[+/-] Contemporary patterns of atheism

A few factoids about atheism courtesy of The Evangelical Atheist:

[T]here are approximately 58 times as many atheists as there are Mormons, 41 times as many atheists as there are Jews, 35 times as many atheists as there are Sikhs, and twice as many atheists as there are Buddhists. Finally, nonbelievers in God as a group come in fourth place after Christianity (2 billion), Islam (1.2 billion), and Hinduism (900 million) in terms of global ranking of commonly-held belief systems.

[N]ations marked by high levels of organic atheism – such as Sweden, the Netherlands, and France — are among the healthiest, wealthiest, most educated, and most free societies on earth.

Of the 25 top-scoring nations on the United Nations Human Development Index, which is based on such things as life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate, per capita income, and educational attainment, all but one (Ireland), have large numbers of atheists. EVERY ONE of the bottom 50 has practically no atheists.

Read more here.