Is there any correlation between national prosperity and percentage of Christians? I have heard of anecdotal evidence suggesting that the proportion of Christians in a population directly (positively) impacts national prosperity. In other words, the more Christians in a nation, the richer the nation becomes.

Possible current examples include India and China which are apparently seeing both an increase in the proportion of Christians (India / China) and in prosperity (India / China).

This would seem to follow the Biblical pattern, see e.g. Haggai 1.

But is this a real phenomena? Can we see a genuine correlation? And if so, what is its cause?

Note: in light of comments and answers so far, this question is about Christianity, not religion generally.

Other resources:


Christianity by country
Christian population growth
Actually it's the other way round:





More studies:


http://freethinker.co.uk/2009/02/18/poorest-countries-are-the-most-religious/
http://www.zahablog.com/?page_id=782