan enumerate the demographic features of the population of Kazakhstan, including population growth, population density, ethnicity, education level, health, economic status, religious affiliations, and other aspects of the population. Some use the word Kazakh to refer to the Kazakh ethnic group and language and Kazakhstani to refer to Kazakhstan and its citizens regardless of ethnicity, but it is common to use Kazakh in both senses. It is expected that by 2050, the population will range from 23.5 to 27.7 million people.
Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, skepticism, rationalism, and secularism. These perspectives can vary, with individuals who identify as irreligious holding a diverse array of specific beliefs about religion or its role in their lives.
State atheism or atheist state is the incorporation of hard atheism or non-theism into political regimes. It is considered the opposite of theocracy and may also refer to large-scale secularization attempts by governments. To some extent, it is a religion-state relationship that is usually ideologically linked to irreligion and the promotion of irreligion or atheism. State atheism may refer to a government's promotion of anti-clericalism, which opposes religious institutional power and influence in all aspects of public and political life, including the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen. In some instances, religious symbols and public practices that were once held by religions were replaced with secularized versions of them. State atheism in these cases is considered as not being politically neutral toward religion, and therefore it is often considered non-secular.
The Catholic Church is "the Catholic Communion of Churches, both Roman and Eastern, or Oriental, that are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome ." The church is also known by members as the People of God, the Body of Christ, the "Temple of the Holy Spirit", among other names. According to Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, the "church has but one sole purpose–that the kingdom of God may come and the salvation of the human race may be accomplished."
Hinduism has approximately 1.2 billion adherents worldwide. Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world behind Christianity (31.5%) and Islam (23.3%).
Human rights in Kazakhstan are uniformly described as poor by independent observers. Human Rights Watch says that "Kazakhstan heavily restricts freedom of assembly, speech, and religion. In 2014, authorities closed newspapers, jailed or fined dozens of people after peaceful but unsanctioned protests, and fined or detained worshipers for practicing religion outside state controls. Government critics, including opposition leader Vladimir Kozlov, remained in detention after unfair trials. Torture remains common in places of detention."
Religion in Egypt controls many aspects of social life and is endorsed by law. The state religion of Egypt is Islam, although estimates vary greatly in the absence of official statistics. Since the 2006 census, religion has been excluded, and thus available statistics are estimates made by religious and non-governmental agencies. The country is majority Sunni Muslim, with the next largest religious group being Coptic Orthodox Christians. The exact numbers are subject to controversy, with Christians alleging that they have been systemically under-counted in existing censuses.
As of the year 2023, Christianity had approximately 2.4 billion adherents and is the largest religion by population. According to a PEW estimation in 2020, Christians made up to 2.38 billion of the worldwide population of about 8 billion people. It represents nearly one-third of the world's population and is the largest religion in the world, with the three largest groups of Christians being the Catholic Church, Protestantism, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The largest Christian denomination is the Catholic Church, with 1.3 billion baptized members. The second largest Christian branch is either Protestantism, or the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Asia is the largest and most populous continent and the birthplace of many religions including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism. All major religious traditions are practiced in the region and new forms are constantly emerging. Asia is noted for its diversity of culture. Islam and Hinduisms are the largest religion in Asia with approximately 1.2-1.3 billion adherents each.
Accurate demographics of atheism are difficult to obtain since conceptions of atheism vary considerably across different cultures and languages, ranging from an active concept to being unimportant or not developed. Also in some countries and regions atheism carries a strong stigma, making it harder to count atheists in these countries. In global studies, the number of people without a religion is usually higher than the number of people without a belief in a deity and the number of people who agree with statements on lacking a belief in a deity is usually higher than the number of people who self-identify as "atheists".
Religion in Cyprus is dominated by Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity, whose adherents make up 73% of the total population of the entire island. Most Greek Cypriots are members of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox 'Church of Cyprus'. Most Turkish Cypriots are officially Sunni Muslims. There are also Baháʼí, Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Armenian Apostolic, and non-religious communities in Cyprus.
According to various polls, the majority of Kazakhstan's citizens, primarily ethnic Kazakhs, identify as Sunni Muslims. In 2020, Shia Muslims made up 20% of the population.
The Turkmen of Turkmenistan, are predominantly Muslims. According the U.S. Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report for 2022,
According to U.S. government estimates, the country is 93 percent Muslim, 6.4 percent Eastern Orthodox, and 0.6 percent other. There are small communities of Jehovah's Witnesses, Shia Muslims, Baha’is, Roman Catholics, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and evangelical Christians, including Baptists and Pentecostals. Most ethnic Russians and Armenians identify as Orthodox Christian and generally are members of the Russian Orthodox Church or Armenian Apostolic Church. Some ethnic Russians and Armenians are also members of smaller Protestant groups. There are small pockets of Shia Muslims, consisting largely of ethnic Iranians, Azeris, and Kurds, some located in Ashgabat, with others along the border with Iran and in the western city of Turkmenbashy.
Christianity is the dominant religioninPalau, practiced by around 72.8% of the total population, according to the 2022 census. Freedom of religion is enshrined in Palau's constitution.
A 2023 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 4% of Americans in the United States self-identified as atheists. This is an increase from 3.1% of Americans in 2014. However, in 2014, 9% of Americans agreed with the statement "Do not believe in God" while 2% agreed with the statement "Do not know if they believe in God". According to a poll by non-profit PRRI in 2023, 4% of Americans were atheist and 5% were agnostic. Polling by Gallup in 2022 showed that 17% of respondents replied "No" when asked "Do you believe in God?" in a binary fashion, but when worded differently in 2023, Gallup found that 12% of respondents replied they "Do not believe in" God and 14% replied they were "Not sure about" the existence of God. According to Gallup, there are variations in their polling results because they ask about God in three different wordings, each with a different result.
Irreligion in Ireland pertains to the population of Ireland that are atheist, agnostic, or otherwise unaffiliated with any religion. The 2022 census recorded that 14% of the population was irreligious; the second largest category after Roman Catholicism. The population was traditionally devoutly Catholic throughout much of Ireland's modern history, with a peak of 94.9% identifying as Catholic in the 1961 census. This percentage has declined to 69% in the 2022 census, the lowest recorded. Conversely, those with no religion made up less than 0.1% of the population in 1961; the proportion grew slowly until the 1991 census where it began to rapidly increase to its current share of 14% of the population in 2022.
Irreligion in Azerbaijan is open to interpretation according to differing censuses and polls. Although Shia Islam is the predominant faith in Azerbaijan, religious affiliation is nominal in Azerbaijan and percentages for actual practicing adherents are much lower. It is difficult to quantify the number of atheists or agnostics in Azerbaijan as they are not officially counted in the census of the country.
Irreligion in Latin America refers to various types of irreligion, including atheism, agnosticism, deism, secular humanism, secularism and non-religious. According to a Pew Research Center survey from 2014, 8% of the population is not affiliated with a religion. According to Latinobarómetro, the share of irreligious people in Latin America quadrupled between 1996 and 2020, from 4% to 16%.
The Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan is a central executive body of the Government of Kazakhstan. Formed by the presidential decree on 13 September 2016 as the Ministry of Social Development. The Ministry is responsible for interaction with religious associations, ensuring the rights of citizens to freedom of religion, interaction between the state and the civil sector, and youth policy.