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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Search results for: “muslims”
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Sidebar: Demographic profiles
In India and around the world, family patterns are usually tied to a variety of demographic measures, such as education, wealth, urbanicity and fertility. And these, in turn, are tied to religion. In other words, to understand sex selection patterns among India’s major religious communities, it is important to examine other factors that might be […]
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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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Sidebar: Laws, norms and traditions
Laws and cultural norms tied to inheritance and marriage may help explain differences in attitudes toward sons, daughters and abortion. This sidebar offers a very elementary glance at Indian laws, norms and traditions that might be tied to sex selection. Inheritance: Inheritance traditions are among the barriers that Indian women face, even though laws in […]
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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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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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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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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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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.
