Atheistic Germany and loneliness
One in four receives a visit less than once a month from friends and acquaintances, and nearly one in 10 is not visited by anyone anymore. Many old people have no one who still addresses them by their first name or asks them how they are doing.[1]
Compared to deeply religious cultures where an extended family and a sense of community often exists, secular countries are often lonelier societies.
Germany is one of the most atheistic countries in the world and the website adherents.com reports that 41-49% of Germans are agnostics/atheists/non-believers in God.[2] In addition, Germany has the highest rates of belief in evolution in the world.[3] In 2005, it was estimated that 70% of Germans believed in evolution.[4]
Atheistic Germany and loneliness
A BBC article entitled Is Modern life making us more lonely? declared:
| “ | EU figures suggest that, in the UK as a whole, 13% of the population lives alone. Denmark has the highest proportion of single-dwellers, at 24%. In Germany, Finland and Sweden, that number is just below 20%.
The figures suggest that in southern Europe people are less inclined to live alone. In Greece, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria and Romania, that amounts to fewer than 10% of people, with Malta having the lowest rate at about 7%.[5] |
” |
In 2013, Spiegal Online International reported:
| “ | More than 2 million men and women in Germany over the age of 80 live alone, and most of them ended up isolated when their spouses died. Experts anticipate that their numbers will grow considerably thanks to today's increasing life expectancy. A study by Germany's Allensbach Institute finds that senior citizens in Germany are healthier and fitter than at any other time in history. Nevertheless, it's also true that people over the age of 70 spend an average of 17 hours a day alone -- longer than any other demographic group.
According to the German Center of Gerontology (DZA), over 20 percent of Germans over the age of 70 are in regular contact with only one person -- or nobody. One in four receives a visit less than once a month from friends and acquaintances, and nearly one in 10 is not visited by anyone anymore. Many old people have no one who still addresses them by their first name or asks them how they are doing. For many of them, soap opera actors have become a kind of substitute family.[6] |
” |
See also
Notes
- ↑ Alone by the Millions: Isolation Crisis Threatens German Seniors By Guido Kleinhubbert and Antje Windmann
- ↑ Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics(Zuckerman, 2005)
- ↑ Photo: Evolution Less Accepted in U.S. Than Other Western Countries, Study Finds
- ↑ Evolutionary belief statistics
- ↑ Is Modern life making us more lonely, BBC, 8 April 2013
- ↑ Alone by the Millions: Isolation Crisis Threatens German Seniors By Guido Kleinhubbert and Antje Windmann
