The Atheist Census is back up


Go forth and be counted. It was offline for a while thanks to a denial of service attack — which, by the way, required spending a chunk of money to get better security installed, so compensatory donations would be appreciated.

Comments

  1. JohnnieCanuck says

    It has been accumulating steadily for about a day now.

    The US is far out in front, probably as much as the rest of the world combined. Maybe that explains how the Christian majority there are so oppressed.

  2. Ichthyic says

    taken offline because of a DDOS ..

    ALREADY?

    man. someone out there is really really desperate.

  3. John Phillips, FCD says

    It’s OK now. I noticed there was one (1) entry for the Vatican City. Atheist, Male, originally Catholic, over 65. I wonder if the pope entered :)

  4. Draken says

    20 entries from Sudan, 38 from Saudi-Arabia and 114 from Egypt. I hope nobody watched them visiting the website.

  5. ibbica says

    The US is far out in front, probably as much as the rest of the world combined. Maybe that explains how the Christian majority there are so oppressed.

    *chortle*

    Although I do wonder what each nation’s numbers will end up looking like, particularly as a proportion of the number of people in the population there with easy access to a computer.

  6. ibbica says

    20 entries from Sudan, 38 from Saudi-Arabia and 114 from Egypt. I hope nobody watched them visiting the website.

    To be fair, the question is “what country are you from?”, not “what country do you live in?”. I hope that means that those folks are somewhere where it is (relatively) safe for them to answer.

  7. lsamaknight says

    I noticed that the age results skew towards the younger brackets. I’m wondering how much of that is to do with the trend of younger people being less religious in general and how much is that of internet demographics pushing the results further that way.

  8. alexanderz says

    “25.7% female” – that’s pretty depressing.
    On the plus side the “other” percentage (0.6%) is actually higher than some estimates of trans people’s share of the population.

    John Phillips, FCD
    Where did you see the Vatican entry? I haven’t even seen Vatican City in the country drop menu.

  9. JohnnieCanuck says

    Alexanderz, it’s listed as Holy See (Vatican City).

    Now a more suspicious man than myself might suppose that the entry was made by a comedian. An even more suspicious person might be casting a leery eye on a certain Friend of Charles Darwin, though I myself can’t see any fault in him.

    Their email verification idea isn’t exactly perfect since most people have easy access to alternate addresses.

  10. says

    I’m in. Notice that they’ve got 3/4 of the people so far down as male, so looks like we’ll have to keep working to attract women to the ranks, unsurprisingly.

  11. brasidas says

    The fact that the US has a lot of entries, and that there is a tend towards lower ages shouldn’t surprise. Some of the main sites that are publicising the census are in the US and more younger people use the internet than older ones.

    I am pleased that in the REAL census of the UK (well, England and Wales anyway), people who claimed they were non-religious are up from 15% in 2001 to 25% in 2011 (with Wales and the Southwest being more like 30%).

    Now, with our Conservative Prime-Minister pushing for homosexual couples to be allowed to have real marriages (including religious weddings if those faiths so wish), the UK is starting to look a little better than it was.

  12. apucalypso says

    The one, self reported, atheist in the Vatican made me chuckle. Though I must admit that I’m a bit suspicious about that.
    It would be downright hilarious, if they decided to display the ranking based on participating atheists vs. total population of their respective home countries, which should put Vatican City right a the top.

  13. outeast says

    Heh, only two questions where I would have to give any consideration to the answers at all and I can’t settle on a response to either…

  14. Doug Little says

    Done and done. I would have liked to see the Where are you from? question as Where were you born? and Where do you live now? for all the immigrants out there.

  15. says

    @Balstrome, #7

    Seriously guys, it’s been up for quite a while now. Ftb always seems to be lagging behind events.

    PZ posted about it when it first came online and then the DOS attack ruined it. Now he waited 3 (or 4 days) before reposting about it and you’re here complaining.
    What’s your point? I’m even surprised you’re still around FTP since they always seem to be lagging behind events

    @PZ: why can’t we use Comic Sans anymore?

  16. jaybee says

    Sure, it is all fun and games until Obama’s Muslim gestapo forces arrive to round up all the non-believers.

  17. F [disappearing] says

    Yeah, Atheist Census sent me a confirmation email 5 days after I registered (like, you know, when I wasn’t looking for their time-sensitive email any longer) , but since I didn’t find it that day, it is no good. So whatever. Pfft.

    alexanderz

    “25.7% female” – that’s pretty depressing.

    Registering with stuff online is more of a Guy Thing™. :p

  18. machintelligence says

    Also look at the education level: 78.6% college or post graduate. Being smart might not make you an atheist, but it sure helps.

  19. madscientist says

    I wonder if it’s really the Ministry of Information gathering the data so they know where to send the Thought Police …

    Ah, brava – there is someone from San Marino!

  20. anathema2 says

    @ alexanderz (#9):

    Given that a lot of transgender people are going to identify as either male or female, I assume that the total percentage of transgender people who’ve taken the census is larger than 0.6%. So, yeah, I think that we’re doing fairly well there.

  21. says

    @21 That’s not about being smart, it’s more about making a 4 year commitment, working hard and following through. And the parties are awesome.

  22. says

    *Sigh* I was looking at my age group and feeling a bit disappointed in the low number, until I realized I am not 44; I am 45. Damn it, time to get a penis car and a deep-v t-shirt.

  23. says

    I was surprised by the low % of women. Of course the sample is self selected from people who 1) read blogs/science news on-line, and 2) are willing to provide an e-mail for validation and go click it. But still… that is a very wide spread.

  24. Acolyte of Sagan says

    lsamaknight
    19 December 2012 at 2:53 am

    I noticed that the age results skew towards the younger brackets. I’m wondering how much of that is to do with the trend of younger people being less religious in general and how much is that of internet demographics pushing the results further that way.

    Probably more to do with us old gits not using interwebs as much as you whipper-snappers.
    Fortunately, I’ve got grandsons to teach me, so I’ve registered; I’m one of those in the UK.

  25. rocksci says

    Not sure if you have any control over the advertising PZ, but there’s an ad just below this post on the main page, and in the sidebar now, for ‘Bad Idea T-shirts’ featuring a young woman in a vest top emblazoned with “Admit it – you’d go to jail for this”. Creepy. Just a heads up as I have a feeling that might not be a product you’d endorse…

  26. John Phillips, FCD says

    JohnnieCanuck, nothing to do with this friend of Charles, like you, I just thought it amusing that some comedian had probably been playing around.

  27. Tony ∞The Queer Shoop∞ says

    There is a lack of women because DUH atheism “is a guy thing”.

    (Really want my comic sans back)