Fewer than three-quarters of Canadians believe in a god, suggests a new Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey.

"Religion in Canada today is not a particularly divisive subject and tolerance levels for different beliefs are high," said Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson. "This is evident in the fact that one in four people feel comfortable saying they do not believe in a god."

The poll found 72 per cent of respondents said they believed in a god, while 23 per cent said they did not believe in any god. Six per cent did not offer an opinion.

Results may not total 100 per cent because of rounding.

Polls have told a different story in the United States.

"Canada's secularism stands in clearer distinction, when compared to the cultural and political influences of religion in the United States," said Anderson. "In one Harris Interactive study in the United States, conducted in 2007, the number who said they were non-believers was only eight per cent."

Keith Howard, a United church minister and executive director of the church's Emerging Spirit program, said the results of the new survey do not represent a dramatic change from previous polls about Canadians' beliefs.

"We are past the time of people trashing God," he said. "They are now trying to find a safe place where they can nurture that spirituality."

He said a poll done for the church last year indicated Canada is a nation of believers, not belongers.

Howard said his sense is that people who believe in a god increasingly imagine a nebulous but powerful force for good, rather than the traditional concept of a deity.

Indeed, he likened the concept to that of the Force in the Star Wars movies.

A study quoted by Statistics Canada in 2006, found "adult Canadians attach a higher degree of importance to religion than religious attendance figures alone would indicate."

The study noted only one-third of adult Canadians attend religious services at least once a month.

But the study, conducted in 2002, found more than one-half engage in religious activities on their own at least on a monthly basis.

Howard said a recent survey done for the United Church rating the importance of religion in the daily lives of people around the world placed Canadians fourth, behind the United States, Mexico and Italy.

The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey data were gathered by telephone from just over 1,000 people between May 22 and May 26. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The Harris-Decima poll also indicated:

• Women (76 per cent) were more likely than men (67 per cent) to say they believed in a god.
• Canadians over the age of 50 (82 per cent) were far more likely than those under the age of 25 (60 per cent) to say they believed in a god. More than one in three (36 per cent) of those under the age of 25 said they did not believe in any god.
• English Canadians (73 per cent) were more likely than French Canadians (67 per cent) to say they believed in a god.
• Belief in a god is higher in rural Canada (76 per cent) than in urban Canada (69 per cent).