Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Nearly seven-in-ten Americans identify with a religion – higher than the shares seen in several other wealthy countries. Explore our interactive feature to see how the U.S. compares with more than 30 countries on questions about spirituality and religion.
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The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has a variety of resources on Catholicism and Pope Benedict XVI, including public opinion polls, research studies, event transcripts and interviews.
Pope Francis was elected on Wednesday as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio hails from Argentina and becomes the first Latin American pontiff. According to Pew Research Center data on the distribution of the world’s Catholic population, the largest share of the Catholic population (39%) lives in Latin America and the Caribbean.
U.S. Catholics see the scandal over sex abuse by clergy as the most important problem facing the church today and charitable efforts to aid the poor, feed the hungry and heal the sick as the church’s most important contribution.
About six-in-ten U.S. Catholics say it would be good if the next pope allows priests to marry.
The Obama administration has submitted a “friend-of-the-court” brief on the legal challenge to California’s gay marriage ban, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26.
As the pontificate of Benedict XVI winds down, three-quarters of American Catholics express a favorable view of the pontiff. Meanwhile, most U.S. Catholics say it would be good if the next pope allows priests to marry. And fully six-in-ten say it would be good if the next pope hails from a developing region like South America, Asia or Africa.
Updated Feb. 15, 2013 On Feb. 14, the Illinois Senate, as expected, approved a measure that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state. The bill will move next to the Illinois House of Representatives, which is more divided on the issue. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn favors the legislation and has said he will sign it […]
Over the past century, the number of Catholics worldwide has more than tripled. But the world’s overall population also has risen rapidly from 1910 to 2010. As a result, Catholics have made up a remarkably stable share of all people on Earth, though their geographic distribution has changed substantially.
After years of decline, the U.S. Christian share now shows signs of leveling off. The new Religious Landscape Study explores trends in identity, beliefs and practices.
The Global Religious Futures (GRF) project is jointly funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and The John Templeton Foundation. Here are some big-picture findings from the GRF, together with context from other Pew Research Center studies.
Most who use astrology (or a horoscope), tarot cards or a fortune teller say they do so just for fun rather than for insights about life.
Belief in an afterlife, God and spirits in nature is widespread globally. Older adults are more likely than younger adults to believe in God.
