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A newly published study by the Pew Research Center shows Christians in Africa and Latin America tend to pray more frequently, attend religious services more regularly and consider religion more important in their lives than Christians elsewhere in the world.
But the United States also have comparatively high levels of committed Christians.
The study analysed 84 countries with sizeable Christian populations.
In 35 of those countries, at least two-thirds of all Christians say religion is very important in their lives.
All but three of these 35 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa or Latin America. (The three exceptions are the US, Malaysia and the Philippines.)
New Zealand was not included in the study but, in Australia, 27% of Christians said that religion was very important in their lives.
The United States remains an outlier among wealthy countries in terms of its relatively high levels of religious commitment.
In the US, more than two-thirds of Christians say religion is very important in their lives, compared with significantly lower levels in other rich democracies. For instance, only 12% of Christian adults in Germany and 11% in the United Kingdom say religion is very important in their lives.
Levels of religious salience are particularly high in sub-Saharan Africa: over 75% in every country surveyed in the region say religion is very important to them.
At the other end of the spectrum, levels of religious importance are lowest among Christians in Europe, where deaths outnumber births among Christians.
Prayer frequency is lowest among Christians in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and Malaysia, where fewer than 10% of Christians pray daily.
Likewise, fewer than 10% of Christians report attending church weekly in nine European countries including Denmark, Estonia and Russia.
Source
- pewresearch.org
- Image: newsweek.com
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