The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the world.

The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life uses a range of social science methods, including public opinion surveys, demographic analysis and coding, to examine three related areas of global change:

• Patterns in religious beliefs and practices, including how they shape people’s social values and political attitudes;
   
• Trends in religious affiliation, including the current and projected size of the world’s major religious groups; and
   
• Comparisons of restrictions on the practice of religion, including restrictions imposed by governments as well as social groups, organizations and individuals.

The Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project is jointly and generously funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation.

Reports produced as part of the Global Religious Futures project include:

POLL April 2013

The World's Muslims: Religion, Politics and Society

A new survey report looks at attitudes among Muslims in 39 countries on a wide range of topics, from science to sharia, polygamy to popular culture. The survey finds that overwhelming percentages of Muslims in many countries want Islamic law to be the official law of their land, but there is also widespread support for democracy and religious freedom.

ANALYSIS December 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) of the eight major religious groups studied.

ANALYSIS September 2012

The Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion

Between mid-2009 and mid-2010, religious restrictions rose not only in countries that began the year with high or very high restrictions, such as Indonesia and Nigeria, but also in many countries that began with low or moderate restrictions, such as Switzerland and the United States. The report looks at restrictions due to government actions as well as acts of violence and intimidation by private individuals, organizations and social groups.

POLL August 2012

The World's Muslims: Unity and Diversity

The world’s Muslims are united in their belief in God and the Prophet Muhammad and are bound together by such religious practices as fasting during Ramadan and almsgiving to assist the needy. But they have widely differing views about other aspects of their faith, including how important religion is to their lives, who counts as a Muslim and what practices are acceptable in Islam.

ANALYSIS March 2012

Faith on the Move: The Religious Affiliation of International Migrants

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 December 2011

Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population

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 August 2011

Rising Restrictions on Religion

Restrictions on religious beliefs and practices rose in 23 of the world’s 198 countries (12%), decreased in 12 countries (6%) and remained essentially unchanged in 163 countries (82%) between mid-2006 and mid-2009, a new Pew Forum report shows. More than 2.2 billion people – nearly a third of the world’s population – live in the 23 countries with increasing government restrictions or social hostilities involving religion.

POLL June 2011

Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders

Evangelical Protestant leaders who live in the Global South generally are optimistic about the prospects for evangelicalism in their countries: 71% expect that five years from now the state of evangelicalism in their countries will be better than it is today. But those who live in the Global North expect that the state of evangelicalism in their countries will either stay about the same (21%) or worsen (33%) over the next five years.

ANALYSIS January 2011

The Future of the Global Muslim Population

This comprehensive demographic study seeks to provide up-to-date estimates of the number of Muslims around the world in 2010 and to project the growth of the Muslim population from 2010 to 2030. The report also illustrates past trends for several measures by providing data from 1990 to 2010.

POLL April 2010

Tolerance and Tension: Islam and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa

A 19-country survey by the Pew Forum reveals that the vast majority of people in many sub-Saharan African nations are deeply committed to Christianity or Islam, and yet many continue to practice elements of traditional African religions.

ANALYSIS December 2009

Global Restrictions on Religion

This 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.

ANALYSIS October 2009

Mapping the Global Muslim Population

A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 1.57 billion Muslims of all ages living in the world today, representing 23% of an estimated 2009 world population of 6.8 billion.

POLL October 2006

Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals

This survey explores Pentecostalism and related charismatic movements, which represent one of the fastest-growing segments of global Christianity.

For additional international survey data, visit the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project.