1. God, spirits and the natural world
Large majorities around the world say they believe in God. Read about beliefs in spiritual presence “beyond the natural world,” and in animals and nature.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Large majorities around the world say they believe in God. Read about beliefs in spiritual presence “beyond the natural world,” and in animals and nature.
Some activities, such as prayer, are widespread. Others, such as fasting and lighting incense or candles, vary more by country.
A majority of North Americans are Christian. But Christian populations declined in the U.S. and Canada, while the unaffiliated grew, from 2010 to 2020.
The number of countries with high or very high social hostilities rose for the third year in a row; government interference in worship also increased.
Read our deep-dive on religious migration trends in Europe, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, India and the United States.
The religiously unaffiliated population is the world’s third-largest religious category and grew the second-fastest between 2010 and 2020.
Migrants tend to move to regions where their religion is common, but some regions also see large influxes of migrants from minority religious groups.
In 2022, global median scores on the Center’s Government Restrictions and Social Hostilities Indexes mirrored 2021. But some regions saw change since 2021.
Religion in a country tends to decline in three transitional stages that unfold across generations, a new paper using Center data proposes.
Muslims account for 29% of global migrants and most commonly live in the Middle-East North Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
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