Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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    2. What role does caste play?

    Many of the patterns described in this report vary by caste. In India, castes are hereditary social classes. Historically, the caste someone was born into determined their status in the social hierarchy, along with their social circle and what careers they could pursue. Caste also is tied to many family patterns – including sex selection. […]

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    4. Restrictions in the 25 most populous countries

    CORRECTION (Dec. 19, 2025): Some of the text in Chapter 4 has been corrected with updated SHI figures for 2019. Germany is now described as experiencing a “modest decrease,” rather than a “large decline,” in its SHI score between 2019 and 2020. Refer to the errata page for details. More than 5 billion people – almost three-quarters of […]

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    1. Measuring spirituality

    How does one go about counting the number of spiritual people in the United States? And how do Americans define spirituality? In preparation for this survey, we reviewed the academic literature on spirituality and consulted with scholars who have published on the topic. It quickly became clear that there is no single, widely accepted definition […]

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    1. Changes in son preference, ultrasound use and fertility

    Among Indians overall, sex selection during pregnancy is at least in part a result of a cultural preference for sons over daughters, which may be thought of as “son preference” or “daughter aversion,” or both. A preference for sons seems to be implied in the ancient Hindu epic “Mahabharata,” in which Gandhari is blessed to […]

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    Methodology

    This section describes the sources and variables used for the analyses in this report. First, it explains the known limitations of the data measuring sex ratios at birth in India. Next, it outlines how each of the key variables – including son preference, ultrasound use and sex selection – was derived. Finally, the methodology for […]

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    Acknowledgments

    This report was made possible by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which received support from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. It was a collaborative effort based on the input and analysis of the following individuals. Find related reports online at pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/religion. Research Team         Becka A. Alper, Senior Researcher   Alan Cooperman, Director, Religion ResearchGregory A. Smith, Associate Director, […]

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    1. Religious change in China

    It is unclear whether there has been any significant change since 2010 in the percentage of Chinese adults who identify with a religion or engage in religious beliefs or practices. Some scholars have relied on a mix of fieldwork studies, claims by religious organizations, journalists’ observations and government statistics to suggest that China is experiencing […]

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    Methodology

    This study of religious radio in the United States uses three different data sources with accompanying methodologies: This is a Pew Research Center report from the Pew-Knight Initiative, a research program funded jointly by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/pew-knight/. The American Trends […]

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    India’s Sex Ratio at Birth Begins To Normalize

    India’s artificially wide ratio of baby boys to baby girls – which arose in the 1970s from the use of prenatal diagnostic technology to facilitate sex-selective abortions – now appears to be narrowing. Son bias has declined sharply among Sikhs, while Christians continue to have a natural balance of sons and daughters.

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