Why the U.S. census doesn’t ask Americans about their religion
The Census Bureau has collected data on Americans’ income, race, ethnicity, housing and other things, but it has never directly asked about their religion.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The Census Bureau has collected data on Americans’ income, race, ethnicity, housing and other things, but it has never directly asked about their religion.
28% of U.S. adults are religiously unaffiliated, describing themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion.
In India and around the world, family patterns are usually tied to a variety of demographic measures, such as education, wealth, urbanicity and fertility. And these, in turn, are tied to religion. In other words, to understand sex selection patterns among India’s major religious communities, it is important to examine other factors that might be […]
While the largest Christian traditions and religious “nones” can be consistently analyzed, smaller groups produce a large margin of error.
Nearly a quarter of countries used force to prevent religious gatherings during the pandemic; other government restrictions and social hostilities related to religion remained fairly stable.
Among Indians overall, sex selection during pregnancy is at least in part a result of a cultural preference for sons over daughters, which may be thought of as “son preference” or “daughter aversion,” or both. A preference for sons seems to be implied in the ancient Hindu epic “Mahabharata,” in which Gandhari is blessed to […]
Many of the patterns described in this report vary by caste. In India, castes are hereditary social classes. Historically, the caste someone was born into determined their status in the social hierarchy, along with their social circle and what careers they could pursue. Caste also is tied to many family patterns – including sex selection. […]
CORRECTION (May 23, 2024): A previous version of this report listed an incorrect figure for Hispanic Americans who regularly attend religious services and say they have heard at least a little about climate change in sermons. This has been updated and does not substantively affect the findings of this report. While many Americans tie their […]
Among the 32 places surveyed, support for legal same-sex marriage is highest in Sweden, where 92% of adults favor it, and lowest in Nigeria, where only 2% back it.
Our study analyzes 198 countries and territories and is based on policies and events in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available.
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