India ranks higher than the developed countries on which index?

minji-dil kenji-dum konja varivani-yAn Van-jiyA daruL-enai arunAchalA

I am a fool who prays only when overwhelmed (by misery), yet disappoint me not, O Arunachala!

Verse 78, Sri aksharamaNamAlai by Sri Ramana Maharishi

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While I was browsing the net the other day, I chanced upon an interesting article titled "Two charts show how economic prosperity brings a decline in religiosity" on scroll.in. 

Not the most tantalizingly crafted click baiting titles you might agree. (Two charts show economic prosperity and religiosity do what? or You will not believe what economic prosperity does to religiosity. Call me old fashioned but click baiting has the exact opposite effect on me: I make it a point to avoid a piece if its title isn't a well crafted synopsis of its contents. Or in other words, I'm an old hag. But enough pointless digression, back to the pointless post.)

True to its title, the article had two charts, the second of which I display here. Looking at it, I was reminded of an old story of how a man, not familiar with the skills of climbing trees, gets stuck atop a tall one and starts off by fervently promising God that he would provide a big feast upon his safe return to ground. And with every foot that he descends, starts reducing the size of his offering.

Source: scroll.in

The only data points that came as a surprise was the USA - I didn't expect to see it so high on the religiosity axis - and China. But I live in California and there exists a whole "other" USA between the coasts and while I don't know much about China, I know enough to always take data coming from there with a grain of salt. The rest of the countries seem to fall at just about the right places that you expect them to. I'm assuming it would be a pointless exercise, but if more countries in the middle east had been polled, they would make the roof of this plot. 

The article makes a passing reference to the declining religiosity across the world. But I'm not sure that economic prosperity, just by itself, is the reason behind waning religiosity. The bottom right of the plot - the rich and less religious zone - seems mostly European, white and old Christian countries. And the top left - the poor and the religious group - seems mostly Asian/African colonies with Islam and imported Christianity. Are the old Christians - who happen to be rich - losing faith faster than the newer believers? And it would also help to understand if there exists a correlation between race and religiosity as the white folks seem to be losing faith faster than the rest. 

India is definitely not rich, definitely corrupt and is a mixture of multiple religions. And one look at the crowds at Tirupathi on any day will be like looking at the typical cross section of Indian society - the poor and the rich, healthy and the sick, able bodied and the disabled and of course the corrupt and the not-so-corrupt although that is not perceptible visually - jostling with one another in the hope of appropriating the hilltop deity's blessings. And this would play out not very differently at holy sites of the other faiths, I imagine.  This being the case, I was expecting a much higher score than 80%. 

What would be an interesting follow up exercise would be to label these countries with their respective ranks on the corruption scale. I'm thinking there would be a strong correlation between lack of religiosity and lack of corruption. 

My lazy, armchair theory floated with nothing more than instincts to rely upon? A mind free of wants and sins (and hence fears) leans less on religion as a source of strength and support.