This book is about how to reduce poverty and improve global living standards. Topics include economic growth, income inequality, corruption, sustainable development, the future of technology, and much more.
Below is a sample of questions answered th...
Many people say religion is essential to their lives. They couldn't live without it, or if they did, they would be unhappy. Others claim religion caused the birth of civilization and the first educational institutions. Some say religion strengthens human rights and promotes equality. Supposedly, religious people live longer and are less corrupt.
If this is all true, then countries with a higher percentage of religious people in them should score better on the Standard of Living Index. After all, it measures health, education, happiness, corruption, human rights, poverty, and so on.
People in every country were asked in a Gallup Poll whether religion was important to them in their daily lives [1]. Those that said yes were considered religious. Those that said no were considered irreligious (meaning not religious).
The poll didn't ask participants if they were atheists. But countries with the highest share of citizens saying religion isn't important tend to have the most atheists and agnostics.
An atheist doesn't believe in God or anything else supernatural. An agnostic is someone who isn't sure whether they believe in God or other spiritual beings.
Someone that is not religious is considered irreligious. Notice the "ir" in front of the word. It's easy to miss. An irreligious person is an atheist, agnostic, or doesn't give much thought to spiritual matters.
A religious individual believes strongly in a particular superstition. This is regardless of whether they go to church or the institutional equivalent.
Though I expected to see a positive correlation between irreligiosity and standard of living, I didn't expect it to be as strong as it was. Nations with fewer religious citizens have significantly better living standards.
Below are the results of the Gallup poll, with comparisons of countries' placements on the Standard of Living Index:
Figure 52
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Sources: Gallup | Standard of Living Index
The horizontal axis is the percentage of citizens that aren't religious. The vertical axis is nations' scores on the Standard of Living Index. Countries with a larger proportion of irreligious residents tend to have better living standards. Nordic countries are the least religious and have the best quality of life. Turkey, Mexico, Greece, Chile, Poland, Italy, and Portugal are the most religious and have the worst living standards among the OECD. R^2=0.50. That means every 1% increase in irreligiosity correlates with a 0.50% increase on the Standard of Living Index. Countries in which twice as many people identify as not religious have 50% better living standards.
To reiterate, citizens that live in religious countries don't live as long, are less happy, less educated, have higher poverty rates, fewer human rights, higher rates of corruption, their women are worse off, etc. This is the opposite result of what religion supposedly offers people.
