Religious Demographics

short readsSep 2, 2014

7 facts about world migration

The world’s increasing population means that the sheer number of international migrants has never been higher.
short readsAug 12, 2014

Iraqi Yazidis: Hazy population numbers and a history of persecution

The Yazidis who have been fleeing the advance of the Sunni militant group ISIS in Iraq are a religious group of uncertain numbers and a long history of persecution.
short readsJun 20, 2014

As FIFA attempts to curb racism at the World Cup, a look at hate speech laws worldwide

Hate-speech laws exist in 89 countries around the world (45%). In some countries, the laws protect only certain religious or social groups, while others have broader laws, covering words or actions that insult, denigrate or intimidate a person or group based on race, gender, religion, ethnicity or other traits.
short readsMay 19, 2014

Middle East’s Christian population in flux as Pope Francis visits Holy Land

Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Jordan, the West Bank and Israel this weekend, a region where the Christian population is in flux and where Francis has expressed concern about their well-being.
reportMay 7, 2014

Major New Survey Explores the Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States

Washington, May 7, 2014 — Although most Hispanics in the United States continue to belong to the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic share of the Hispanic population is declining, while rising numbers of Hispanics say they are Protestant or unaffiliated with any religion. Indeed, nearly one-in-four Hispanic adults (24%) are now former Catholics, according to […]
reportApr 4, 2014

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.
short readsMar 27, 2014

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.
reportFeb 10, 2014

Russians Return to Religion, But Not to Church

Between 1991 and 2008, the share of Russian adults identifying as Orthodox Christian rose from 31% to 72%, according to data from the International Social Survey Programme. During the same period, the share of Russia’s population that does not identify with any religion dropped from 61% to 18%.
reportJan 14, 2014

Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High

A third of the 198 countries studied had a high or very high level of social hostilities involving religion in 2012. About three-in-ten countries had a high or very high level of government restrictions on religion, roughly the same as in 2011.
short readsNov 25, 2013

No clear ‘Pope Francis effect’ among U.S. Catholics

The pope’s popularity hasn’t yet produced a Catholic resurgence in the U.S. in terms of the share of Americans who identify as Catholic, or the share of those who report attending Mass weekly.