Measuring Globalization: Keeping the Faith

Levels of globalization vs. levels of religious participation.

Some clerics and theologians argue that globalization is tantamount to an assault on religious faith, because it undermines traditional morals and supplants local values with a culture of materialism and excess common in the West.

Some clerics and theologians argue that globalization is tantamount to an assault on religious faith, because it undermines traditional morals and supplants local values with a culture of materialism and excess common in the West.

Does global integration lead to secularization? In order to explore this question, we have compared the rankings of 50 countries in this year’s Globalization Index with a ranking of countries according to levels of religious participation. (This ranking is derived from results of the World Values Survey from 1981 to 2001, which asked respondents "Apart from weddings, funerals and christenings, about how often do you attend religious services these days?")

As the chart indicates, several of the countries clustered near the bottom of the Globalization Index exhibit high levels of religious participation. Yet, there is a significant number of exceptions. For instance, Ireland and the United States, which both rank in the top 10 in this year’s Globalization Index, are among the most religious societies in the world. Conversely, Greece (ranked 28th) and Ukraine (ranked 43rd), exhibit low levels of religious participation. And Iran, which ranks last on our index, is actually less religious than highly globalized countries such as Canada (6th) and Portugal (16th).

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