Irreligion in New Zealand

Post-war New Zealand has become a highly secular country, meaning that religion does not play a major role in the lives of most people.

An alternative theory is that the data indicates a decline in institutional religious affiliation rather than simply a decrease in spiritual belief.

It received mail-responses from around one thousand New Zealanders above the age of 18, surveying issues of religious belief and practice.

The results of this survey indicated that 72% of the population believed in a god or a higher power, 15% were agnostic, and 13% were atheist (with a 3% margin of error).

[9] According to a report by the American Physical Society, religion may die out in New Zealand and eight other Western world countries.