I didn't know there were still people identifying as "Deist" in the 21st century, although I think it likely encompasses the actual beliefs of far more people than identify with it.
Witchcraft/wicca--this is explicitly feminist, and draws on old stereotypes of witches as women. A lot are gay people for whom Christianity is very uncomfortable. So it makes sense.
Spiritual/spiritualist--this one has a long history of being tied with feminism, even further back than people think (Victoria Woodhull and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were into it); women could preach (as mediums), so it was a popular vehicle for feminism in the 19th century, and has a lot of the same New England roots. You see it pop up a bit in The Bostonians.
Pagan--same as witchcraft/wicca, but not *quite* as explicitly feminist. Still definitely leaning that way though.
Buddhist/Christian--I think we're just seeing here the general pattern (interestingly going away in the young) that women tend to be more religious than men. As others have said Buddhism had a bit of a countercultural rush starting in the 60s. But notice the overall difference between Buddhist and Christian is tiny. Same for Jain, I'd guess. Notice that for Hinduism (which theoretically doesn't allow conversion) it's almost exactly even.
Mixed religion are probably all the Jewish/Christian babies in the Northeast trying to honor both halves of their heritage.
Humanist--probably similar to Buddhist without the 'cradle Buddhists' from countries where it's the predominant religion.
Jewish might have a small bump in men due to atheist Jews still identifying as Jewish for ethnoreligious reasons. (Still majority female, though just barely)
Hindu/Sikh/Alevi/Valmiki/Ravidessia/Zoroastrian--I'm guessing we're probably seeing differences in immigration patterns for men vs women from those particular countries, though with those sample sizes it could just be statistical noise. Muslim is a *bit* majority male as it probably gets more male converts than female due to a reputation for being antifeminist, though again most of these are probably 'cradle Muslims'.
No religion--as you say probably more men and the atheists who don't bother to write it in. Again, women were historically slightly more religious so this is the flipside of that.
'Believe in God'--this is an interesting one. Note that it does not imply worship.
Shamanism--my guess is it attracts a lot of the pagan types but seems slightly more manly. Same for Druidism--all those big beards.
'Agnostic'--as you say, atheists who bother to write it in are more male, so this is the same thing but with half the effect size.
Satanism--totally male. The first rebel, 'better reign in hell than serve in heaven', shock your parents--definitely a guy thing.
Atheist--people who bother to write it in rather than saying 'No religion' are more assertive about it and therefore more likely male.
Deist--strikes me as irreligious people who pick a fine point to argue on, again a very male thing to do.
Rastafarian--I dunno. I don't know how many are cradle and how many are guys who want to smoke weed (remember this is self-described). It's pretty patriarchal from what I hear though.
Heathenism--so this is Norse neopaganism, and you've probably got all the far-right dudes.
Thanks! Yes lots to chew on there. I do find it very hard to know what’s rising or falling over time versus what’s just something people get into at different ages.
I wonder if the more middle-aged people are Buddhist pattern will hold when the next generation reaches middle age. I suspect not. Buddhism really came into popular culture in the 1990s - 2010s, but has faded a bit as a popular orientation, and Buddhist-topic book sales have slumped.
You may well be right. Although a lot of other factors could be in play. Maybe the Buddhist bulge corresponds to a specific period of immigration from a largely Buddhist country? (I can't think of one, but maybe.) Maybe Buddhists are less likely to record their children as Buddhists, but when those children grow older they'll continue as Buddhists and appear in the next census wave? I suppose it's also possible to be quite close to Buddhism without considering yourself religious. Maybe there are a lot of soft-Buddhists out there?
This is a well-known thing in neopagan circles, there are stories of girls pretending to worship Thor to get a boyfriend and boys wearing pentacles, etc.
Colour choice on male/female charts is tricky. Blue and pink are very clear because they're traditional, but some people don't like that tradition. I feel like blue and *reddish-orange* is a good way of being clear without expressing an opinion!
It’s important to note that this is on the backdrop of the UK—a society where no religion/atheist/agnostic is the norm. These patterns are unlikely to hold in places where religiosity is the norm.
If you are not already familiar, Ryan Burge’s Graphs About Religion is a good source of religion data for the more-religious United States. Christopher Raymond’s Devoted Digest has some religion analysis from other countries. For data on religion in the Canary Islands and in Latin America, Javiero at Mangoes or Bananas has you covered. And on the off chance what you really need is religion data from the Dutch Caribbean, I can help:
Thanks Doctrix. Great resources. Yes, I’m most familiar with uk data, but I’d like to do more on other countries. I suspect the uk is very secular indeed compared with most places.
I've participated in American Buddhist groups a moderate amount, and what I would check is if that female, middle age bulge is disproportionality white relative to the other age groups (for, recall, a both Asian but prostylizing religion). It's loosely attached liberals putting a spirital veneer on wokeness.
I say this all as no reactionary, ultraconservative - I've never voted republican. In the American, non-immigrant scene, Buddhist identity is often a spiritualized political stance. There is always a core of true religious acitvity going on, but at many sanghas you have to dig into deeper activites, which unintentionally fits nicely with Buddhist religious structures (such as regular full-day meditation retreats, which have always meant a lot to attend). But the looser, wider groups are always an areligious ultra-wokeness pep rally - a heavily female scene. Weekly sangha at even a moderately sized group shame the most liberal church for their conservatism - I suspect few of the regular attendees are aware that there are Buddhist "writing" and even expections of behavior. The existence of scriptures would imply specific, fixed beliefs (beliefs in Buddhism - how scandolous...) instead of following your feelings. The sense is that Buddhism means "never judge anyone, except for being judgey" and the strong focus on lbgtq and pro-choice issues does not exactly remind me of the aforemention scriptures.
I found an essay by a Thai monk once explaining to his Sangha not to fear the "West" for its atheism. He assures them that in the West, there is a large group that call themselves "conservatives", who are scandalized by sex in movies and abortion, just as a Buddhist should be. This is simply not the religious community in the US, at least not in large numbers (outside of immigrant communities - almost certainly a majority of Buddhists).
Thanks. That’s the interesting. The data I have doesn’t allow me to look at people’s political values too, but I believe women are very generally to the left of men, so yes, if Buddhism is a “left wing” religion that kind of overlap would make sense. I can’t confirm or deny based on what I have though.
Satanism being at 66.6% male in that graphic feels like it has to be a joke!
I didn't spot this at all. But yes 3,365 male respondents said they were Satanists out of 5,050 Satanists in total = 66.6%
Darker and edgier? "Better reign in hell than serve in heaven?" Totally a dude thing.
I didn't know there were still people identifying as "Deist" in the 21st century, although I think it likely encompasses the actual beliefs of far more people than identify with it.
I expect you’re right. And these deists cared enough about it write in specially to say so! An elite band indeed.
Witchcraft/wicca--this is explicitly feminist, and draws on old stereotypes of witches as women. A lot are gay people for whom Christianity is very uncomfortable. So it makes sense.
Spiritual/spiritualist--this one has a long history of being tied with feminism, even further back than people think (Victoria Woodhull and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were into it); women could preach (as mediums), so it was a popular vehicle for feminism in the 19th century, and has a lot of the same New England roots. You see it pop up a bit in The Bostonians.
Pagan--same as witchcraft/wicca, but not *quite* as explicitly feminist. Still definitely leaning that way though.
Buddhist/Christian--I think we're just seeing here the general pattern (interestingly going away in the young) that women tend to be more religious than men. As others have said Buddhism had a bit of a countercultural rush starting in the 60s. But notice the overall difference between Buddhist and Christian is tiny. Same for Jain, I'd guess. Notice that for Hinduism (which theoretically doesn't allow conversion) it's almost exactly even.
Mixed religion are probably all the Jewish/Christian babies in the Northeast trying to honor both halves of their heritage.
Humanist--probably similar to Buddhist without the 'cradle Buddhists' from countries where it's the predominant religion.
Jewish might have a small bump in men due to atheist Jews still identifying as Jewish for ethnoreligious reasons. (Still majority female, though just barely)
Hindu/Sikh/Alevi/Valmiki/Ravidessia/Zoroastrian--I'm guessing we're probably seeing differences in immigration patterns for men vs women from those particular countries, though with those sample sizes it could just be statistical noise. Muslim is a *bit* majority male as it probably gets more male converts than female due to a reputation for being antifeminist, though again most of these are probably 'cradle Muslims'.
No religion--as you say probably more men and the atheists who don't bother to write it in. Again, women were historically slightly more religious so this is the flipside of that.
'Believe in God'--this is an interesting one. Note that it does not imply worship.
Shamanism--my guess is it attracts a lot of the pagan types but seems slightly more manly. Same for Druidism--all those big beards.
'Agnostic'--as you say, atheists who bother to write it in are more male, so this is the same thing but with half the effect size.
Satanism--totally male. The first rebel, 'better reign in hell than serve in heaven', shock your parents--definitely a guy thing.
Atheist--people who bother to write it in rather than saying 'No religion' are more assertive about it and therefore more likely male.
Deist--strikes me as irreligious people who pick a fine point to argue on, again a very male thing to do.
Rastafarian--I dunno. I don't know how many are cradle and how many are guys who want to smoke weed (remember this is self-described). It's pretty patriarchal from what I hear though.
Heathenism--so this is Norse neopaganism, and you've probably got all the far-right dudes.
Thanks! Yes lots to chew on there. I do find it very hard to know what’s rising or falling over time versus what’s just something people get into at different ages.
I wonder if the more middle-aged people are Buddhist pattern will hold when the next generation reaches middle age. I suspect not. Buddhism really came into popular culture in the 1990s - 2010s, but has faded a bit as a popular orientation, and Buddhist-topic book sales have slumped.
You may well be right. Although a lot of other factors could be in play. Maybe the Buddhist bulge corresponds to a specific period of immigration from a largely Buddhist country? (I can't think of one, but maybe.) Maybe Buddhists are less likely to record their children as Buddhists, but when those children grow older they'll continue as Buddhists and appear in the next census wave? I suppose it's also possible to be quite close to Buddhism without considering yourself religious. Maybe there are a lot of soft-Buddhists out there?
This is a well-known thing in neopagan circles, there are stories of girls pretending to worship Thor to get a boyfriend and boys wearing pentacles, etc.
I did not know that!
One glance at the top line of that chart is enough to know what colour represents what sex. And the way the rest of the chart is going to go.
Colour choice on male/female charts is tricky. Blue and pink are very clear because they're traditional, but some people don't like that tradition. I feel like blue and *reddish-orange* is a good way of being clear without expressing an opinion!
The yellow in the orange also helps red-green color-blind people.
It’s important to note that this is on the backdrop of the UK—a society where no religion/atheist/agnostic is the norm. These patterns are unlikely to hold in places where religiosity is the norm.
If you are not already familiar, Ryan Burge’s Graphs About Religion is a good source of religion data for the more-religious United States. Christopher Raymond’s Devoted Digest has some religion analysis from other countries. For data on religion in the Canary Islands and in Latin America, Javiero at Mangoes or Bananas has you covered. And on the off chance what you really need is religion data from the Dutch Caribbean, I can help:
https://doctrixperiwinkle.substack.com/p/the-smart-set
Thanks Doctrix. Great resources. Yes, I’m most familiar with uk data, but I’d like to do more on other countries. I suspect the uk is very secular indeed compared with most places.
I've participated in American Buddhist groups a moderate amount, and what I would check is if that female, middle age bulge is disproportionality white relative to the other age groups (for, recall, a both Asian but prostylizing religion). It's loosely attached liberals putting a spirital veneer on wokeness.
I say this all as no reactionary, ultraconservative - I've never voted republican. In the American, non-immigrant scene, Buddhist identity is often a spiritualized political stance. There is always a core of true religious acitvity going on, but at many sanghas you have to dig into deeper activites, which unintentionally fits nicely with Buddhist religious structures (such as regular full-day meditation retreats, which have always meant a lot to attend). But the looser, wider groups are always an areligious ultra-wokeness pep rally - a heavily female scene. Weekly sangha at even a moderately sized group shame the most liberal church for their conservatism - I suspect few of the regular attendees are aware that there are Buddhist "writing" and even expections of behavior. The existence of scriptures would imply specific, fixed beliefs (beliefs in Buddhism - how scandolous...) instead of following your feelings. The sense is that Buddhism means "never judge anyone, except for being judgey" and the strong focus on lbgtq and pro-choice issues does not exactly remind me of the aforemention scriptures.
I found an essay by a Thai monk once explaining to his Sangha not to fear the "West" for its atheism. He assures them that in the West, there is a large group that call themselves "conservatives", who are scandalized by sex in movies and abortion, just as a Buddhist should be. This is simply not the religious community in the US, at least not in large numbers (outside of immigrant communities - almost certainly a majority of Buddhists).
Thanks. That’s the interesting. The data I have doesn’t allow me to look at people’s political values too, but I believe women are very generally to the left of men, so yes, if Buddhism is a “left wing” religion that kind of overlap would make sense. I can’t confirm or deny based on what I have though.
For US data, the aforementioned Ryan Burge has got you covered:
https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/how-social-issues-are-driving-a-wedge
and
https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-political-takeover-why-ideology
As a middle-aged Buddhist lady I had a hard time for awhile admitting it even to myself because, you know, “middle-aged Buddhist lady.” 🙄
Haha. Well I’m sure middle-aged Buddhist ladies have a lot to teach the world about not getting too stressed by things like that.
Stats at the dire end of the spectrum.