Methodology
This report relies primarily on data from seven waves of the Chinese General Social Survey (between 2010-21) and four waves of data from the China Family Panel Studies (between 2012-18) to discuss...
View ArticleGovernment policy toward religion in the People’s Republic of China – a brief...
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is officially atheist, and its members are not permitted to join any religion. The party’s attitude aligns with the Marxist view that religion is a temporary...
View Article6. Non-religion
Many international studies, including from Pew Research Center, compare levels of religious identity and commitment across countries. China tends to rank high on the lists of countries with the biggest...
View Article5. Islam
The vast majority of Chinese Muslim adults come from 10 ethnic minority groups that traditionally practice Islam, the two largest being the Hui people and the Uyghur people. Most of China’s Muslims...
View Article4. Christianity
There is a range of estimates for the number of Christians in China, partly because different researchers use varying sources and methods, and partly because some analyses make adjustments to account...
View Article3. Buddhism
Buddhism (Fojiao 佛教) is the largest officially recognized religion in China. The share of Buddhists in China ranges from 4% to 33%, depending on the measure used and whether it is based on surveys that...
View Article2. Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese folk religions
Confucianism Named after the sage Confucius (b. 551 B.C.E.), Confucianism is one of the most important philosophical traditions in China. Although it’s widely considered a spiritual philosophy, some...
View ArticleMeasuring 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...
View Article1. Religious change in China
It is unclear whether there has been any significant change since 2010 in the percentage of Chinese adults who identify with a religion or engage in religious beliefs or practices. Some scholars have...
View ArticleIn Their Own Words: Cultural Connections to Religion among Asian Americans
Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey on religion among Asian Americans, the largest nationally representative survey of its kind to date [LINK TO REPORT). In addition, to look more deeply...
View Article2. Buddhism among Asian Americans
About one-in-ten Asian American adults (11%) say their religion is Buddhism, a slight decline from 14% in 2012. A much larger share (21%) currently say that, aside from religion, they feel close to...
View Article1. Christianity among Asian Americans
Despite recent declines, Christianity is still the most common religion among Asian Americans. About a third of Asian American adults (34%) say their present religion is Christianity, down from 42%...
View ArticleAcknowledgments
Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This survey and related research on religion and spirituality in the United States was funded by The Pew Charitable...
View ArticleMethodology
The American Trends Panel survey methodology Overview The American Trends Panel (ATP), created by Pew Research Center, is a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. Panelists...
View Article5. Who are ‘spiritual but not religious’ Americans?
This chapter focuses on three groups of U.S. adults, based on their answers to the following four questions: Do you think of yourself as spiritual? Do you think of yourself as religious? How important...
View Article4. Spiritual experiences
Large majorities of Americans say they feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe (71%) or a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being (66%) several times a year or more often. Other types of...
View Article3. Spiritual practices
Asking about people’s activities, habits and rituals is one way to explore how abstract concepts such as spirituality and religion show up in everyday life. In this survey, we asked respondents to tell...
View Article2. Spiritual beliefs
Americans hold a wide range of beliefs about spirits and related matters. Some views that may be considered spiritual – such as belief in God or another “higher power” – are very common across all...
View Article1. Measuring spirituality
How does one go about counting the number of spiritual people in the United States? And how do Americans define spirituality? In preparation for this survey, we reviewed the academic literature on...
View ArticleSpirituality 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...
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