Around 4 in 10 Americans have become more spiritual over time; fewer have become more religious
Most Americans are spiritual or religious in some way and many also say their spirituality and level of religiosity have changed over time.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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Spirituality Among Americans
Overall, 70% of U.S. adults describe themselves as spiritual in some way, including 22% who are spiritual but not religious. An overwhelming majority of U.S. adults (83%) say they believe that people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. And 81% say there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it.
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Is China a religious country or not? It’s a tricky question to answer
Based on formal religious identity, China is the least religious country in the world – with just 10% of Chinese adults self-identifying with a religion.
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Measuring Religion in China
Only one-in-ten Chinese adults formally identify with a religion, but surveys indicate that religion plays a much bigger role in China when the definition is widened to include questions on spirituality, customs and traditional beliefs.
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Religiously unaffiliated people face harassment in a growing number of countries
Religiously unaffiliated people were harassed by governments, private groups or both in 27 countries in 2020.
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How Religion Intersects With Americans’ Views on the Environment
Most U.S. adults – including a solid majority of Christians and large numbers of people who identify with other religious traditions – consider the Earth sacred and believe God gave humans a duty to care for it. But highly religious Americans are far less likely than other U.S. adults to express concern about warming temperatures around the globe.
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Religious ‘switching’ patterns will help determine Christianity’s course in U.S.
Whether the U.S. will continue to have a Christian majority in 2070 will depend on many factors, including religious “switching.”
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Modeling the Future of Religion in America
Since the 1990s, large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” If recent trends in religious switching continue, Christians could make up less than half of the U.S. population within a few decades.
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One year in, Biden job approval down among Black Protestants, other Christians and religious ‘nones’
While Biden’s rating is still low among White Christians, positive ratings also fell among Black Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated.
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Christians, religiously unaffiliated differ on whether most things in society can be divided into good, evil
Highly religious Americans are much more likely to see society in those terms, while nonreligious people tend to see more ambiguity.
