Uruguayan secularism is still a thing. But less so at the Brazilian border

Secularism is very much alive and well among Uruguayans — but it fades away as one approaches the country’s land borders. That’s what a new survey on the matter led by local newspaper El Observador — the largest in the last decade — shows, based on more than 7,000 interviews.

Even though 47 percent of Uruguayans claim not to follow any religion at all, the distribution is far from homogeneous: while the proportion of non-religious people is close to 52 percent in the capital Montevideo and even reaches 55 percent on the east coast, it drops to 35 percent in the northern departments bordering Brazil, and to less than 32 percent in the northwest near Argentina.

The study correlates religious belief with other factors, from geographic location to satisfaction with life, also surveying for gender and breaking down believers among their different religions, showing that multiple nuances exist within the small South American nation.

As The Brazilian Report once explained, Uruguay has a lengthy tradition of being the least-religious country in predominantly-Christian Latin America, having long promoted the separation between church and state. That is a root cause for the country being a trailblazer on issues such as the legalization of marijuana, abortion rights, and same-sex marriage — values generally closer to the heart of secular-minded citizens.

In fact, authorities take...