With Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, Jr. vying for the GOP presidential nomination, a popular Broadway musical about Mormons, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) running an extensive television campaign featuring ordinary Mormons, many say that America is in the midst of a “Mormon moment.” But how do Mormons themselves, who make up nearly 2% of the U.S. public, feel about the media spotlight, the election campaign and their place in America? 

In a 10 a.m. EST conference call for journalists on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss the findings from a major new comprehensive survey, Mormons in America: Certain in Their Beliefs but Uncertain of Their Place in Society.

With Christmas fast approaching, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life published a new comprehensive demographic report on the size and distribution of the world’s Christian population. The study finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages in more than 200 countries around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 6.9 billion 2010 global population. Christians are so geographically widespread that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

In a noon EST conference call for journalists on Monday, Dec. 19, 2011, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss the findings contained in its new study, Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Christian Population, which offers the most current and fully sourced estimates of the worldwide Christian population as of 2010.

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that white evangelical Protestants — a key element of the GOP electoral base — are more inclined than the public as a whole to view Mormonism as a non-Christian faith. And this view is linked to opinions about Mitt Romney: Republicans who say Mormonism is not a Christian religion are less likely to support Romney for the GOP nomination and offer a less favorable assessment of him generally.

The number of organizations engaged in religious lobbying or religion-related advocacy in Washington, D.C., has increased roughly fivefold in the past four decades, from fewer than 40 in 1970 to more than 200 today, according to a new study on religious advocacy groups released today by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

As the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, a comprehensive public opinion survey by the Pew Research Center finds no indication of increased alienation or anger among Muslim Americans in response to concerns about home-grown Islamic terrorists, controversies about the building of mosques and other pressures on this high-profile minority group in recent years. Nor does the new polling provide any evidence of rising support for Islamic extremism among Muslim Americans.

More than 2.2 billion people, nearly a third (32%) of the world’s total population of 6.9 billion, live in countries where either government restrictions on religion or social hostilities involving religion rose substantially between mid-2006 and mid-2009, according to a new study on global restrictions on religion released today by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life. Only about 1% of the world’s population lives in countries where government restrictions or social hostilities declined.

In a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, most evangelical Protestant leaders who live in the Global South (58%) say that evangelical Christians are gaining influence on life in their countries. By contrast, most leaders who live in the Global North (66%) say that, in the societies in which they live, evangelicals are losing influence. U.S. evangelical leaders are especially downbeat about the prospects for evangelical Christianity in their society; 82% say evangelicals are losing influence in the United States today, while only 17% think evangelicals are gaining influence.

The world’s Muslim population is expected to increase by about 35% in the next 20 years, rising from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.2 billion by 2030, according to a new, comprehensive report released today by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life on the size, distribution and growth of the Muslim population. The study is part of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, an effort funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation to analyze religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

In a 10 a.m. EST conference call for journalists on Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss the findings contained in its new report, The Future of the Global Muslim Population.

Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings, history and leading figures of major world religions.

A new report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, “Muslim Networks and Movements in Western Europe,” profiles several of the oldest, largest and most influential Muslim groups operating in Western Europe today. 

A new national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that a substantial and growing number of Americans say that Barack Obama is a Muslim, while the proportion saying he is a Christian has declined. More than a year and a half into his presidency, a plurality of the public says they do not know what religion Obama follows.

With the midterm elections coming up in the fall, the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has released a new Web feature, "Religion & Politics 2010," which provides a variety of election resources for reporters.

New Pew-Templeton survey of 19 African nations finds signs of tolerance and tensions between the faiths.

In a 10:00 a.m. EDT conference call for journalists on Thursday, April 15, 2010, the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life will discuss its new survey that explores the role of religion in the lives and societies of sub-Saharan Africans.

By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans, according to a new report released by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life.

A new Pew Forum report gauges the level of religious restrictions in 198 countries due both to government actions and to acts of violence and intimidation by private individuals, organizations and social groups.

The religious beliefs and practices of Americans do not fit neatly into conventional categories. According to a new report based on a recent national survey by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, large numbers of Americans engage in multiple religious practices, blending elements of diverse traditions.