Are we any different than the atheists?

The Tale of the Tape Between Christians and the Nonreligious (June 1, 2023)

Let’s look at some survey responses to examine how Christians differ from the nonreligious in matters of everyday living.  The data is drawn from a Statistics Canada National Household Survey1 conducted in 2011.  (There does not appear to have been such a survey reported since this date.)  Keep in mind the data is based on how respondents identify themselves with respect to religion.  As we have seen, this often does not track well with religious activity, such as church attendance.

We will start with gender and marital status.  53% of Christians identified as female, compared to 46% for the nonreligious.  While 49% of Christians were married, only 39% of the nonreligious were likewise.  This is mostly due to the higher rate of common law arrangements or being single among the nonreligious.  The rate of separation and divorce were relatively close.

Education levels between these two groups are remarkably similar, with a slight edge going to the nonreligious.  Interestingly, the nonreligious had a greater likelihood of having a job.  66% of nonreligious were employed, whereas only 59% of Christians were likewise.  However, the unemployment rate for the nonreligious (8.2%) was higher than for the Christians (7.2%).  The reason for this is that more Christians than the nonreligious are not participating in the workforce (i.e., not looking for a job).

The above analysis begs the question whether fewer Christian women work outside the home.  In the case of Christians, 40% of women were not participating in the workforce, compared to 31% of the men.  For the nonreligious, 31% of women were not in the workforce, compared to 25% of men.  Accordingly, Christian women are 29% more likely than men to be stay-at-home, versus 24% for the nonreligious.  This could also be partly explained by the likelihood of Christians generally being older, and thus retired from employment.

So what are all these folks working at through their employment?  Amazingly, there is not a lot of difference in the types of work the two groups do.  Christians lean a little more to health, social services and teaching, whereas the nonreligious toward professional, scientific and technical services.  No surprises there.   

The big question in my mind relates to the Bible’s frequent admonishment of members of the business class.  Does this differ today in the way Christians and the nonreligious flock to the business world?  The answer is no, as both groups had 21% of its employed members working in these industries.  So, if there is little difference here, maybe Christians ascend at a greater rate into the management ranks in their places of work.  Alas, the difference is small, with 11.3% of Christians in management, compared to 10.7% of the nonreligious.

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1. Statistics Canada, 2011 National Household Survey: Data tables, 

https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/nhs-enm/2011/dp-pd/dt-td/Rp-eng.cfm?TABID=2&LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=107554&PRID=0&PTYPE=105277&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=0&Temporal=2013&THEME=95&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=