The data for religiosity per country comes from Gallup

The GDP data comes from the World Bank WDI

I used ggplot2 to make the graph. The full gist to recreate this is here.

Posted by huxleyan

44 comments

  1. Very interesting! Which country Had the highest percentage of saying Religion is important?

  2. ppl look at this and instantly go “oh so religion = poor” or the other way around. feels like the real thing here is just… when a country finally gets its shit together – healthcare, safety nets, schools – ppl stop depending on religion for day-to-day survival, so the importance drops on its own.

    also lowkey think age screws this chart a bit. older countries (japan/europe) always show less religiosity, and surprise – they’re the rich ones too

  3. the graph curves up at the end, the title is literally *not* what the data is saying. This feels like a post and title just to trigger r/atheism.

  4. But the curve bend upwards at the high end! CHECKMATE ATHEISTS

  5. The hypothesis generating question from this data is whether poverty leads people to seek out religion or other spiritual avenues to cope with hardships or if religious based institutions are more prone to corruption and reduced productivity and in turn lower GDP

  6. Based on the data, I agree. But that fit is not helping you make your point.

  7. I don’t know if I’d include Ireland… It’s been a tax haven for years, pumping up their numbers.

  8. I’m guessing something like the tech companies based in Ireland for tax purposes is what pushes it so high?

  10. I feel like the bigger story in this data is how smattering it is, and how most humans value religion.

  13. correlation ≠ causation

    wealthier countries also have more reported UFO sightings, whats the evidence this is not a spurious correlation?

  14. Hi friend you might consider that this could be a case of Simpsons paradox. For example, the richest districts in the US vote Democrat, but the richest people in those districts vote Republican. Depending on how you group you can change the conclusion

  16. This is bad data analysis. Correlation causation yada yada

  18. Well yeah. People replaced God with money and so the focus shifted

  20. The question is: is it a symptom or is it the disease?

  21. Is Ireland really richer than Switzerland now or does sth in the numbers not quite add up?! What happened in recent times that led to that?

  22. The population of countries on the top left is high, and on the bottom right is low. That is one of the factors..to rethink

  28. Hypothesis may be true but that isn’t at all what the chart shows.

  29. Irelands GDP is skewed right? Due to their tax haven for corporations?

  30. No shade, but I’m surprised Ireland seems to be the most economically prosperous country in the world.

  32. Well it depends on what you classify as religion. Because the countries on the right, money is their religion

  33. This shows that leaders want people under thier thumb under the pretense of religion. Once people get exposed to money and education, they fly out of the bubble. Eventually they get greedy and come back to god, but they are not under someone else’s thumb. This curve will never be a full circle (I hope).

  34. The plot show that the least religious country are the middle for what I can see if do the analisys only on the first world to get a more clean sample

  35. People also gotta work on faith when everything around them is doo doo or it truly would be too depressing. Like no access to healthcare you HAVE to pray just to keep your spirits up with your ongoing heart failure instead of going to a cardiovascular doctor to address your heart issue.

  36. I saw Ireland at the top of the GDP scale, and I thought that couldn’t be right…

    “Ireland’s GDP per capita is inflated by multinational corporations using its low corporate tax rate to book profits, a practice that distorts the country’s economic figures. These companies, particularly in the tech and pharmaceutical sectors, shift intellectual property and book profits in Ireland for tax purposes, even though the actual economic activity and ownership are elsewhere. This practice, along with its role as a hub for aircraft leasing and other factors, causes Ireland’s GDP to be a misleading indicator of the actual income and wealth of its residents, as the government’s own modified GNI statistic provides a more accurate picture.”

  37. Jesus’ own words corroborate this: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money.”

  38. Fascinating. Now let’s see the chart showing birth rate

  39. I dont know what you consider religious but the US is quite religious as are others on the right.

  40. This might be interesting if you had the shapes of your data points keyed to regions?

  41. If it wasn’t for religion, the country of Israel wouldn’t even exist.

  42. What is this non-continuous trend line silliness? This is not beautifully presented data.

  43. Ireland’s GDP is really warped by its many multinational corporate tax headquarters

  44. Except the countries that are now prosperous were very religious when they were developing that prosperity

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