See the latest Pew Research Center reports and data on religious beliefs and practices around the world.
Many Americans don’t argue about religion – or even talk about it
About half of U.S. adults tell us they seldom (33%) or never (16%) talk about religion with people outside their family.
Is God Dead? No, but belief has declined slightly
Fifty years ago this month, Time magazine published one of its most famous and controversial covers. Splashed in bold red print across a black background was a short, simple and yet intensely provocative question: “Is God Dead?” Without providing a definitive answer, the authors of the piece, dated April 8, 1966, seemed to imply that, […]
Israeli Jews from the former Soviet Union are more secular, less religiously observant
After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Israel’s largest wave of Jewish immigrants arrived from Russia and other former Soviet republics. These Soviet Jews brought a secular mindset to Israel, and more than two decades later, Jews who were born in the former Soviet Union continue to be noticeably less religious than Israeli Jews overall.
A religious gender gap for Christians, but not for Muslims
While Christian women are on the whole more religious than Christian men, Muslim women and Muslim men have similar levels of religious commitment. And when it comes to attendance at worship services, Muslim men are more active than Muslim women.
The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World
History’s most influential religious leaders – among them Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama – are usually male. Yet women today are generally more religious than men, particularly among Christians.
Women generally are more religious than men, but not everywhere
Generally, women are more likely than men to be affiliated with a religious organization; women also pray more, and are more inclined to say religion is “very important” in their lives.
A closer look at Jewish identity in Israel and the U.S.
Nearly all Jews in the United States and Israel say they are proud to be Jewish, and strong majorities in both countries say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. But the two Jewish communities do not always agree about what it means to be Jewish.
Unlike U.S., few Jews in Israel identify as Reform or Conservative
The two largest organized Jewish denominations in America – Reform and Conservative Judaism – together have about five times as many U.S. members as the historically much older, more strictly observant Orthodox community. But the Reform and Conservative movements have a far smaller footprint in Israel.
Exit polls and the evangelical vote: A closer look
As Donald Trump has racked up big wins among self-described “born-again or evangelical” Christians in many of the early primaries, some religious leaders, political analysts and researchers have questioned whether many of these self-described evangelicals actually are evangelical Christians.
In Israel, Jews are united by homeland but divided into very different groups
There are only about 6 million Jews living in Israel, but there are major religious, social and political chasms that divide them.
