Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Read our research on:
A Third of Adults Under 30 Are Unaffiliated; U.S. Protestant Population Dips Below 50% Washington, D.C. — A new, comprehensive demographic study of more than 230 countries and territories conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that more than eight-in-ten people worldwide identify with a religious group. The report […]
A Third of Adults Under 30 Are Unaffiliated; U.S. Protestant Population Dips Below 50% Washington, D.C. – A new report from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that the number of Americans who do not identify with any religion is growing at a rapid pace. About one-fifth of the U.S. […]
Download the Methodology as a PDF (180 KB, 17pages) This study provides comprehensive demographic estimates of the size and distribution of eight major religious groups in the 232 countries and territories for which the United Nations Population Division provides general population estimates as of 2010.16 It includes estimates for Christians, Muslims, the religiously unaffiliated, Hindus, […]
The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.
Scholars of religion in the United States have been using the term “nones” since the 1960s, despite some qualms about its connotations. The term refers to people who answer a survey question about their religion by saying they have no religion, no particular religion, no religious preference, or the like. As sociologist Glenn Vernon of […]
Ahmadi or Ahmadiyya A religious movement that emerged in late 19th-century India around Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835-1908), whose followers believe he was a mujaddid (reformer) who showed the way to revive and restore Islam. Alawite or Alawi A sect of Shia Islam centered in Syria that highly venerates Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad, […]
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?
At first glance, Asian Americans appear to place less importance on religion than does the U.S. public overall. As discussed in the previous chapter, Asian Americans are less likely than Americans as a whole to say religion is very important in their lives. Asian Americans are also somewhat less likely to be affiliated with a […]
The following list includes brief descriptions of some religious groups and other terms used in the survey report that may be unfamiliar to readers. Related to Buddhism Jodo Shinshu Meaning “True Pure Land School,” Jodo Shinshu is a Japanese branch of Mahayana Buddhism. Shinran, a disciple of the Buddhist monk Honan, established the branch, which […]