{"id":263358,"date":"2025-06-26T11:31:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T15:31:31","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-14T10:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T14:46:13","slug":"globally-1-in-10-adults-under-55-have-left-their-childhood-religion","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2025\/06\/26\/globally-1-in-10-adults-under-55-have-left-their-childhood-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Globally, 1 in 10 adults under 55 have left their childhood religion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Girls
Girls celebrate the Holi festival with colorful powders in Kolkata, India, on March 14, 2025. Hindus have one of the highest retention rates around the world: Just 1% have switched religions since childhood. (Dibyangshu Sarkar\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of 2020, people who identify with a religion make up about 76% of the world\u2019s population, according to a new Pew Research Center study<\/a> on global religious change. This is down by about 1 percentage point from 2010. The decline is largely due to people shedding their religious identity after having been raised in a religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally, among adults under 55 who were raised in a religion, an estimated 10% have since switched, either to a different religion or to identifying with no religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How we did this<\/summary>\n

This analysis of religious \u201cswitching\u201d is based on Pew Research Center\u2019s June 2025 report \u201cHow the Global Religious Landscape Changed from 2010 to 2020<\/a>.\u201d We drew on surveys from 117 countries and territories: 96 Center surveys conducted between 2009 and 2024, 20 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) surveys conducted in 2008 or 2018, and the 2018 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We calculated rates of religious switching using responses to two questions that have been consistently included in our surveys and ISSP surveys. In our surveys, they are, \u201cWhat is your religion, if any?\u201d and \u201cThinking about when you were a child, in what religion were you raised?\u201d In ISSP surveys, they are, \u201cWhat is your religion\u201d and \u201cWhat religion, if any, were you raised in?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In China, we took a slightly different approach. The 2018 CGSS does not include the same measure of childhood religion. Instead, we used responses to the question, \u201cWhat was your mother\u2019s religion when you were 14?\u201d as a proxy. Read Appendix A<\/a> for a list of countries and source information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, these 117 surveys cover countries that encompass 92% of the global population ages 18 to 54 in 2010, including almost all Hindus, 98% of religiously unaffiliated people and 93% of Christians. Coverage is also high for Buddhists (85%) and Muslims (82%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We limited the analysis to adults under 55 to focus on switching that has happened in recent decades. Among survey respondents who have changed religion, we don\u2019t have data on the age at which they switched. Religious changes can occur at any age, but previous studies have found<\/a> that religious switching is more common among younger adults than among older adults. Therefore, switches by adults 55 and older probably occurred longer ago, on average, than switches by adults under 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surveys we analyze do not allow us to isolate religious switching that took place in a specific year. Rather, they provide an overview of switching patterns in recent decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this analysis, we focus on Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated. Results for Jews and members of other religions are not shown. We conducted sensitivity tests to ensure the robustness of our switching estimates (rates of leaving vs. joining) and found that the rates of joining Judaism and the \u201cother religions\u201d category are unstable because of their small sample size in most surveys. Read the June report\u2019s Methodology<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

What is religious \u2018switching\u2019?<\/summary>\n

Religious switching refers to a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We use the term \u201cswitching\u201d rather than \u201cconversion\u201d because many people who switch identities leave religion to become religiously unaffiliated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We count changes between seven large religious categories (such as from Buddhist to Christian, or from Hindu to religiously unaffiliated) but not switching within<\/em> each category (such as from Catholic to Protestant).<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

To understand the global patterns of \u201cswitching\u201d into and out of each religious category, we analyzed surveys from 117 countries and territories that cover 92% of the 2010 global population. Although religious switching may occur at any age, it is more common to experience as a young adult. Therefore, this analysis focuses on survey respondents ages 18 to 54 to look at more recent global switching patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We discuss religious switching for Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and the religiously unaffiliated. We also analyzed results for Jews and members of other religions, but they are not shown separately in this post because of their small sample sizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cReligiously unaffiliated\u201d category includes people who say they are atheist, agnostic or \u201cnothing in particular\u201d in response to a Pew Research Center survey question about religious identity. It also includes people who choose a \u201cNo religion\u201d or \u201cNone\u201d option in other surveys and national censuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, we explore the following key questions about religious switching around the world:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n