Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions
In many places surveyed, 20% or more of all adults have left their childhood religious group. Christianity and Buddhism have had especially large losses.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
In many places surveyed, 20% or more of all adults have left their childhood religious group. Christianity and Buddhism have had especially large losses.
Christians remain the largest religious group, and Muslims grew the fastest from 2010 to 2020. Read how the global share of Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated changed.
This report was produced by Pew Research Center as part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world. Funding for the Global Religious Futures project comes from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation (grant 62287). Find related reports online at https://www.pewresearch.org/globalreligiousfutures. This […]
Explore how adults in the U.S. and 35 other countries compare religiously and spiritually when it comes to affiliation, prayer, afterlife beliefs and more.
Of the 198 places analyzed, 24 scored “very high” in our measure of government restrictions, up from 19 in 2021. For social hostilities, “very high” score totals were unchanged.
Belief in an afterlife, God and spirits in nature is widespread globally. Older adults are more likely than younger adults to believe in God.
Adults in Indonesia, Bangladesh and the Philippines are the most likely to say it is important to have a leader who stands up for people with their religious beliefs.
Very few Americans (5%) say that the way Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack against Israel was acceptable, but a somewhat larger share (22%) view Hamas’ reasons for fighting Israel as valid. Responding to a parallel set of questions about Israel, most Americans (58%) describe Israel’s reasons for fighting Hamas as valid, but the […]
About Pew Research Center’s Spring 2025 Global Attitudes Survey Results for the survey are based on a mix of telephone, face-to-face and online interviews conducted under the direction of Gallup, Langer Research Associates and Social Research Centre. The results are based on national samples, unless otherwise noted. Read more about our international survey methodology and […]
About Pew Research Center’s Spring 2024 Global Attitudes Survey Results for the survey are based on telephone, face-to-face and online interviews conducted under the direction of Gallup, Langer Research Associates, Social Research Centre and Verian. The results are based on national samples, unless otherwise noted. Here are more details about our international survey methodology and […]
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