Size & Demographic Characteristics of Religious Groups

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.

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 […]

The history of the Episcopal Church is closely tied to the history of the United States. On the eve of the Episcopal Church’s 2018 General Convention, here are five facts about Episcopalians.

India is home to 1.4 billion people – almost one-sixth of the world’s population – who belong to a variety of ethnicities and religions. While 94% of the world’s Hindus live in India, there also are substantial populations of Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and adherents of folk religions. Here are five facts about religion in India.

Muslim societies have gained a reputation in recent decades for failing to adequately educate women. But a new analysis of Pew Research Center data on educational attainment and religion suggests that economics, not religion, is the key factor limiting the education of Muslim women.

In the United States, 48% of American adults say they are married. A higher-than-average share of adults are married in certain religious groups.

The Rev. Billy Graham, who recently died at age 99, was one of the most influential and important evangelical Christian leaders of the 20th century. As the country remembers Rev. Billy Graham, here are five facts about American evangelical Protestants.

About a quarter of adults who were raised Muslim no longer identify as members of the faith. But Islam gains about as many converts as it loses.

An estimated 3.45 million Muslims of all ages were living in the United States in 2017, accounting for about 1.1% of the country's total population.

Read a Q&A with Conrad Hackett, associate director of research and senior demographer at Pew Research Center, on estimating the European Muslim population.