Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Religions

  • short reads

    Why America’s ‘nones’ don’t identify with a religion

    Six-in-ten religious “nones” in the U.S. say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues.

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    Why Americans Go (and Don’t Go) to Religious Services

    In recent years, the percentage of U.S. adults who say they regularly attend religious services has been declining, while the share of Americans who attend only a few times a year, seldom or never has been growing. A new Pew Research Center survey finds that the main reason people regularly go to church, synagogue, mosque […]

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    (Photo illustration by enot-poloskun via GettyImages)

    How Does Pew Research Center Measure the Religious Composition of the U.S.? Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

    Question 1: Measuring religious identity How does Pew Research Center measure the religious identity of survey respondents and the religious composition of the U.S.? Answer: Generally, we rely on respondents’ self-identification.  A key question we ask in many surveys is: “What is your present religion, if any? Are you Protestant, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Orthodox such […]