Papal saints: Once a given, now extremely rare
During Catholicism’s first 500 years, 52 of the first 55 popes became saints. In the last 1,000 years, just seven popes have been made saints.
Africans among the most morally opposed to contraception
Five sub-Saharan African nations – Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Senegal – rank among the nine countries with the most moral opposition to contraception
U.S. doesn’t rank high in religious diversity
From a global perspective, the United States really is not all that religiously diverse.
Global Religious Diversity
A new report measures religious diversity by the percentage of each country's population in eight categories — Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, the unaffiliated, folk religionists and members of other religions.
Table: Religious Diversity Index Scores by Country
Download table as: Excel The Religious Diversity Index (RDI) Table is based on the index scores in Global Religious Diversity. For more information on how we calculated these scores, see the Methodology. Click on the column header to resort the column. Percentages represent the share of each country’s 2010 population that belongs to each religious […]
Catholics, other Christians support immigration reform, but say faith plays small role
U.S. Catholics mirror general public on views of inequality
Both Pope Francis and President Obama have highlighted the issue of income inequality. U.S. Catholics support government action on the issue, but not necessarily more than the general public.
Controversy over new Israeli law highlights growing ultra-Orthodox population
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been at the center of a controversy in Israel over whether they should be subject to the draft. Their counterparts in the U.S. tend to be more insular than other Jews.
U.S. Catholics more hopeful than expectant of changes to church teachings
Many Catholics would like to see changes on specific church doctrines but they are less certain that those changes will happen, even under Pope Francis.
Is the Mormon Church expanding the role of women?
Pew Research Center surveys show that Mormons are more supportive of traditional gender roles for women, and against allowing women to be priests, but the Church is taking some steps to expand women's roles.
