{"id":198669,"date":"2025-02-26T06:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T11:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=198669"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:03:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T13:03:54","slug":"religion-and-views-on-the-role-of-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/02\/26\/religion-and-views-on-the-role-of-government\/","title":{"rendered":"20. Religion and views on the role of government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. adults with low levels of religious engagement are much more likely than highly religious Americans to say the government should provide more <\/em>assistance to people in need (58% vs. 35%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About one-third of highly religious Americans (36%) say the government should provide less <\/em>assistance to people in need \u2013 twice the share of Americans with low levels of religious engagement who take the same position (18%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Underlying these differences are patterns in political partisanship. Chapter 15<\/a> of this report shows that highly religious White Americans tend to be a solidly Republican constituency, while White adults with lower levels of religious engagement more often favor the Democratic Party, and Black Americans at all levels of religious commitment tend to identify as Democrats<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, Republicans and those who lean toward the GOP are far more likely than Democrats and Democratic leaners to say the government should provide less assistance to people in need, while Democrats are far more inclined than Republicans to say the government should provide more help to people in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This chapter focuses on attitudes toward government among Americans with different religious affiliations and levels of religiousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans with low (65%), medium-low (57%) and medium-high (57%) levels of religious engagement say they would rather have a bigger government providing more services than a smaller government providing fewer services.[75. numoffset=”75″ The results on this question are different in the new Religious Landscape Study (which finds more support for a bigger government than a smaller one) than in other recent Pew Research Center surveys (which find a relatively even split on this question). In the new RLS, responses to this question might have been influenced by asking it right after a question about whether the government is providing too little, too much or about the right amount of assistance to people in need. In the previous RLS questionnaires and other Center surveys, this question is often asked in a more neutral context, and so the results from the new RLS on this question cannot be compared with other Pew Research Center data. Refer to Appendix A<\/a> for details.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But among highly religious Americans, 52% say they prefer a smaller government that provides fewer services, while 45% say they would prefer a bigger government that provides more services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scale of religiousness used for this analysis is based on how often respondents say they pray, how often they say they attend religious services, whether they believe in God and\/or a universal spirit and how important they say religion is in their lives.[76. We measured religiousness using a scale based on four questions: prayer frequency, belief in God and\/or a universal spirit, religion\u2019s importance and religious service attendance. Each question was coded from 0 (low) to 2 (high). Prayer frequency is coded as 0 for those who seldom or never pray, 2 for those who pray daily, and 1 for everyone else. Belief in God\/a universal spirit is coded as 0 for those who do not believe in God or a universal spirit, 2 for those who believe with absolute certainty, and 1 for everyone else. Religion\u2019s importance is coded as 0 for those who say religion is \u201cnot too important\u201d or \u201cnot at all important\u201d in their lives, 2 for those who say religion is \u201cvery important\u201d in their lives, and 1 for everyone else. Religious attendance is coded as 0 for those who say they seldom or never attend religious services, 2 for those who attend religious services at least once a month, and 1 for everyone else. These indicators were added together to form a scale ranging from 0 to 8, and then subdivided roughly into quartiles (scores of 0 to 1 in the lowest quartile, scores of 2 to 4 in the medium-low quartile, scores of 5 to 6 in the medium-high quartile, and scores of 7 to 8 in the highest quartile).]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to see how different religious groups answer the survey\u2019s questions about:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n