(For more on religion in the U.S., go to “ In a Politically Polarized Era, Sharp Divides in Both Partisan Coalitions.”)īy contrast, nearly everyone surveyed in Indonesia and the Philippines (96% each) draws a connection between belief in God and having good values. say belief in God is necessary to be moral (26% and 44%, respectively). Less than half in both Canada and the U.S. Still, in many countries on the European continent, relatively few people say it is necessary to believe in God to be moral, including just 9% in Sweden, 14% in the Czech Republic and 15% in France. Of all 13 countries surveyed in the European Union, Greece has the largest share of residents who tie belief in God to morality (53%), followed closely by Bulgaria (50%) and Slovakia (45%). Opinions on whether belief in God is necessary to have good values vary by region Prior research establishes the European continent as increasingly secular on the whole, though among Europeans, there are notable differences between Eastern and Western countries in attitudes toward religion and religious minorities. In the eight Western European publics surveyed, a median of just 22% say belief in God is necessary to be moral, while in the six Eastern European nations studied, a median of 33% share the same view. Since 1991, the share of people who say God is important to them has increased in Russia and Ukraine, while the opposite has occurred over the same time span in Western Europe. In general, people who are relatively nonreligious are more inclined than highly religious people in the same countries to say it is not necessary to believe in God to be a moral person.ĭespite variances in religious observance, a median of 62% across the countries surveyed say that religion plays an important role in their lives, while 61% agree that God plays an important role in their lives and 53% say the same about prayer. Differences occur within countries as well. People in the emerging economies included in this survey tend to be more religious and more likely to consider religion to be important in their lives, and they are also more likely than people in this survey who live in advanced economies to say that belief in God is necessary to be moral. But there are large regional variations in answers to this question. What is the connection between belief in God and morality? And how important are God and prayer in people’s lives? Pew Research Center posed these questions to 38,426 people in 34 countries in 2019.Īcross the 34 countries, which span six continents, a median of 45% say it is necessary to believe in God to be moral and have good values. Here are the questions used for the report, along with responses, and the survey methodology. Across Europe, the survey was conducted over the phone in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK, but face-to-face in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. In the Asia-Pacific region, face-to-face surveys were conducted in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, while phone surveys were administered in Australia, Japan and South Korea. The surveys were conducted face-to-face across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, and on the phone in United States and Canada. It also includes trend analyses about the evolution of the importance of God in Europe since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.įor this report, we used data from a survey conducted across 34 countries from May 13 to Oct. This report explores cross-national perceptions of religion, including the connection between belief in God and morality, the role God and prayer play in people’s lives and the importance of religion. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images) How we did this A mother and son pray at home during a live broadcast of an Easter Sunday service in Nairobi, Kenya.

Percentage of christians