Although Brazil is a secular country with no official religion associated with the state, Brazil tops the list of countries where people believe in God the most. This is the result of a survey by the organization Global Religion 2023published by Ipsos Institute. In Brazil, 89% of respondents said they believed in a higher power, putting the country at the top of 26 countries surveyed. The study data was collected on an online monitoring platform that collects information on the behavior of populations.
In the list, Brazil appears technically level with South Africa, where the same 89% of believers lived, and with Colombia at 86% which, according to those responsible for the study, represents a technical tie due to the error tolerance of 3.5 percentage points. However, according to the study, the countries where the belief is less widespread are: Holland with 40%; South Korea with 33%; and Japan with 19% of the faithful. In these countries there is almost no belief in God or a higher power.
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The study, developed by Global Religion 2023, was based on data collected between January 20 and February 3. 19,731 people were interviewed, around a thousand of them in Brazil alone. There is only one Islamicmajority country in the sample, Turkey; However, people in other countries who profess Islam were also interviewed.
What the experts say
Ricardo Mariano, sociologist of religion and professor at the University of São Paulo (USP), explained: “In everyday Brazilian life, people talk about God all the time, it’s something common and normal, and it’s strange when someone reacts negatively to it.” It.
The scholar also points out that Brazil tends to stand out in international research on faith and religiosity. Because belief in God and spirituality are deeply rooted in Brazilian culture a country that, like Portugal, emerged from the Catholic Church. Spirituality also exists among those who do not subscribe to any particular religion.
The God of Scripture
According to the Ipsos survey, 70% of respondents said they believe in God as described in scriptures such as the Bible, Quran and Torah. 19% of respondents believe in a superior power, but not as described in the holy books. Finally, about 5% of Brazilians said they did not believe in God; 4% who don’t know; and about 2% chose not to answer the survey questions.
According to Helio Gastaldi, Director of Public Opinion at Ipsos in Brazil: “These are dates consistent with our history of a country where religion and religiosity reign supreme both in culture and in everyday life and in the spheres of power.”
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