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Becka A. Alper

Senior Researcher

Expertise:Religion and Public Life

Becka A. Alper is a Senior Researcher at Pew Research Center where she leads surveys exploring American religious identities, beliefs and practices, including the views and demographic profile of Jewish Americans and the religiously unaffiliated. Her work is instrumental in shaping the Center’s U.S. religion polls and offering insights into the role of religion in American public life. She has authored major reports analyzing America’s changing religious landscape, the experiences and views of Jewish Americans, spiritual beliefs and practices, what Americans know about religion, a new way of understanding religious identities in America, how religion intersects with Americans’ view on the environment, among many others. Becka holds a doctorate in sociology from Purdue University.

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short readsMar 17, 2020

When Americans think about a specific religion, here are some of the first people who come to mind

More than half of U.S. adults name the pope (47%) or a specific pope (7%) when asked who comes to mind when they think of Catholicism.
short readsJul 23, 2019

6 facts about what Americans know about religion

Many Americans say that religion is very important in their lives. But how much do people in the U.S. actually know about their faith tradition – or about religions besides their own? A new report from Pew Research Center tries to answer this question by asking U.S. adults 32 fact-based questions about a variety of […]
short readsFeb 22, 2019

Americans with higher education and income are more likely to be involved in community groups

Nearly six-in-ten Americans participate in some type of community group or organization, including 11% who say they take part in at least four such groups.
short readsAug 29, 2018

From the Solidly Secular to Sunday Stalwarts, a look at our new religious typology

Most American adults identify with a religion, describing themselves as Protestants, Catholics or Jews, to name just a few examples. But a new Pew Research Center analysis looks at beliefs and behaviors that cut across many religious identities, producing a new and revealing classification, or typology, of religion in America that sorts U.S. adults into seven cohesive groups.
short readsMay 4, 2017

Though still conservative, young evangelicals are more liberal than their elders on some issues

The generation gap between millennials and older adults on social and political issues exists even among evangelical Protestants.
short readsDec 1, 2016

If the U.S. had 100 people: Charting Americans’ religious beliefs and practices

See a profile of American religious beliefs and practices if the country were made up of exactly 100 adults.
short readsMay 10, 2016

5 facts about Israeli Christians

A Pew Research Center survey of Israel provides a rare window into the religious beliefs and practices of this close-knit group.
short readsNov 23, 2015

Millennials are less religious than older Americans, but just as spiritual

Only about half of Millennials say they believe in God with absolute certainty, and four-in-ten say religion is very important in their lives.
short readsNov 16, 2015

Church involvement varies widely among U.S. Christians

Some of the largest Christian denominations in the U.S. have relatively low levels of involvement among their members.
short readsAug 13, 2015

70 years after WWII, the Holocaust is still very important to American Jews

Seven decades after the end of World War II, most American Jews say remembering the Holocaust is essential to what being Jewish means to them, personally.