The 10 least and most religious countries (Picture: PA Graphic)

The UK is among the least religious countries in the world, according to a new survey.

In a global ranking of 65 countries, the UK came six places from last with 30 per cent of the population calling themselves religious.

While 53 per cent of people said they were ‘not religious’, just 13 per cent said they were a ‘convinced atheist’ and the remainder ‘did not know’.

It compares to 94 per cent of people in Thailand who are religious and 93 per cent of people in Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia and Morocco.


At the bottom of the list was China where only 6 per cent of people say they are religious while 61 per cent say they are convinced atheists.



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It was followed by Japan, where just 13 per cent of people are religious, Sweden with 19 per cent , Czech Republic with 23 per cent, and the Netherlands and Hong Kong with 26 per cent.

Jean-Marc Leger, president of Win/Gallup International Association, said globally an average of two-thirds of people still consider themselves religious.

‘Religion continues to dominate our everyday lives and we see that the total number of people who consider themselves to be religious is actually relatively high,’ he said.

‘Furthermore, with the trend of an increasingly religious youth globally, we can assume that the number of people who consider themselves religious will only continue to increase.’

Overall, those under 34 tend to be more religious than other age groups, as do those without a formal education but in general religious people are a majority in all educational levels.

The poll was carried out by market research company WIN/Gallup International, which questioned 63,898 people – around 1,000 in each country – at the end of last year.