Around the World, Many People Are Leaving Their Childhood Religions

Summary

Surveys in 36 countries find that Christianity and Buddhism have the biggest losses from ‘religious switching’ Light shines through the doors of Zionskirche, a Protestant church in Berlin. (Busà Photography/Getty Images) How we did this Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to examine rates of religious switching in 36 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East-North Africa region, North America and sub-Saharan Africa. The countries have a variety of historically predominant religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. For non-U.S. data, this analysis draws on nationally representative surveys of 41,503 adults conducted from Jan. 5 to May 22, 2024. All interviews were conducted over the phone with adults in Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted face-to-face in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia and Turkey. In Australia, we used a mixed-mode probability-based online panel. For the United States, data comes from the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study (RLS). The new RLS was conducted in English and Spanish from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 U.S. adults. Respondents had the option of completing the survey online, on paper, or by calling a toll-free number and completing the survey by telephone with an interviewer. The RLS was made possible by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which received support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., Templeton Religion Trust, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. Here are the questions and responses used for this report, along with the survey methodology. This analysis was produced by Pew Research Center as part of...