Last modified on January 29, 2023, at 14:00

Postsecularism and New Zealand in the 21st century

Smrithi Kamtikar performing at Rhythm and Rhapsody, Auckland, NZ.

On December 28, 2018, the New Zealand Herald reported, "New data obtained by the Herald from the Department of Internal Affairs reveals that people born in India top the list of new citizens living in Auckland."[1]

According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were non-religious and merely 3% were convinced atheist.[2]

In 2008, the International Social Survey Programme was conducted in New Zealand by Massey University.[3] The results of this survey indicated that 72% of the population believed in the existence of God or a higher power, 15% are agnostic, and 13% are atheist (the survey had a 3% margin of error).[4] See: Irreligion in New Zealand

Jens Köhrsen, a professor for religion and economics at the Centre for Religion, Economy and Politics (ZRWP)[5], wrote:

[ Jürgen Habermas ] ...argues that a new age, the age of post-secularity, has begun. Previously vastly secularized societies, like the highly developed countries of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, would experience a new awareness of religion and attribute a new public role to religion. From now on, religion would constitute a relevant dialogue partner in the public debates of these societies (Habermas, 2008). Moreover, Habermas presents a normative argument about public religion: he recommends that post-secular societies should facilitate religious contributions to the public sphere. Religious reasoning could contribute to public debates about the ethical values of contemporaneous and future societies. Habermas believes that modern societies might find some answers to the moral questions of our time by listening to religion in public debates (Habermas, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008). A similar position to that of Habermas is proposed by Leclerc (2001) and French sociologist Willaime (2004a, 2004b, 2005[1995]: 76-78, 2008). Willaime observes that even the highly secularized public and political sphere of France is exhibiting a new, more open attitude towards religion. The hypersecularity of France would stimulate a restructuration process of religion. According to Willaime, religion can form an important resource for public debates and be engaged in the identity construction process of individuals and collectives.[6]

Eric Kaufmann is a professor of politics at Birkbeck, University of London and author. His academic research specialty is how demographic changes affect religion/irreligion and politics.

In April 2010, Kaufmann, who is an agnostic, declared "the rate of secularisation has flattened to zero in most of Protestant Europe and France."[7] Kaufmann also declared that secularism "appears exhausted and lacking in confidence".[8]

On December 23, 2012, Kaufmann wrote:

I argue that 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious.

On the other hand, the secular West and East Asia has very low fertility and a rapidly aging population... In the coming decades, the developed world's demand for workers to pay its pensions and work in its service sector will soar alongside the booming supply of young people in the third world. Ergo, we can expect significant immigration to the secular West which will import religious revival on the back of ethnic change. In addition, those with religious beliefs tend to have higher birth rates than the secular population, with fundamentalists having far larger families. The epicentre of these trends will be in immigration gateway cities like New York (a third white), Amsterdam (half Dutch), Los Angeles (28% white), and London, 45% white British.[9] [10]

For more information, please see: Labor shortages and desecularization projected to be faster in New Zealand in the 21st century

Regarding the Western World as a whole and the growth of the religious population in the West, Kaufmann wrote:

...this paper claims that the developing world will not only never catch up, but that, ironically, it is the West which will increasingly come to resemble the developing world. Committed religious populations are growing in the West, and will reverse the march of secularism before 2050. The logic which is driving this apparently anti-modern development is demography, a shadowy historical force whose power multiplies exponentially with the modernisation process. Demography is about raw numbers, and, in an age of low mortality, its chief components are fertility and migration.[11]
Eric Kaufmann, a professor at Birkbeck College, University of London, using a wealth of demographic studies, argues that there will be a significant decline of global atheism in the 21st century which will impact the Western World.[12][13][14][15]

At a conference Kaufmann said of religious demographic projections concerning the 21st century:

Part of the reason I think demography is very important, at least if we are going to speak about the future, is that it is the most predictable of the social sciences.

...if you look at a population and its age structure now. You can tell a lot about the future. ...So by looking at the relative age structure of different populations you can already say a lot about the future...

...Religious fundamentalism is going to be on the increase in the future and not just out there in the developing world..., but in the developed world as well.[16]

According the New Zealand census, from 2013 to 2018, the number of "Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamentalist Christians" grew from 15,381 individuals to 38,127 individuals from 2013 to 2018.[17] See also: Growth of evangelical Christianity in New Zealand

See also: Religion and migration and Growth of religious fundamentalism

For additional information, please see: 21st century New Zealand: Irreligion, religion and religious immigrants

21st century New Zealand: Irreligion, religion and religious immigrants

According to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand (an online encyclopedia run by the New Zealand government): "New Zealand has never had an official religion, and the church and state have always been separate. However, churches had a strong influence on issues such as alcohol, censorship, gambling and education."[18]

Due to the sub-replacement levels of births for the irreligious/nonreligious, countries with significant irreligious/nonreligious populations often have higher levels of immigration than otherwise might be the case and many of the immigrants are religious (see: Atheism and fertility rates and Desecularization). The 2016 fertility rate of New Zealand was 1.87 births per woman.[19] That is below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman.

Filipinos at an annual Christmas parade in Hamilton, New Zealand. Irreligion in the Philippines is particularly rare among Filipinos.[20]

In 2015, the New Zealand Herald reported: "Pasifika are a major factor but so are most migrant groups." Catholic migrants, from countries such as the Philippines and India, had made Catholicism the most popular Christian denomination for the first time with 492,000 followers."[21]

In November 2017, China was the largest source of immigrants to New Zealand and China is currently experiencing an explosive growth of evangelical Christianity (see: Growth of Christianity in China).[22]

In November 2017, India was the second largest source of immigrants to New Zealand and India is a very religious country.[23]

In 2018, New Zealand has about 50,000 immigrants from the Philippines. (Filipino New Zealanders are known as kiwipinos).[24] The Philippines is a very religious country. According to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia founded by an atheist and agnostic, "Irreligion in the Philippines is particularly rare among Filipinos...".[25] In 2017, in terms of country of origin, Filipinos were the 5th greatest source of immigrants to New Zealand.[26]

Large-scale Muslim immigration to New Zealand started in the 1970s with the arrival of Fiji Indians, which was followed in the 1990s by refugees from various war-torn countries. The number of Muslims in New Zealand according to the 2013 census is 46,149, up 28% from 36,072 in the 2006 census.[27]

On December 28, 2018, the New Zealand Herald reported, "New data obtained by the Herald from the Department of Internal Affairs reveals that people born in India top the list of new citizens living in Auckland."[28] According to the 2012 WIN-Gallup Global Index of Religion and Atheism report, 81% of Indians were religious, 13% were non-religious and merely 3% were convinced atheist.[29]

Growth of evangelical Christianity in New Zealand

See also: Growth of evangelical Christianity in New Zealand

According to New Zealand census data, from 2013 to 2018, the number of "Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamentalist Christians" grew from 15,381 individuals to 38,127 individuals.[30] In addition, according to New Zealand census data, from 2013 to 2018, the number of Pentecostal Christians increased from 74,256 to 81,624.[31]

In countries that are irreligious than most countries, it is common for evangelical Christianity to be experiencing growth and sometimes rapid/explosive growth (see: Growth of evangelical Christianity in irreligious regions).

According to Stuart M. Lange, author of the book A Rising Tide: Evangelical Christianity in New Zealand 1930–65, evangelical Christianity saw a resurgence in New Zealand in the 1950s/1960s.[32]

According to Christianity Today, evangelical Christianity grew from approximately 13,800 followers in 2006 to 15,400 in 2013."[33]

The Christian organization Operation World indicates there are now 784,015 evangelical Christians in New Zealand (18.2 percent of the population) and that the evangelical population in New Zealand is growing at an annual rate of 0.5 percent.[34]

According to the New Zealand Christian Network:

We are the NZ member of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and are committed to representing evangelical faith positions. But we recognise also that the term ‘evangelical’ has different meanings in different countries and contexts, so we are very careful in its usage. NZ evangelicalism seeks to be faithful to scripture and is broad politically and socially.

We offer an opportunity for a visible expression of unity which connects us beyond ourselves, across ministries, towns, cities, local churches, and denominations.

Reliable figures suggest 14.5-15% of New Zealanders attend church weekly. 18-19% ‘regularly’. Approximately 500,000 of these Christians are evangelical. This represents a significant constituency that NZCN seeks to serve and represent in different ways.[35]

New Zealand, its growing number of hyper-aging areas and religious immigration

See also: New Zealand, its growing problem of hyper-aging areas and desecularization and Global atheism and aging populations

New Zealand road sign indicating that elderly people are in the area.

New Zealand’s towns and cities are rapidly becoming ‘hyper-aged’.[36]

Nonreligious/irreligious populations/nones have subreplacement levels of births which leads to aging populations (See: Atheism and fertility rates and Global atheism and aging populations). Caspar Melville wrote in The New Humanist: "Firstly secular liberalism is individualistic, and therefore it goes hand in hand with delayed child bearing and lower fertility rates.[37]

MacauBusiness.com notes: "The World Health Organization defines a country as having an “ageing society” when the proportion of people aged 65 or more is between 7 and 14 per cent of the total population; as having an “aged society” if this proportion is between 15 and 20 per cent; and as having a “super-” or “hyper-aged society” when this proportion is 21 per cent or higher."[38]

According the New Zealand government: "By 2030, it is expected that 19–21 percent of New Zealanders will be aged 65+, compared with 16 percent in 2020. By 2048, this proportion is expected to reach 21–26 percent, and reach 24–34 percent by 2073.[39] Japan, which has the highest percentage of individuals above 65 years old, had 28.2 percent of its population above 65 years old in 2019.[40]

The 2022 the journal article A “death-laden society”: The next stage of a hyper-aged Japan and health challenges ahead published in the Aging and Health Research indicated about aging "death laden" societies: "A death-laden society is when the whole society, including younger people, are overwhelmed with the burdens of the ballooning deaths of those in advanced age at a scale unparalleled in history."[41]

On November 24, 2022, the article Welcome to the hyper-ageing nation that is New Zealand indicated concerning Japan:

New Zealand’s towns and cities are rapidly becoming ‘hyper-aged’, which will have far-reaching consequences for society and the economy. Population projections show it won’t affect all areas equally, and those most impacted will have difficult decisions to make...

Hyper-aged is an unusual term – and might even sound derogatory – but it’s a technical description for any population where the proportion of people aged-65+ is more than 20%.

In most cases, structural ageing cannot be reversed. Once natural decrease sets in, the only way to increase the population is through migration – either national or international.

Research suggests the level of migration required to balance natural decline is unrealistic, and that “even extremely high migration levels would have only minimal impact” on the proportion of the 65+ population.

Another problem is that migrants themselves get older, which adds to structural ageing. Maintaining a balance would require an exponential increase in migrant numbers over time. Councils can try to encourage residents of other areas to relocate, but many communities will be in the same position – they’ll be competing with each other for a dwindling proportion of younger people.[42]

As far as the potential economic effects of hyper-aging areas of New Zealand, Wired magazine's article on hyper-aging areas indicates:

There are an estimated eight million ghost houses in Japan. With such plentiful supply we might expect a slump, in which prices tumble, but something new and extreme happens: in a vanishing village there is no price, however low, at which people will buy. The market is not depressed, but frozen. This chill goes further than economics: when a town is disappearing, local politics becomes pointless: across Japan, one-fifth of seats in the 2015 local elections went uncontested.

The solution to these problems will need to be extreme: bulldozing unwanted properties, rewilding deserted areas, and finding new ways to engage rural voters and politicians. Ageing is itself a pandemic, one that we will need to begin tackling as soon as Covid-19 is under control.[43]

Auckland, New Zealand will grow in influence and population in New Zealand due to religious immigrants and the higher fertility rate of religious immigrants

See also: Auckland, New Zealand will grow in influence and population in New Zealand due to religious immigrants and the higher fertility rate of religious immigrants

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand. It is a city of 1,652,000 people. In 2015, Professor Peter Lineham at the Massey University indicates that Auckland is the most religious region of New Zealand mainly due to Catholic migrants (From countries such as the Philippines and India) and evangelical/pentecostal Christians.[44]

Auckland will grow in influence and population in New Zealand thanks to religious immigrants and the higher fertility of some religious immigrant groups

See also: Religion and migration

According to Wikipedia, a website founded by an atheist and agnostic, "Auckland is expecting substantial population growth via immigration and natural population increases (which contribute to growth at about one-third and two-thirds, respectively), and is set to grow to an estimated 2 million inhabitants by 2050 (a compounded annual growth rate of 1.2% vs the 2013 number above)."[45]

Auckland will grow in influence and population in New Zealand thanks to religious immigrants and the higher fertility of some religious immigrant groups (See: Auckland, New Zealand will grow in influence and population in New Zealand due to religious immigrants and the higher fertility rate of religious immigrants).

Within Auckland these groups will grow as part of a continuing trend within the country of New Zealand: "Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamentalist Christians"; Pentecostals, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs.[46] This will be due to religious immigrants and the higher fertility of certain religious groups.

Abrahamic creationism espousing a literal Adam and Eve will grow in Auckland

See also: Global creationism

Ken Ham is the founder of Answers in Genesis, a Christian apologetics ministry which has branches in three continents.

Abrahamic creationism espousing a literal Adam and Eve will grow in Auckland due to "Evangelical, Born Again and Fundamentalist Christians", Pentecostals and Muslims.

Johns Hopkins University Press reported in 2014: "Over the past forty years, creationism has spread swiftly among European Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and Muslims, even as anti-creationists sought to smother its flames."[47] See also: Evolutionary indoctrination

On October 4, 2014, the Vancouver Sun reported that evolutionism is rejected by hundreds of millions of evangelical Christians and Muslims around the world.[48]

Specifically, the Vancouver Sun declared:

Creationism, a religious world view that adamantly rejects Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, is on the rise among evangelical Protestants and most of the world’s Muslims.

It is not only the majority of residents in Muslim countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Turkey who strongly reject the teaching that humans and other species evolved over millions of years from less complex creatures. So do tens of millions of evangelical Christians in North America (as well as South America and Africa).

Overall, [Nidhal Guessoum, a Middle Eastern physics and astronomy professor] who teaches at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, estimates roughly 60 per cent of the world’s Muslims are creationists, including many living in the U.S. and Canada.

Even though poll results about evolution vary based on the questions asked, Salman Hameed reported in the journal Science that strong anti-evolution majorities exist in Turkey, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Pakistan. The latter is among Canada’s top six source countries for immigrants...

An Angus-Reid survey found 43 per cent of Americans accept the creationist teaching that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, which means they reject the...view the universe began roughly 13 billion years ago.[49]

Creationism was taught in an Auckland school class and this practice will increase sometime in the 21st century. Creationism is being taught in Britain which is the fountainhead of Darwinism.
The city of Auckland and its harbor.

In 2018, a New Zealand news website Newsrooom reported:

National’s weekend conference was opened by Villa Education Trust’s South Auckland Middle School singing Hallelujah. Later Simon Bridges said National will re-establish charter schools if elected. Farah Hancock reports on claims creationism was taught in science classes as a preferred theory of evolution at one Villa Education Trust School.

A former student of a Villa Education Trust private school claims creationism was taught as a preferred theory of how the world began in science classes he attended.

The student from Mt Hobson Middle School said Darwinism was taught as an unproven theory and students were shown a video purporting to show science had found proof of God's existence.

His impression was the school backed the concept of creationism “100 percent”.

The science teacher was Rachel O’Connor, sister of National Party leader Simon Bridges and wife of National MP Simon O’Connor.[50]

In 2009, The Guardian reported about Britain, which is the fountainhead of Darwinism:

Mass migration has led to a rise in creationist beliefs across Europe, according to a British scientist.

Michael Reiss, who is a professor of education at the Institute of Education in London and an Anglican priest, said the evolution-creationism debate could no longer be thought of as something that happened elsewhere and that more and more people in the UK did not accept evolution.

Reiss told the Guardian that countries with a higher proportion of Muslims or fundamentalist Christians in their population were more likely to reject evolution. He added: "What the Turks believe today is what the Germans and British believe tomorrow. It is because of the mass movement of people between countries.

"These things can no longer be thought of as occurring in other countries. In London, where I work, there are increasingly quite large numbers of highly intelligent 16, 17 and 18-year-olds doing Advanced Level biology who do not accept evolution. That's either because they come from a fundamentalist Christian background or from Muslim backgrounds."[51]

Sometime in the 21st century, some Auckland schools will teach creationism.

The British newspaper The Telegraph reported in an article entitled Richard Dawkins: Muslim parents 'import creationism' into schools:

Prof Dawkins, a well-known atheist, also blamed the Government for accommodating religious views and allowing creationism to be taught in schools.

"Most devout Muslims are creationists so when you go to schools, there are a large number of children of Islamic parents who trot out what they have been taught," Prof Dawkins said in a Sunday newspaper interview.

"Teachers are bending over backwards to respect home prejudices that children have been brought up with. The Government could do more, but it doesn't want to because it is fanatical about multiculturalism and the need to respect the different traditions from which these children come."[52]

Demographic map of New Zealand based on the 2018 New Zealand census data: Height of each hexagonal tower reflects the number of people in that area – the taller the tower, the more people in the age group being viewed. The shade of the tower reflects the percentage of the people over 65 years old – the darker the shade, the higher the relative proportion of people over 65 years old in the total population in that area. Due to its religious immigrants who have children, the populous city of Auckland has a low percentage of elderly people

The above 3D map is a demographic map of New Zealand. The height of each hexagonal tower reflects the number of people in that area – the taller the tower, the more people in the age group being viewed. The shade of the tower reflects the percentage of the people over 65 years old – the darker the shade, the higher the relative proportion of people over 65 years old in the total population in that area. Due to its religious immigrants who have children, the populous city of Auckland has a low percentage of elderly people. Auckland is near the upper right portion of the map.

New Zealand government website sources: Where do over 65 people live in New Zealand and New Zealand's population in 3D Data from the 2018 Census re-imagined

21st century New Zealand, its aging population and desecularization

See also: Desecularization and aging populations

The article Developed countries may become more religious in 20 years indicates:

Researchers from HSE University and RANEPA found that in high-income countries, age, rather than the cohort effect, has more impact on religiosity. They predict that this may have an impact on societal structure in the future. The study was published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

It has long been observed that older people tend to be more religious than younger people. However, it is still disputable whether this fact should be attributed to people generally becoming more religious with age per se (age effect), or to the process of secularization, wherein earlier cohorts (to which the now older people belong) used to be more religious than those that appeared later, i.e. younger cohorts (cohort effect). HSE University scholars decided to analyze this issue using data from six waves of the World Values Survey (2016) in high-income OECD countries. A total of 16 countries were studied, including Australia, the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Israel, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, as well as other European countries.

The researchers used logistic models and multiple linear regression to determine that the age effect has a higher impact on religiosity than the cohort effect. Older people are more inclined to believe in God, attend church, and believe it is important to instill religion in children.. The cohort effect impacts other factors analyzed by the scholars, such as church attendance and a belief in religion's importance in life, but the age effect still strongly prevails over the cohort effect...

The transition from religious to secular values may slow by 2040 in high-income OECD countries and, probably, there will be a resurgence of religiosity, the symptoms of which can be observed in Japan. On the other hand, widely divergent socio-cultural settings in different countries have an impact on religious behavior and attitude, and this must be taken into account in further research.[53]

NZ church attendance has remained constant since 2013 and its implications

See also: New Zealand church attendance has remained constant since 2013 and its implications and European desecularization in the 21st century

In December 2017, a leading New Zealand news website declared that church attendance in New Zealand has remained constant at 10% since 2013.[54] The abstract for the 2016 journal article Cross-National Trends in Religious Service Attendance published in Public Opinion Quarterly declared that New Zealand church attendance has “bottomed-out” stability in New Zealand, Western Europe and Australia.[55]

Concerning the future of religion/secularism in Europe, professor Eric Kaufmann wrote:

We have performed these unprecedented analyses on several cases. Austria offers us a window into what the future holds. Its census question on religious affiliation permits us to perform cohort component projections, which show the secular population plateauing by 2050, or as early as 2021 if secularism fails to attract lapsed Christians and new Muslim immigrants at the same rate as it has in the past. (Goujon, Skirbekk et al. 2006).

This task will arguably become far more difficult as the supply of nominal Christians dries up while more secularisation-resistant Muslims and committed rump Christians comprise an increasing share of the population.[56]

In 2010, Eric Kaufmann reported that the rate of secularisation flattened to zero in most of Protestant Europe and France.[57]

Religious immigrants resistant to secularization

Conservative Protestants have relatively high fertility rates.[58] (Picture: Protestant church pulpit in Europe)

See also: Desecularization and Growth of global desecularization

In 2011, a paper was published entitled The End of Secularization in Europe?: A Socio-Demographic Perspective. The authors of the paper were: Eric Kaufmann - Birkbeck College, University of London; Anne Goujon - World Population Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA); Vegard Skirbekk World Population Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).[59]

An excerpt from the paper by Kaufmann, Goujon and Skirbekk:

Conservative Protestants, a much larger group than the Mormons, also benefit from relatively high fertility. Hout et al. (2001) find that three-quarters of the growth of conservative Protestant denominations against their liberal counterparts is due to fertility advantage rather than conversion.

In Europe, there has been less attention paid to fertility differences between denominations. However, several studies have discovered that immigrants to Europe tend to be more religious than the host population and — especially if Muslim—tend to retain their religiosity (Van Tubergen 2006). Though some indicators point to modest religious decline toward the host society mean, other trends suggest that immigrants become more, rather than less, religious the longer they reside in the host society (Van Tubergen 2007). All of which indicates that religious decline may fail at the aggregate level even if it is occurring at the individual level (Kaufmann 2006, 2010). This article thereby investigates the hypothesis that a combination of higher religious fertility, immigration, and slowing rates of religious apostasy will eventually produce a reversal in the decline of the religious population of Western Europe.[60]

Research indicates that among ethnic minority immigrants religion is a source of group ethnic identification which makes them more resistant to secularization.[61] In most countries, with the exception of France, Muslim immigrants have nearly 100% retention rates for the second generation.[62]

Prime Minister Jacinda Adern gifts her Bible to movement at a Rātana church

In 2018, a New Zealand news website declared: "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks during centenary celebrations at Rātana Church in November. She gifted her Bible to the movement, saying it was a symbol of her promise to lead be a government that was kind and compassionate."[63] Jacinda Ardern is an agnostic.[64]

See also

Essays:

External links

References

  1. Indians top list of Auckland's new NZ citizens, New Zealand Herald, December 28, 2018
  2. Global Index Of Religion And Atheism" (PDF). WIN-Gallup. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  3. "Religion In New Zealand: International Social Survey Programme" (PDF). Massey University.
  4. "Religion In New Zealand: International Social Survey Programme" (PDF). Massey University.
  5. Prof. Dr. Jens Köhrsen, University website faculty page
  6. How religious is the public sphere? – A critical stance on the debate about public religion and post-secularity, Draft Version, Jens Koehrsen (Köhrsen). Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology, Germany. École des hautes études en sciences socials, France. Published in: Acta Sociologica 55 (3), S. 273-288.
  7. Shall the religious inherit the earth? by Eric Kaufmann
  8. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  9. London: A Rising Island of Religion in a Secular Sea by Eric Kaufmann, Huffington Post, 2012
  10. 97% of the world's population growth is taking place in the developing world, where 95% of people are religious, Tuesday, April 30, 2013
  11. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann
  12. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann, Belfer Center, Harvard University/Birkbeck College, University of London
  13. Eric Kaufmann: Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth?
  14. Eric Kaufmann's Atheist Demographic series
  15. Eric Kaufmann: Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  16. Eric Kaufmann - Religion, Demography and Politics in the 21st Century
  17. Religion in New Zealand
  18. Story: Atheism and secularism, Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
  19. Fertility rate of NZ
  20. Irreligion in the Philippines, July 2018, "Irreligion in the Philippines is particularly rare among Filipinos...".
  21. Money and Faith, NZ Herald, 2015
  22. Chinese largest source of New Zealand's migrants: statistics, Xinhuanet.com (Chinese news website)
  23. Chinese largest source of New Zealand's migrants: statistics, Xinhuanet.com (Chinese news website)
  24. Converge for the Annual Philippine Festival
  25. Irreligion in the Philippines, July 2018, "Irreligion in the Philippines is particularly rare among Filipinos...".
  26. International travel and migration: December 2017. Statistics New Zealand. Retrieved on 2018.
  27. Kiwi converts among New Zealand's Muslim community". stuff.co.nz., www.stuff.co.nz (news website)
  28. Indians top list of Auckland's new NZ citizens, New Zealand Herald, December 28, 2018
  29. Global Index Of Religion And Atheism" (PDF). WIN-Gallup. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  30. Religion in New Zealand
  31. Religion in New Zealand
  32. A Rising Tide: Evangelical Christianity in New Zealand 1930–65 by Stuart M. Lange
  33. Evangelical Christianity and New Zealand
  34. Operation World - New Zealand
  35. New Zealand Christian Network - About page
  36. Welcome to the hyper-ageing nation that is New Zealand by Charlie Mitchell, November 24, 2022, The Spinoff (origininally appeared in Stuff.NZ.CO)
  37. Battle of the Babies by Caspar Melville, The New Humanist
  38. Special Report – 2031: The hyper-aging society scenario, MacauBusiness.com, 2021
  39. National population projections: 2020(base)–2073, www.stats.govt.nz website
  40. Countries With the Oldest Populations in the World, Population Reference Bureau: Sources: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects 2019, https://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/, and Toshiko Kaneda, Charlotte Greenbaum, and Kaitlyn Patierno, 2019 World Population Data Sheet (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2019).
  41. A “death-laden society”: The next stage of a hyper-aged Japan and health challenges ahead by Masa Higo, Aging and Health Research Volume 2, Issue 4, December 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahr.2022.100110
  42. Welcome to the hyper-ageing nation that is New Zealand by Charlie Mitchell, November 24, 2022, The Spinoff (origininally appeared in Stuff.NZ.CO)
  43. The next economic shock will be hyper-aged societies, Wired magazine, 2020
  44. God and money: Interactive map shows rich suburbs have most atheists, New Zealand Herald, 2015
  45. Demographics of Auckland
  46. Religion in New Zealand
  47. Creationism spreading in Europe
  48. Evolution rejected by hundreds of millions of Muslims and evangelicals, Vancouver Sun, October 4, 2014
  49. Evolution rejected by hundreds of millions of Muslims and evangelicals, Vancouver Sun, October 4, 2014. 9:12 am
  50. Creationism taught in science class
  51. Migration is spreading creationism across Europe, claims academic by Riazat Butt, religious affairs correspondent, Friday 13 November 2009 07.49 EST
  52. Richard Dawkins: Muslim parents 'import creationism' into schools, The Telegraph
  53. Developed countries may become more religious in 20 years, Eureka Alert
  54. God's changing place in New Zealand society by Carly Thomas 12:35, Dec 31 2017,
  55. Cross-National Trends in Religious Service Attendance, Public Opinion Quarterly, 2016 Summer; 80(2): 563–583. Published online 2016 May 5. doi: 10.1093/poq/nfw016
  56. Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?: Demography and Politics in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Kaufmann
  57. Shall the religious inherit the earth
  58. Religious immigrants will alter the religious landscape of Europe
  59. Religious immigrants will alter the religious landscape of Europe
  60. Religious immigrants will alter the religious landscape of Europe
  61. Eric Kaufmann - Religion, Demography and Politics in the 21st Century
  62. Eric Kaufmann - Religion, Demography and Politics in the 21st Century
  63. Godless NZ? Not entirely - we're actually becoming a more Christian nation by Martin van Beynen, Dec 29, 2018, www.stuff.co.nz
  64. Knight, Kim (January 29, 2017). "The politics of life: The truth about Jacinda Ardern". The New Zealand Herald.