A new survey has found people living in wealthy countries are less likely than those in emerging economies, to say belief in God is necessary to be moral.
Christian Today reports, the Pew Research Centre examined attitudes towards God and morality in more than 38,000 people across 34 countries.
Respondents in emerging economies tended to be more religious and more likely to regard religion as important to their lives.
In Indonesia and the Philippines, 96 per cent of people connected belief in God with having good values, compared with 44 per cent of Americans and just 26 per cent of Canadians.
Most Western European countries dismissed any link between belief in God and morality, with just one fifth of UK respondents regarding it as important.
This compared with just 15 per cent in France and nine per cent in Sweden.
Elsewhere in Europe, Greece was the most likely to link belief in God to morality at 53 per cent, followed by Bulgaria at 50 per cent and Slovakia at 45 per cent.