A new Pew Research Center report finds that across numerous nations, one-fifth of adults surveyed have left the religion of their youth. Both Christianity and Buddhism shared the largest losses due to “religious switching.”
Pew defines religious switching as “a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood).” Rather than “conversion,” this term is used because “the changes can take place in many directions – including from having been raised in a religion to being unaffiliated.”
Religious switching was most common in countries in East Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The think tank surveyed 80,000 people in 36 countries and found that a large percentage of adults in Korea (50%) and Spain (40%) changed religions, with several more countries following closely behind them: Canada (38%), Sweden (37%), the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (36%), Australia, France, and Germany (34%), respectively.
While religious switching is common in some countries, it is “rare” in India, Israel, Nigeria, and Thailand. In fact, 95 percent of adults surveyed say they remain a part of the religion they grew up in.
Switching to religiously unaffiliated is the most common, though not the case for all those surveyed. Some respondents who were raised with no religious affiliation now practice a religion.
“While these figures reflect religious trends in the 36 countries included in the survey, they are not necessarily representative of the entire world’s population,” the study’s authors said. “Christianity – the world’s largest and most geographically widespread religion, by Pew Research Center’s estimates – is either the current majority faith or historically has been a predominant religion in 25 of the countries surveyed.”
For topline results, click here. For the full report, click here.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
