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Christian

Explore Pew Forum publications—including public opinion polls, demographic reports, research studies, event transcripts and interviews—about the Christian religion and its members, as well as many of the religious groups that it encompasses: evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants, members of historically black Protestant churches, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Christians and other Christians.

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Global Christianity
A comprehensive demographic study finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread, and no single region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

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ANALYSIS April 8, 2013
Applying God’s Law: Religious Courts and Mediation in the U.S.
Across the U.S., religious courts operate on a routine, everyday basis. How do some of the country's major Christian traditions and other religions - including Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism - decide internal matters and apply their religious laws?
ANALYSIS March 18, 2013
Latin America’s Catholics in the Spotlight as Pope Francis is Installed
Latin America's share of the global Catholic population has increased over the past century, according to Pew Research Center estimates, but the portion of the region’s population that is Catholic has declined.
ANALYSIS March 13, 2013
Resources on Catholicism and the Pope
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has a variety of resources on Catholicism and Pope Benedict XVI, including public opinion polls, research studies, event transcripts and interviews. 
ANALYSIS March 13, 2013
‘Strong’ Catholic Identity at a Four-Decade Low in U.S.
The percentage of U.S. Catholics with a strong identification with the Catholic Church was as low in 2012 as it has ever been in General Social Surveys. During the same period, the percentage of Protestants who consider themselves strong members of their faith has been rising.
ANALYSIS March 5, 2013
During Benedict’s Papacy, Religious Observance Among Catholics in Europe Remained Low but Stable
When Benedict XVI was elected pope in 2005, religious observance among Europeans had been in decline for decades, and he set out to stem the tide of secularization. How successful was he? Pew Research polls indicate that during his papacy, religious observance among Catholics in France, Germany, Spain and Italy remained low but fairly stable.
ANALYSIS February 13, 2013
The Global Catholic Population
Over the past century, the number of Catholics worldwide has more than tripled. But the world’s overall population also has risen rapidly from 1910 to 2010. As a result, Catholics have made up a remarkably stable share of all people on Earth, though their geographic distribution has changed substantially.
ANALYSIS January 16, 2013
Religious Groups' Official Positions on Abortion
A breakdown of 17 major religious groups' views on the issue of abortion.  
ANALYSIS December 18, 2012
The Global Religious Landscape
A country-by-country analysis of data from more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers finds that 84% of adults and children around the globe are religiously affiliated. The study also finds that the median age of two major groups – Muslims (23 years) and Hindus (26) – is younger than the world’s overall population (28), while Jews have the highest median age (36).
ANALYSIS December 7, 2012
Religious Groups' Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage
In recent years, same-sex marriage has been a contentious subject within many religious groups in the U.S. Here is an overview of where 16 religious groups stand on this issue.  
ANALYSIS October 11, 2012
The Catholic “Swing” Vote
Catholics are often identified as a major "swing" voting group in American politics. A new analysis shows that the only group of Catholics that has been divided in recent elections is white Catholics who identify as political moderates.
ANALYSIS March 8, 2012
Faith on the Move
This study focuses on the religious affiliation of international migrants, examining patterns of migration among seven major groups: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, adherents of other religions and the religiously unaffiliated.
ANALYSIS February 23, 2012
Religion in the News: Islam and Politics Dominate Religion Coverage in 2011
The biggest religion stories of 2011 involved tensions over Islam and questions about faith in presidential politics, especially Mormonism, according to an annual review of religion in the news.
ANALYSIS December 19, 2011
Global Christianity
A comprehensive demographic study finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread, and no single region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.
ANALYSIS November 21, 2011
Lobbying for the Faithful
A new report gives a brief history of organized religious advocacy in Washington, D.C., and examines the major characteristics of religion-related advocacy. A related online directory includes profiles of 216 groups currently or recently active in the nation’s capital.
GRAPHIC April 28, 2011
National Day of Prayer
A federal appeals court recently overturned a lower court ruling that had declared the National Day of Prayer to be unconstitutional. The day of prayer, established by Congress in 1952, occurs annually on the first Thursday in May, which this year falls on May 5.
ANALYSIS February 24, 2011
Religion in the News: Islam Was No. 1 Topic in 2010
 Events and controversies related to Islam dominated U.S. press coverage of religion in 2010, bumping the Catholic Church from the top spot, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
ANALYSIS June 11, 2010
The Pope Meets the Press: Media Coverage of the Clergy Abuse Scandal
Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
ANALYSIS March 25, 2010
Religion in the News: 2009
Pope Benedict XVI and the Obama administration generated the most religion-related coverage in the U.S. press in 2009. The pope, though he made no visits to the United States last year, was the subject of two of the top 10 religion stories, while the Obama administration accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused storylines during the year.
EVENT TRANSCRIPT December 17, 2009
Global Restrictions on Religion
More than half a century ago, the United Nations affirmed the principle of religious freedom in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, defining it as "the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion."
ANALYSIS October 28, 2009
The "Zeal of the Convert": Is It the Real Deal?
A recent Pew Forum analysis finds that people who have switched faiths (or joined a faith after being raised unaffiliated with a religion) are indeed slightly more religious than those who have remained in their childhood faith.
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