Irreligion in Latin America refers to various types of

irreligion Irreligion or nonreligion is the absence or rejection of religion, or indifference to it. Irreligion takes many forms, ranging from the casual and unaware to full-fledged philosophies such as atheism and agnosticism, secular humanism and ...

, including

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

agnosticism Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficien ...

deism Deism ( or ; derived from the Latin ''deus'', meaning " god") is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation o ...

secular humanism Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality ...

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...

and non-religious. According to a global survey conducted in 2011, 16% of the population has no religion (13% of non-religious, 2% atheists convinced and 1% didn't know answer).

Percentage by country

Historical Trends

*Sources: Based on Pew Center Research (All countries), America´s Barometer (All countries), Cid-Gallup Poll (Central America & Caribbean), National Census/Investigations (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay), Operation World (specifically Cuba)

Mexico and Central America

Caribbean

Northern South America

Southern Cone The Southern Cone ( es, Cono Sur, pt, Cone Sul) is a geographical and cultural subregion composed of the southernmost areas of South America, mostly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, bou ...

Mexico, Central America and Caribbean

Belize

According to the 2010 census, about 15.5% of the population of Belize is not religious.

Costa Rica

Approximately, 27% of the Costa Rican population is irreligious, either non-practitioner, atheist or agnostic.

Cuba

Estimates of the

Cuban people Cubans ( es, Cubanos) are people born in Cuba and people with Cuban citizenship. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds. Racial and ethnic groups Census The population of Cuba w ...

without religion varies from 30% to 40%, the number of atheists also from 10% to 20%. As of the

communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

and Marxism-Leninism influence since 1960´s decade.

Dominican Republic

Religiously unaffiliated people account 18% in Dominican Republic. Irreligious people round in 18-21% since earlies 2000´s.

El Salvador

El Salvador is one of the least religious countries in Central America and the Caribbean, reveling a considerable 24% of which 13% being atheist and 11% people without religion.

Guatemala

A public opinion survey estimated in 2008, self-identified irreligious were 18.3%, atheists accounted 10% and 8.3% were simply non-religious. Most Guatemalans are Christian as cultural influence, and politically the Church still have great relationship with government. According to updated ARDA statistics (2022), 41% of Guatemalans does not believe in God´s existence, compared to 10% or 5% in nearly the rest of Latin American countries. Essentially the country is one of least religious in Latin America, along Uruguay and Cuba. Unaffiliated Guatemalans could be traditionalist (in social points of views) like the religious population. In a Pentecostal study by the Pew Center Research, which examined three Latin American countries (Chile, Brazil and Guatemala), in Guatemala the non-religious population was 16%, while in Chile and Brazil was 8 and 7% respectively, but Pentecostals in Guatemala has more traditional point of views than Chilean and Brazilian Pentecostals.Spiritual and Power - A 10 countries surveys of Pentecostals
Pew Forum Research (page 77, 78 and 79.) According to Pew Center Research investigation in 2006, 82% of Guatemalan population was Christian, 15% unaffiliated (atheist or agnostic) and 3% other faiths. Today, Pew Center Research estimates low percentages of non-religious in the country due to politic influence for example the country's declaration as the Pro-Life Capital in Latin America. Academic investigations like World religion database, consider that non-religious in the country are small part of population, but there is much population being "non-denominational Christian".

Haiti

In Haiti, only 1% is not religious.

Honduras

In Honduras 15% is considered without religion (9% non-religious and 6% atheists)

Mexico

According to 2020 census by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 8 percent of population is non-religious (5% of atheists convinced), increasing from 5 percent in 2010. A survey question in 2006 by CID-Gallup about religious importance revealed that almost 30% of Mexican consider religion as not important. According to World Population Review, 38% of the Mexican population is irreligious.

Nicaragua

Nicaragua experienced a growth of non-religious between census 1995 and 2005, were more than 15% were classified as none, and 3% classified as convided atheist. According to free sources, nearly 20% of Nicaraguans are unaffiliated.

Panama

About 5% of Panamanians are irreligious (3% non-religious and 2% atheists).

Puerto Rico

Irreligion in Puerto Rico is relatively recent and has grown in recent years; about 11.1% of Puerto Ricans have no religion (6% non-religious and 5.1% atheists).

South America

Argentina

A survey conducted in August 2019 (CEIL/CONICET) reports that 18.9% of Argentines are non-religious, growing from 11% since 2008 report. It is observed that 81.9% believe in God and 18.1% do not. Ledges of Gender, age, education level and geographical location have all been cited as variables for irreligion, among men between 18–29, people with higher education and industrialized areas tend presence less belief in God roughly 83% and 89%.Creencias, valores y actitudes en la sociedad argentina
conicet.gov.ar, 29 January 2020 (Spanish) A CID-Gallup poll affirms that 16% of the Argentine population claims to be irreligious (8% non-religious and 8% atheists). While a recent 2020 survey from Latinobarometro report an unexpected growth as high as 40% of population.

Bolivia

In Bolivia, a large majority of the population is religious, of which only 3% of the population is atheist, agnostic or non-religious. A study in the Sucre City estimated that 7% doesn´t have religion (the least religious area of the country).

Brazil

Although in Brazil a large majority of the population is religious, a revealed 2000 Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) estimate 7.3% of the population being atheist, agnostic or non-religious. In 2010, the IBGE revealed an increased 8.3%, this tiny increment was because evangelical, religiously new age and afro-religions increasings.

Chile

In Chile, the proportion of people who are religious dropped from 92% in 1995 to 71% in 2015 according to Latinobarometro. Almost 17% of Chileans are atheist and 12% non-religious. In September 2011, a group of atheists founded the Atheist Society of Chile (In Spanish: Sociedad Atea de Chile). According to Latinbarometer poll in 2017 Chile is the second most irreligious country in South America after Uruguay with 38% of the population not following any religion.

Colombia

According to national census studies, between 1997 and 2004 non-religious people increased from 2.2% to 7% but convinced atheists remain less than 1%. In 2009, Americas Barometer reported little changes and placed 6.1% of non-religious and atheists convinced almost 1%. There are atheist organizations in Metropolitan cities.

Ecuador

According to the National Statistics Institute of Ecuador in 2011, 8.05% of Ecuadorians are not religious (7.94% atheists and 0.11% agnostics). There are atheists and secular organizations in the capital city or Quito.

Paraguay

According to the 2012 Pew Global Religious Landscape study, 1.1% of Paraguayans are religiously unaffiliated.

Peru

According to the 2017 Peruvian Census data, 5.1% of the Peruvian population older than 12 years old describes themselves as irreligious, but some sources estimtate around 8% of population. The irreligious population is predominantly urban (85.5%) and masculine (61.4%), about breakdown ages, 40.4% of total irreligious are people within the ages 18 and 29, while only 11.8% is older than 50 years. According to WIN International Survey, supported by Datum Internacional, 92% of Peruvians expressed their belief in God, 72% considered themselves religious, 20% non-religious and only 3% declared themselves to be

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Uruguay

Uruguay is the most secularized nation in the Americas with the highest percent of atheists and agnostics. 17.2% atheist or agnostic according to Uruguayan census. While according to the most recent official survey approximately 58.1% of Uruguayans define themselves as

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

, Many Uruguayans nominally describe themselves as Roman Catholics, but lifestyle is not affected by the religion. According to Kaufmann, E. (2010), 47% of Uruguayans are not religious, more than half are atheists or 25% and the other part is characterized of agnostics and non-religious, according to national census 2007, 40% of Uruguayans were not religious, of which 23% claim believed in God but doesn´t follow any religion and 17% are atheists or agnostics. Irreligion in Uruguay has a long history. During the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolish ...

, secularist political parties fought against the Catholic hegemony, although internally the society has been shallowly religious. Since 1919, the State is completely laicist or not confessional, and since 1920, Uruguayans have referred to Easter Week as "Tourism Week".

Venezuela

In Venezuela, secularization has been influencing the country specially in religious practicing since the industrialization during the 20th century, but since early twenty-first century, Protestants are also growing in the country. According to the University of Cambridge estimation, 11.7% of Venezuelans are without religion (atheists 6% and 5.7% of non-religious), also a national study estimated that 6% of Venezuelans are agnostics and 2% atheists, a total of 8% unaffiliated, being very popular into professional class according to the national investigation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irreligion Religious demographics

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...