Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Many Catholics say the church should change its stance on key issues. In particular, they would like to see it expand eligibility for the priesthood, relax restrictions on the reception of Holy Communion and drop its ban on artificial birth control for family-planning purposes. There is less consensus on whether these changes will happen within […]
Compared with most other Jewish Americans, Orthodox Jews on average are younger, get married earlier and have bigger families. They also tend to be more religiously observant and more socially and politically conservative.
About four-in-ten U.S. Catholics say they attend Mass weekly. Few cultural Catholics (4%) say the same, but nearly half report attending Mass at least occasionally. Meanwhile, a strong majority of ex-Catholics (82%) say they never attend Mass at a Catholic church. A similar pattern is seen on some other measures of observance of Catholic rituals, […]
As support for same-sex marriage has increased, other attitudes about homosexuality have changed as well. Majorities now say homosexuality should be accepted by society (63%) and that the sexual orientation of a gay or lesbian person cannot be changed (60%). Nearly half (47%) say that people are born gay or lesbian. These opinions represent a […]