(CNN) - Educated people living in wealthy countries are far less likely to say that believing in God is necessary for good morale, according to a massive new survey of 38,000 people in 34 countries.
The survey, released by the Pew Research Center on Monday, revealed a large "God gap" between relatively wealthy and poor countries.
In Kenya, for example, the country with the lowest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the survey, 95% of people said that believing in God is necessary for a person to be moral.
In Sweden, the richest country, only 9% of people connected to God with good morals (the survey did not break down respondents by religion).
Even within countries, the rich and the poor disagree when it comes to God and morality, according to the survey.
In the United States, for example, there is a 24 percentage point gap between high and low income Americans. The poor were much more likely to say that believing in God is necessary to be good.
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"People in the emerging economies included in this survey tend to be more religious and more likely to see religion as important in their lives," the study authors wrote.
Pew's study seems to lend weight to the secularization thesis: the idea that nations become less religious as people get richer and receive more education.
For decades, the United States challenged this theory with wealthy and religious people. But even that is changing, according to several other studies.
In 2002, 58% of Americans said that believing in God is necessary to be good. In 2019, that number fell to 44%.
Still, almost half of Americans say religion is very important.
Religion remains a powerful force in the lives of people around the world, including the United States. Most people in 23 of the 34 countries where the surveys were conducted said that religion is "very" or "somewhat" important to them. In the United States, almost half, 47%, rated it as "very important."
Countries most likely to connect God with goodness:
- Indonesia: 96%
- Philippines: 96%
- Kenya: 95%
- Nigeria: 93%
- Brazil, South Africa, Tunisia: 84%
Countries least likely to connect God with morality:
- Sweden: 9%
- Czech Republic: 14%
- France: 15%
- United Kingdom: 20%
- Netherlands, Spain: 22%