Religiosity: A Comparison between Latin Europe and Latin America

Abstract:     
We present a brief discussion about religious behavior from a microeconomic perspective considering individual decisions about church attendance and its frequency in some Latin European and American countries. With this aim, we analyze the links between individuals’ religiosity and several socioeconomic variables. We confirmed that Uruguayans are the least religious. We also found that religious activity is more intense for women and older people, and the education level has an ambiguous effect on the intensity of religious activity. In addition, we find that richer people are more religious, but countries with higher income per capita are less religious.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 16

Keywords: church attendance, religious activity, religion and socioeconomic variables

JEL Classification: Z12

working papers series