Study finds 90% of Ghanaians are religious

A staggering 90 per cent of Ghanaians say their religion is very important in their lives, according to the Global Attitudes Survey 2015 by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre.

Meanwhile, the Ghana 2010 population census has the following breakdown of the different religious groups in the country. Christian 71.2 per cent, comprising of Pentecostal/Charismatic 28.3 per cent, Protestant 18.4 per cent, Catholic 13.1 per cent, other 11.4 per cent, Muslim 17.6 per cent, traditional 5.2 per cent, other 0.8 per cent and none 5.2 per cent.

The survey found religion is highly important mostly to emerging economies, with seven African countries among the top ten countries where people consider religion highly important to their lives.

In contrast, the number of people who consider religion important in the advanced economies is very low – around 20 per cent or less – with the only exception being the United States of America where more than 50 per cent consider religion important to them.

The survey names Ethiopia as the most religious country: 98 per cent of Ethiopians consider religion, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in particular, a very important part of who they are.

Behind Ethiopia are Senegal, Indonesia, Uganda, Pakistan, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Ghana, all of which report 90 per cent or more who find religion important.

Women are also seemingly more religious than men, according to an analysis of gender and religion by the Pew Research Centre, using data from more than 2,500 censuses and surveys.

It showed for instance, that women in the US are more likely to say religion is very important in their lives than men (60 per cent against 47 per cent).

Also, about 83.4 per cent of women identify with a religion, while 79.9 per cent of men do.

China is the least religious country, with only three per cent saying religion is important.

Japan, France, Australia and South Korea follow, with all of them having less than 20 per cent who consider religion important.

By Emmanuel Odonkor

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