This is just one of the many findings contained in the Faith and Belief in New Zealand report released last month.

The 67-page report contains a massive number of statistics and many easy to understand infographics.

Here just are a few examples of the information contained in the report.

Of those who took part in the study:

• 26% are warm towards Christianity
• 31% are cold towards Christianity
• Their attitude towards Christianity is most likely to be shaped by their parents and family (57%)
• The main blocker that stops them from engaging with Christianity is the Church's stance and teaching on homosexuality (47%)
• Almost as many are influenced by the idea that a loving God would allow people to go to hell (45%)
• Church abuse has the greatest negative influence (76% massive/significant negative influence)
• 69% think Christians do not practice what they preach
• 25% know fewer than two Christians
• 9% of these don't know any Christians
• 22% know nothing at all about the Church in New Zealand
• 60% know a little or a moderate amount about the Church in New Zealand
• 56% don't know their local church well at all
• 51% take a neutral stance regarding the impact of the church in their local area
• They appreciate the work the Church does in helping those in need
• They most value the work of the Church and Christian organisations in providing disaster relief
• Two-thirds value the Church and Christian organisations' work in looking after people who are homeless, offering financial assistance/food relief programmes and providing aged care facilities.

The report was commissioned by the Wilberforce Foundation. It explores attitudes towards religion, spirituality and Christianity in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

The research was undertaken during March and April 2018 by mccrindle, a research company based in Baulkham Hills, Australia.

The research employed qualitative and quantitative methods to explore Kiwi perceptions and attitudes towards Christianity, the Church and Jesus.

These methods included a nationally representative survey of Kiwis, a series of focus groups with non-Christians and analysis of Census data from Statistics New Zealand.

Read the report

Source

nzfaithandbeliefstudy.files.wordpress.com

The other two are France and the Netherlands.

These are some of the predictions made by Washington-based think-tank, Pew Research Centre, in a recently published report.

The report predicted that by 2050

• In the Asia Pacific region, the proportion of freethinkers will decline from 21% in 2010 to 17%
• The proportion of Christians in New Zealand will decline from 57% to 44.7 %
• The proportion of unaffiliated in New Zealand will reach 45.1%, making this category the largest "religion," by a whisker.
• In North America the proportion of people unaffiliated with any religion will increase from 19% to 23%
• In Europe the proportion of unaffiliated will increase from 17% to almost 26%.

These projections, which take into account demographic factors such as fertility, age composition and life expectancy, forecast that people with no religion will make up about 13% of the world's population in 2050, down from roughly 16% as of 2010.

This is largely attributable to the fact that religious "nones" are, on average, older and have fewer children than people who are affiliated with a religion.

Listen to Radio New Zealand's "The Panel" discussion, Decline of religion

Other predictions include:

• 40 million people are predicted to switch to Christianity, while 106 million are predicted to leave.
• The number of Muslims will grow from 1.6 billion in 2010, to 2.76 billion by 2050.
• The growth in those choosing Christianity will grow far slower, rising from 2.17 billion, to 2.76.
• The percentage of Christians remains at 31.4 %, while the percentage of Muslims rises from just 23.2% to 29.7%
• Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion - though increasing in countries such as the United States and France - will make up a declining share of the world's total population.
• The global Buddhist population will be about the same size it was in 2010, while the Hindu and Jewish populations will be larger than they are today.
• In Europe, Muslims will make up 10% of the overall population.
• India will retain a Hindu majority but also will have the largest Muslim population of any country in the world, surpassing Indonesia.
• In the United States, Christians will decline from more than three-quarters of the population in 2010 to two-thirds in 2050.
• Judaism will no longer be the largest non-Christian religion in the United States. Muslims will be more numerous in than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
• Four out of every 10 Christians in the world will live in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The number of countries with a Christian majority is expected to decline from 159 to 151 by 2050.

Pew's researchers took six years to analyse information from about 2,500 data sources, including censuses, demographic surveys, general population surveys and other studies.

Source

• PewResearchCentre
• Pewresearch.org
• channelnewsasia
• Radio New Zealand
• Radio New Zealand
• Image: The Huffington Post