Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

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    Appendix A: Comparing results across Religious Landscape Studies

    Many questions in the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) previously were asked in the 2007 and 2014 landscape studies. Measuring change over time on these questions is one key goal of the new RLS. But the 2023-24 survey was conducted using different methods from the 2007 and 2014 surveys, and this “mode switch” complicates comparisons […]

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    22. Religion’s role in public life

    Read more about Americans’ views about religious organizations and their effects on society, as well as the separation of church and state. Religious Landscape Study by Pew Research Center.

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    6. Religiously unaffiliated Asian Americans

    About one-third (32%) of Asian Americans have no religious affiliation, meaning that they answer a survey question about their present religion by saying they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” As with Americans overall, this share has been growing; it was 26% in the Center’s last major survey of Asian Americans, in 2012. As […]

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    Buddhism, Islam and Religious Pluralism in South and Southeast Asia

    In Thailand, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, more than 90% of Buddhists see strong links between their religion and country. In the neighboring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia, nearly all Muslims say being Muslim is important to being truly part of their nation.

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    1. Number of countries with ‘very high’ government restrictions stays level in 2021

    Government restrictions on religion All 198 countries and territories in our study had at least some level of government restrictions or regulations related to religious activity reported in 2021. However, the severity of the restrictions and the extent to which governments enforced them varied from one place to another. The differences are reflected in each […]

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    2. Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folk religions

    Confucianism Named after the sage Confucius (b. 551 B.C.E.), Confucianism is one of the most important philosophical traditions in China. Although it’s widely considered a spiritual philosophy, some scholars classify it as a religion. Its beliefs center on a pervasive, invisible divine power – tian (天), usually translated as “heaven” – that controls humans’ fate […]

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    3. Buddhism

    Buddhism (Fojiao 佛教) is the largest officially recognized religion in China. The share of Buddhists in China ranges from 4% to 33%, depending on the measure used and whether it is based on surveys that ask about formal affiliation with Buddhism or beliefs and practices associated with Buddhism. The share of Chinese adults who formally […]