Religious Demographics

People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members of religious groups, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data from the United States and more than two dozen other countries.

About half of black Muslims are converts to Islam, a relatively high conversion level. Black Muslims, like black Americans overall, have high levels of religious commitment.

While Slovakia is majority Catholic, around seven-in-ten Czechs are religiously unaffiliated – the highest share of unaffiliated adults in 34 European countries surveyed.

The Catholic Church remains closely tied to Europe. Catholics are the largest religious group in many of the continent’s most populous countries.

The European continent today is split in public attitudes toward religion, minorities and social issues such as gay marriage and legal abortion.

Research has shown that men in the United States are generally less religious than women. And while this pattern holds true among black Americans, black men are still a highly religious group.

Pope Francis begins a four-day trip this weekend to the Baltic states, the first papal visit to these countries in 25 years. While the Baltic countries have a substantial Christian population, only Lithuania and Latvia have large numbers of Catholics.

Black Millennials are more likely than nonblack Millennials, for example, to say they pray at least daily and attend religious services at least weekly.

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 […]

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