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Short-form data and analysis from Pew Research Center writers and social scientists. To view all our reports and publications, visit our main Publications page.

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Stockton, Alabama, USA - April 22, 2023: Montpelier Methodist Church is pictured in Baldwin County Bicentennial Park in Stockton, Alabama. The church was built in 1895.

How religion declines around the world

Religion in a country tends to decline in three transitional stages that unfold across generations, a new paper using Center data proposes.

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    Happiness and Religious Attendance

    People who attend religious services weekly or more are happier (43% very happy) than those who attend monthly or less (31%); or seldom or never (26%).

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    Commercialized Christmas

    About half of Americans say they are bothered at least somewhat by the commercialization of Christmas.

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    Republicans Most Satisfied with Personal Finances

    About 8-in-10 Republicans now say they are “pretty well satisfied” with the way things are going for them financially. By comparison, only 54% of both independents and Democrats subscribe to that view, the largest partisan gap in 20 years of Pew values surveys.

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    Support Christmas Displays in Public

    More than more than eight-in-ten Americans say that displays of Christmas symbols such as nativity scenes and Christmas trees should be allowed on government property — as long as they are part of a display that includes symbols of other faiths and holiday traditions

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    Pakistanis Seeing U.S. as a Threat

    That’s the number of Pakistanis who say they are very or somewhat worried that the US could become a military threat to their country.

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    Trade Makes Strange Bedfellows

    That’s the percent of conservative Republicans who think that free trade agreements have, on the whole, been a bad thing for the United States — a view held by essentially the same percentage (32%) of liberal Democrats.

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    Speaking Only Spanish at Home

    More than half of foreign-born Hispanics (52%) report that they speak only Spanish at home.

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    Kenya Alone Says U.S. Acts to Reduce Global Inequality

    Kenya is the sole country, among the 47 covered by the latest Pew Global Attitudes Survey, in which a majority (55%) says that U.S. policies lessen the gap between rich and poor countries. The perception that American policies increase the gap between rich and poor countries prevails in most of the countries covered by the survey.