Christians remain world’s largest religious group, but they are declining in Europe
Though Christians make up nearly a third of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, the number of Christians in Europe is in decline.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Historically, public opinion surveys have relied on the ability to adjust their datasets using a core set of demographics – sex, age, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and geographic region – to correct any imbalances between the survey sample and the population. These are all variables that are correlated with a broad range of attitudes […]
By two standard measures of religious observance – how often people pray and how often they attend religious services – Central and Eastern Europeans, on the whole, show modest levels of religious commitment. In none of the countries surveyed do a majority of respondents say they pray daily or attend worship services weekly. In some […]
Religion has reasserted itself as an important part of individual and national identity in a region that was once dominated by atheist communist regimes.
Orthodoxy is the dominant religion in Central and Eastern Europe, and the majority religion in 10 of the 18 countries surveyed. Overall, nearly six-in-ten people in the region (57%) identify with this Christian tradition. Moldova and Greece have the highest Orthodox proportions in their populations, while Russia and Ukraine – the two largest countries surveyed […]
The vast majority of Central and Eastern Europeans express belief in God. More than eight-in-ten adults in most of the 18 countries surveyed say they believe in God, including majorities in seven countries who say they are “absolutely certain” in their belief. While people across the region are somewhat less likely to express belief in […]
More than two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union and the arrival of free elections in much of Central and Eastern Europe, the level of support for democracy across the region is mixed, especially in comparison with other regions previously surveyed by Pew Research Center. In sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, for example, […]