GLOBAL studies of spirituality and religiosity conducted by the Pew Research Center show consistently that sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East-North Africa region have the most religious populations, and that Europe and East Asia have the least.
These results are based largely, however, on two measures: Do you pray daily? How important is religion in your life?
At least 90 per cent of adults in Senegal, Mali, Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, and Zambia consider religion to be “very important” in their lives. In the UK and other European countries, including Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland, fewer than ten per cent of the population report this.
Earlier this month, the Center, which is one of the largest surveyors and compilers of religious data, published analysis of its own surveys of 102 countries and territories between 2008 and 2023. In it, the Center suggests that these two questions favour Abrahamic religions and exclude other factors which might indicate other forms of religious and spiritual observance.
A senior researcher focusing on religion research at Pew Research Center, Jonathan Evans, writes: “Asking people about the importance of religion in their lives and how often they pray can provide an important window into their religiosity. But these questions work better in some places than in others.
“These two measures may be especially valuable in places where Abrahamic religions — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — predominate, because prayer and formal religious organizations are central to those traditions. In other parts of the world, we need to ask additional questions to capture key aspects of religious or spiritual observance.”
In 2023, for example, Pew conducted random probability-based surveys among 10,390 adults (aged 18 and older) in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. This included a broader range of questions.
Only about 20 per cent said that they prayed daily, and fewer than this considered religion to be “very important” in their lives; but between 39 per cent and 73 per cent of religiously unaffiliated adults said that they believed in “god or unseen beings”, such as deities or spirits, and similar proportions also participated in ancestor-veneration rituals. In India, most people restricted their diets, including for religious reasons.
Mr Evans said that future surveys would also ask about nature and spirituality. Of the more than 11,000 survey respondents in the United States, 48 per cent believed that parts of the natural landscape — such as mountains, rivers, or trees — could have spirits or spiritual energies. Similar percentages were recorded in Japan and Vietnam.
The new questions “from a variety of cultures and religious traditions will help us move towards a richer understanding of people’s spiritual lives”, Mr Evans said.