Majority of U.S. Catholics Express Favorable View of Pope Francis
Most say Francis represents change in the church. And many say the church should allow priests to marry and let Catholics use birth control.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Most say Francis represents change in the church. And many say the church should allow priests to marry and let Catholics use birth control.
40% of U.S. adults say there’s a lot of discrimination against Jews in society, and 44% say there’s a lot of discrimination against Muslims.
57% of Americans express some sympathy with both Israelis and Palestinians, including 26% who say their sympathies lie equally with both groups.
Self-identified Christians make up 63% of the U.S. population in 2021, down from 75% a decade ago.
During the pandemic, a stable share of U.S. adults have been participating in religious services in some way – either virtually or in person – but in-person attendance is slightly lower than it was before COVID-19. Among Americans surveyed across several years, the vast majority described their attendance habits in roughly the same way in both 2019 and 2022.
Today, most Black adults say they rely on prayer to help make major decisions, and view opposing racism as essential to their religious faith.
The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by the Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults recruited from landline and cell phone random digit dial surveys. Panelists participate via monthly self-administered Web surveys. Panelists who do not have internet access are provided with a tablet and wireless internet connection. The […]
Senior research staff answer questions from readers relating to all the areas covered by our seven projects, ranging from polling techniques and findings, to media, technology, religious, demographic and global attitudes trends.
Following voting trends, white Protestants voted overwhelmingly Republican and religiously unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly supported Democrats. But Catholic voters swung to the GOP, and Republicans made gains in all three groups.
For the first time in 15 years of Pew Research Center polling, fewer than half oppose same-sex marriage, though, support (42%) remains below opposition (48%). The shift in favor of gay marriage has been broad-based, occurring across many demographic, political and religious groups.
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