Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
A PEW RESEARCH SERIES More on Same-Sex Marriage Growing Support for Gay Marriage: Changed Minds and Changing Demographics Behind Gay Marriage Momentum: Regional Gaps Persist Support for same-sex marriage has edged above 50% for the first time in a Pew Research Center survey. Currently, 51% favor gays and lesbians marrying legally, while 42% are opposed. […]
Egyptians clearly want their legal and political systems to be shaped by Islam. Most say laws should strictly adhere to the Quran, and a majority of Egyptians think religious leaders should have at least some influence in political matters. On the question of religious freedom, however, the public is divided over whether the government is […]
Overview Two years after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian public mood is increasingly negative. Month after month of political uncertainty, a weak economy and often violent street protests have taken their toll, and today a majority of Egyptians are dissatisfied with the way their new democracy is working. Only 30% of Egyptians think […]
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has a variety of resources on Catholicism and Pope Benedict XVI, including public opinion polls, research studies, event transcripts and interviews.
Pope Francis was elected on Wednesday as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio hails from Argentina and becomes the first Latin American pontiff. According to Pew Research Center data on the distribution of the world’s Catholic population, the largest share of the Catholic population (39%) lives in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Across the U.S., religious courts operate on a routine, everyday basis. How do some of the country’s major Christian traditions and other religions – including Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism – decide internal matters and apply their religious laws?
When Benedict XVI was elected pope in 2005, religious observance among Europeans had been in decline for decades, and he set out to stem the tide of secularization. How successful was he? Pew Research polls indicate that during his papacy, religious observance among Catholics in France, Germany, Spain and Italy remained low but fairly stable.