{"id":273071,"date":"2025-09-04T09:50:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=273071"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:40:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:40:36","slug":"many-religious-nones-around-the-world-hold-spiritual-beliefs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/09\/04\/many-religious-nones-around-the-world-hold-spiritual-beliefs\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Religious \u2018Nones\u2019 Around the World Hold Spiritual Beliefs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Fireflies
Fireflies glow in the forest in rural Japan. (tdub303\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How we did this<\/summary>\n

Pew Research Center conducted this study to better understand the religious and spiritual beliefs, practices, and views of the growing number of people around the world who are religiously unaffiliated (meaning they say they are atheist, agnostic or \u201cnothing in particular\u201d when asked about their religion). We particularly wanted to look at the internal diversity among the unaffiliated, who are also called religious \u201cnones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report is based on surveys in 36 countries. However, we have focused on 22 countries where the survey\u2019s samples of religiously unaffiliated adults are large enough to analyze and report separately. \u201cNones\u201d make up 5% or fewer of adults in the remaining 14 countries. For more about sample sizes, refer to the methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside the United States,<\/strong> this report draws on nationally representative surveys of a total of 23,202 adults interviewed from Jan. 5 to May 15, 2024. Interviews were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Peru and South Africa. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode, probability-based online panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the U.S.<\/strong>, data comes from respondents contacted in three separate surveys, each with more than 10,000 respondents. The surveys were conducted over the following dates. Select each survey title to read about the specific survey\u2019s methodology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n