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A Pew Research Center poll has found the coronavirus pandemic has strengthened the religious faith and family bonds in many parts of the world.
The poll focused on 14 countries with what Pew calls “advanced economies”. It was released in late January.
Of the Americans surveyed, 28 percent said the pandemic had strengthened their own religious faith and the same number said it had strengthened the faith of people in their country.
At the same time, however, 68 percent said their own faith had not changed much, while 47 percent said the faith of other Americans had stayed about the same.
The other countries Pew surveyed were: Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The countries closest to the United States in reporting increases in faith were Spain and Italy.
In Spain, 16 percent of respondents said the pandemic had strengthened their faith and 17 percent said it had strengthened the faith of other Spaniards. In Italy, 15 percent said it had strengthened their own faith and 19 percent said it had strengthened the faith of other Italians.
Across all 14 countries surveyed, the median was 10 percent saying the pandemic had strengthened their own faith, while 15 percent said it had strengthened the faith of people in their country.
The only country of those surveyed that registered single digit increases to each question was Japan. Just five percent said it had strengthened their own faith and five percent said it had strengthened the faith of people in their country.
In South Korea, however, 9 percent said the pandemic had weakened people’s faith. Compared to the 10 percent who said the pandemic had strengthened their faith, the pandemic resulted in a net positive increase in faith of just one percent.
The only country with as small a net gain as South Korea was Sweden. There, three percent said the virus had strengthened their faith and two percent said it had weakened it.
Family bonds have strengthened during the pandemic, Pew found.
In Spain, 42 percent reported stronger family bonds, while America, Britain Kingdom and Italy registered 41 percent. Yet even in those countries, a higher percentage of respondents said that had not changed much, either.
Regardless of nation, people with lower incomes reported stronger faith than those with higher incomes.
In the United States, 34 percent of respondents with lower incomes said their faith had been strengthened because of COVID as against 22 percent with higher incomes.
Asked whether Americans’ responses represented a pause in the nation’s continuing slide toward secularization, a Pew spokesperson said: “I wouldn’t go that far. One thing is pretty clear, that in the last few years in the United States, there is a secularization trend — more people saying they have no religion, and a fall in the faith of the people who say they are observant.”
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