Pew: Atheists and Agnostics Far More Likely to Be on Political Left Than Religious People

Atheists and agnostics in the United States and many countries around the world are far more likely than religious individuals to identify with the political left, according to a new Pew Research Center report.

The Pew Fact Tank report, released Sept. 28 and based on Pew’s most recent Global Attitudes Survey, found that atheists, agnostics and those unaffiliated with religion are more likely to identify with the political/ideological left in 11 countries, including the United States.

In some countries, such as Spain, the U.S. and Canada, the differences are significant. In the U.S., 50 percent of this group – which Pew calls the religiously unaffiliated – identify with the ideological left, compared to 24 percent of the religiously affiliated who do so, for a difference of 26 percent. In Canada, 39 percent of the religiously unaffiliated but only 13 percent of the affiliated identify with the left (a 26 percent difference), while in Spain, 47 percent of the unaffiliated but only 19 percent of the affiliated identify with the left (a 28 percent difference).

“Religiously unaffiliated” individuals in multiple countries, Pew said, are “more likely to identify with the political left than are adults who identify with a religion.”

Pew also found double-digit differences on the issue in France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Germany and Sweden, with…