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Irreligious - Definition and Overview |
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Irreligion is the absence of religious following. Although people classified as irreligious do not follow a religion, it does not necessarily imply a lack of belief in a god or gods; such a person may be a non-religious or non-practicing theist, rather than an atheist or agnostic, although most people who declare themselves irreligious are not theists.
| Table: Those identifying themselves as having no religion by country
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| Country
| Percentage stating they have no religion
| Source
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| Australia | 17.5% of the 88.3% of the population choosing to answer a question on religion | Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001 census) [1] (http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0/9658217EBA753C2CCA256CAE00053FA3?Open)
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| New Zealand | 32.0% of the 85.9% of the population adequately answering a question on religion | Statistics New Zealand (2001 census) [2] (http://www.stats.govt.nz/domino/external/web/CensusTables.nsf/htmldocs/Religious+Affiliation)
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| United Kingdom | 16.8% of the 92.7% of the population choosing to answer a question on religion | UK National Statistics (2001 census) [3] (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=293)
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| United States | 15.0% of the 94.6% of those choosing to answer a question on religion (based on a survey of 50,281 households in 48 out of 50 states) | American Religious Identification Survey (2001) (as reported by US Census Bureau[4] (http://www.census.gov/prod/www/religion.htm))
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