In a few days South Korea will have a new president, and this is very important because of how large North Korea looms in geopolitics. An interesting aspect of this race for Americans is that the candidate of the conservative party, Park Geun-Hye, may be an atheist, running against a Roman Catholic liberal. I say may be because there are some confusions over Park Geun-Hye’s religious identity. Her parents were Buddhist, she was baptized as a young woman as a Roman Catholic, and seems to have drawn without much discrimination from a variety of religious teachings to inform her world-view. It wouldn’t be shocking if Park Geun-Hye was an atheist. According to the World Values Survey ~25% of South Koreans are convinced atheists.
I was curious if atheists in South Korea leaned to the Left or the Right, and from what I can tell there’s no strong correlation. This may surprise Americans, but the historical experience of the two nations is very different. Until recently South Korea has had weak institutional religions, and a substantial portion of what we might term “progressives” were Christians, in particular Roman Catholics. Below are the results for the USA, Great Britain, Sweden, and South Korea for the World Values Survey using religious identification and political self positioning. Percentages and sample sizes are included.
| N | Religious person | Not religious person | Convinced atheist | ||
| Great Britain | 854 | 49.90% | 39.10% | 11.10% | |
| Left | 30 | 40.00% | 36.80% | 23.20% | |
| 2 | 24 | 39.60% | 36.40% | 23.90% | |
| 3 | 70 | 40.30% | 34.60% | 25.10% | |
| 4 | 78 | 41.20% | 48.70% | 10.10% | |
| 5 | 340 | 50.20% | 42.20% | 7.60% | |
| 6 | 129 | 56.30% | 38.30% | 5.40% | |
| 7 | 80 | 48.40% | 43.90% | 7.60% | |
| 8 | 56 | 55.50% | 28.40% | 16.10% | |
| 9 | 23 | 59.70% | 18.60% | 21.70% | |
| Right | 24 | 70.80% | 15.80% | 13.30% | |
| United States | 1175 | 71.80% | 24.70% | 3.50% | |
| Left | 21 | 51.10% | 33.70% | 15.20% | |
| 2 | 18 | 67.90% | 27.10% | 5.00% | |
| 3 | 70 | 50.80% | 41.00% | 8.20% | |
| 4 | 96 | 62.80% | 31.20% | 6.00% | |
| 5 | 418 | 72.30% | 26.60% | 1.10% | |
| 6 | 233 | 71.10% | 25.80% | 3.10% | |
| 7 | 130 | 77.00% | 16.90% | 6.10% | |
| 8 | 104 | 82.90% | 11.70% | 5.40% | |
| 9 | 43 | 97.50% | 2.50% | – | |
| Right | 43 | 69.00% | 31.00% | – | |
| Sweden | 953 | 33.10% | 49.70% | 17.20% | |
| Left | 26 | 25.70% | 49.20% | 25.10% | |
| 2 | 36 | 26.80% | 36.40% | 36.70% | |
| 3 | 137 | 28.40% | 54.10% | 17.60% | |
| 4 | 132 | 27.30% | 51.80% | 20.90% | |
| 5 | 139 | 32.70% | 51.20% | 16.00% | |
| 6 | 109 | 42.50% | 47.80% | 9.60% | |
| 7 | 156 | 32.70% | 49.00% | 18.30% | |
| 8 | 149 | 32.50% | 53.20% | 14.30% | |
| 9 | 41 | 48.70% | 39.50% | 11.80% | |
| Right | 29 | 45.90% | 37.50% | 16.60% | |
| South Korea | 1195 | 30.10% | 41.40% | 28.60% | |
| Left | 18 | 17.00% | 56.30% | 26.70% | |
| 2 | 32 | 28.00% | 31.70% | 40.30% | |
| 3 | 148 | 41.70% | 30.00% | 28.30% | |
| 4 | 145 | 34.60% | 37.20% | 28.20% | |
| 5 | 245 | 22.10% | 50.10% | 27.90% | |
| 6 | 142 | 30.20% | 40.20% | 29.60% | |
| 7 | 169 | 26.00% | 38.20% | 35.80% | |
| 8 | 182 | 36.80% | 39.80% | 23.40% | |
| 9 | 62 | 27.20% | 51.90% | 20.90% | |
| Right | 54 | 20.40% | 51.20% | 28.30% | |