How Americans Feel About Religion’s Influence in Government and Public Life
A growing share of U.S. adults say religion is gaining influence, but most still want churches to stay out of politics, a 2026 survey finds.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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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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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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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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Most U.S. parents pass along their religion and politics to their children
Most parents pass along religious and political affiliations, and they do so at similarly high rates, according to a new analysis of several surveys.
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A closer look at Americans who believe the U.S. should be a Christian nation
More than eight-in-ten people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation (86%) are themselves Christian.
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By more than two-to-one, Americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state
A majority of Americans say medication abortion should be legal, but there is a stark divide by age, religion and party affiliation.
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Why Pew Research Center typically can’t report the views of smaller U.S. religious groups
While the largest Christian traditions and religious “nones” can be consistently analyzed, smaller groups produce a large margin of error.
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7 facts about Hindus around the world
With Diwali celebrations underway, here are some facts about Hindus around the world.
