Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Washington, D.C. — A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the already high level of restrictions on religion in the Middle East and North Africa – whether resulting from government policies or from social hostilities – continued to increase in 2011, when most of the political uprisings known as the Arab Spring […]
The share of the world’s countries with high or very high restrictions on religion has increased significantly in recent years, as documented in this study and previous Pew Research Center reports.1 Governments and societies around the world have attempted to address the rising tide of restrictions through a variety of initiatives and actions, from encouraging […]
Survey Report Publics around the world are concerned about the effect of global climate change and international financial instability, with majorities in many of the nations surveyed saying these are major threats to their countries. But Islamic extremism is also a serious concern, particularly in the United States, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, relatively […]
Pew Research’s fourth major report on global restrictions on religion finds that the share of countries with high or very high restrictions on religion rose from 37% in 2010 to 40% in 2011. The Middle East and North Africa continued to have the highest levels of restrictions in the year when much of the Arab Spring uprisings occurred, with social hostilities involving religion increasing markedly and government restrictions remaining high.
As the overall mood of the country worsens, Egyptians still have a favorable view of President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, although support for the latter has weakened since 2011. And while support for religious leaders, the military and the court system remains high, fewer now see those institutions as a good influence than during […]
A Pew Research Center report looks at how the religious makeup of legal immigrants to the U.S. has changed over the past 20 years. While Christians continue to make up a majority of new legal permanent residents, a growing share belong to other faiths
Overview For updated views on this question from 2019, see here. As the United States and other countries grapple with the issue of same-sex marriage, a new Pew Research Center survey finds huge variance by region on the broader question of whether homosexuality should be accepted or rejected by society. The survey of publics in […]