Stories tagged with: pew research center

• Pew: Church good for happiness, civic engagement

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, February 01, 2019 (4 years ago)

  

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  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Church participation leads to more happiness and civic engagement, Pew Research Center said Thursday (Jan. 31) after analyzing surveys from the U.S. and 25 other countries.

  Religiously active people also tend to smoke and drink alcoholic beverages less than others, Pew said in its findings. But church participation had no clear positive outcomes for health, obesity and exercise, with results varying among countries studied.

  "This analysis finds that in the U.S. and many other countries around the world, regular ... Read More

• Pew: African, Latin American Christians most committed

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, August 24, 2018 (4 years ago)

  

  IMB photo

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Commitment to prayer, church attendance and religion is highest among believers in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, Pew Research Center said Aug. 22 in an analysis of data collected over the past 10 years.

  In the U.S., Christians register comparatively high levels of religious commitment among the most developed countries, Pew said in its analysis of 84 countries with Christian populations deemed sizable. Here, 68 percent of Christians deemed religion "very important" and just as many said they pray daily. Weekly church attendance was registered among 47 percent of U.S. Christians.

  In 35 of the countries studied, at least two-thirds of Christians said religion was "very important" in their lives. All but three of those 35 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America, namely the U.S., Malaysia and the Philippines.

  More than 75 percent of Christians surveyed in each country in sub-Saharan Africa said religion was very important in their lives, voicing higher levels of prayer and church attendance. In Ethiopia, where Ethiopian Orthodoxy is the most prevalent Christian faith, 98 percent of Christians rated religion as very important. Read More

• Why Americans go to church -- and why they don't

  by Bob Smietana, posted Friday, August 03, 2018 (4 years ago)

  

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Americans who attend religious services and those who skip them may be looking for the same thing -- a connection with God, according to a new survey from Pew Research.

  The most common single reason for attending services is that people want to be close to God. And the most common single reason for skipping services is that people found some other way to practice their faith.

  Eighty-one percent of those who attend services at least once a month say becoming closer to God is a very important reason they attend services. Read More

• Pew: Religious restrictions spreading globally

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, June 22, 2018 (4 years ago)

  

  iStock

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Religious restrictions continue to spread globally in Pew Research Center's ninth annual study of laws and social hostilities in 198 countries, although most countries still rank low to moderate on a study scale researchers devised.

  Less than half of the countries, 42 percent, ranked high or very high on Pew's scale of restrictions including both laws and social hostilities, up from 40 percent in 2015 and 29 percent in the baseline study period of 2007, Pew said. Read More

• Pew: 25% of survey's Christians don't buy biblical God

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, April 27, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock/license purchase required.

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- A fourth of self-identified Christians don't believe fully in the biblical description of God, Pew Research Center said in its latest study.

  Rather, 25 percent of American Christians believe in what Pew described as "God or another higher power" who is not necessarily all-loving, omniscient and omnipotent as Scripture reveals.

  "In total, three-quarters of U.S. Christians believe that God possesses all ... Read More

• Pew: Christian women more devout than Christian men

  by Aaron Earls, posted Tuesday, April 10, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  iStock

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Pew Research has found a significant gender gap concerning religious beliefs and practice among self-identified Christian men and women in America. More than 7 in 10 U.S. Christian women (72 percent) say religion is very important to them, compared to 62 percent of Christian men.

  The gap is larger in the United States than in other nations like Canada, the U.K., Germany and France. A similar gap appears when comparing beliefs about the Bible or certainty about God’s existence. Read More

• Pew: Muslims on pace to outnumber Jews in U.S.

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, January 12, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  BP file photo

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Muslims will likely surpass Jews as the second largest religious group behind Christians in the U.S. by 2040, elevated by a high birth rate and immigration, the Pew Research Center said in its latest analysis.

  The 3.45 million Muslims here will more than double to 8.1 million by 2050, surpassing the number of Jews along the way, Pew estimated Jan. 3. But the research center did not give a Muslim nor Jewish numerical population estimate for 2040. Read More

• Pew: Christmas celebrations, beliefs less religious

  by Diana Chandler, posted Wednesday, December 13, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  iStock

  WASHINGTON (BP) -- Most Americans believe society is increasingly abandoning the religious aspects of Christmas, according to new Pew Research Center findings, but most Americans are not troubled by the trend.

  Only 32 percent of Americans find the trend troubling, Pew found in the study released Dec. 12. While 56 percent of U.S. adults identified such a trend, a quarter of that group said the trend doesn't bother them.

  Concurrently, Pew said a religious appreciation of the season is declining among individuals themselves. Read More

• Transgender views follow religious divide, Pew says

  by Diana Chandler, posted Friday, December 01, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock/license purchase required

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Christians are just as likely to say that gender is determined solely at birth as are atheists and religious "nones" to say the opposite, according to newly released Pew Research Center findings.

  Nearly two-thirds of Christians, 63 percent, told Pew that gender is determined at birth; while 62 percent of atheists/agnostics and "nones," categorized as religiously unaffiliated, said individual gender can change from biological sex at birth. Read More

• Pew survey: Transgender views follow partisan divide

  by Diana Chandler, posted Thursday, November 09, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock/license purchase required

  NASHVILLE (BP) -- Republicans are far more likely to believe gender is limited to one's biological sex apparent at birth, according to statistics Pew Research Center released after local transgender victories in U.S. elections Nov. 7.

  In Virginia, Danica Roem unseated 13-term incumbent Republican Robert G. Marshall to become the first openly transgender "woman" elected to a U.S. statehouse, The Hill reported. In Minneapolis, Andrea Jenkins became the first openly transgender African American "woman" elected to public office in the U.S. by defeating three opponents for a Minneapolis City Council seat, The Hill said. Read More