Before you read the report Test your religious knowledge by taking an interactive quiz. The short quiz includes some questions recently asked in the nationally representative survey that forms the basis of this report. After completing the quiz, you can see how you did in comparison with the general public and with people like yourself. […]
The vast majority of Americans say it is at least somewhat important to them to have a U.S. president who lives a moral and ethical life (93%), and most also say they want the president to stand up for people with their religious beliefs (69%). Smaller shares want the president to have strong religious beliefs […]
The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip, with both Protestantism and Catholicism experiencing losses of population share.
Based on religious affiliation (or lack thereof), the groups that display the highest levels of religious knowledge on this survey include Jews (who get an average of 18.7 out of 32 questions correct), self-described atheists (17.9) and self-described agnostics (17.0). Looked at another way, seven-in-ten Jewish respondents (69%) answer at least half of the questions […]
Religious affiliation is just one of several factors linked with religious knowledge. The survey shows, for example, that religious knowledge is also very closely linked with how many years of schooling a person has received. In addition, a variety of other educational traits – such as making efforts to learn about one’s own religion or […]
Most U.S. Christians perceive their religion as losing influence in America, and many go so far as to say that there is tension between their beliefs and the mainstream culture. These views are particularly widespread among white evangelical Protestants, two-thirds of whom see at least some conflict between their own religious beliefs and mainstream American […]
Each year, Pew Research Center conducts several random-digit-dial (RDD) telephone (cellphones and landlines) surveys about political topics.[6. numoffset=”6″ Pew Research Center has gradually increased the amount of telephone interviewing it conducts on cellphones. In recent RDD surveys, roughly 80% of interviews have been conducted with respondents on cellphones and 20% have been conducted with respondents […]
Pew Research Center analyzed data on six religious groups – Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and people with no religious affiliation.[37. numoffset=”37″ Although some faiths other than those analyzed in this report (such as Sikhs) have millions of adherents around the world, censuses and surveys in many countries do not measure them specifically. Because of […]