Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Executive Summary Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions. On average, Americans correctly answer 16 of the 32 religious knowledge questions on the […]
The release of the U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey has generated record traffic on the Pew Forum’s website as well as many individual emails from readers. We are very grateful for the feedback. Here are some of the most common questions we’ve been receiving. Why didn’t you include smaller religious groups such as Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, […]
For Immediate ReleaseSept. 15, 2010, 12 p.m. EDT Washington, D.C. — A new report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, “Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe,” profiles several of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups operating in Western Europe today. CONTACT Mary SchultzCommunications Manager202.419.4556mschultz@pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion The report focuses […]
The proposed construction of a mosque in the middle of Tennessee has produced a sharp exchange of words between candidates for an open congressional seat. In May, the Rutherford County Regional Planning Commission approved the construction of a 52,000-square-foot facility to house a mosque and Islamic center in Murfreesboro. More than 600 residents turned out […]
The below list of general sources provides bibliographic information for sources that were used to provide estimates and projections for the Muslim populations of multiple countries. The subsequent list of sources by country provides abbreviated bibliographic information identifying which general sources were used as the basis for estimates and projections for countries, as well as […]
Origins and Growth 1910s-1920s: In 1912, the first pentecostal missionary arrives from Finland. In the same year, a charismatic movement known as Roho (“Spirit”) emerges in the Anglican Church. In 1918, North Americans establish a mission that later affiliates with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. The churches resulting from this mission become independent in 1965 […]
Large majorities in every country surveyed express belief in the core tenets of Christianity or Islam. For example, roughly three-in-four or more people express absolutely certain belief in the existence of God. In eight countries, at least nine-in-ten people express this view. By way of comparison, 71% of adults in the United States, arguably the […]
As of 1900, both Muslims and Christians were relatively small minorities in the region. Since then, however, the number of Muslims living between the Sahara Desert and the Cape of Good Hope has increased more than 20-fold, rising from an estimated 11 million in 1900 to approximately 234 million in 2010.
New Pew-Templeton Survey of 19 African Nations Finds Signs of Tolerance and Tensions Between the Faiths Download a PDF in English Français Português Washington, D.C.—The vast majority of people in many sub-Saharan African nations are deeply committed to one or the other of the world’s two largest religions, Christianity and Islam, and yet many continue […]
Most people in sub-Saharan Africa now identify with either Christianity or Islam. In most of the 19 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, 90% or more of the respondents say they belong to one of these faiths. This is in sharp contrast with the religious composition of the […]