A recent Pew Research Center study conducted across 36 countries reveals that more than 20% of adults have departed from the religious groups in which they were raised.
This trend, known as "religious switching," has resulted in notable declines for Christianity and Buddhism, while an increasing number of adults now identify as religiously unaffiliated.
The report defines religious switching as individuals changing their religious identities between childhood and adulthood, including either disaffiliation from religion entirely or switching to a different major religious group.
While countries like India, Israel, Nigeria, and Thailand report high religious retention rates of 95% or more, regions such as East Asia, Western Europe, and the Americas exhibit significant religious mobility.
In South Korea, the survey found that half of the adult population no longer identifies with their childhood religion. Additionally, 36% of adults in the Netherlands, 28% in the United States, and 21% in Brazil reported leaving their religious traditions, with many transitioning into the "religiously unaffiliated" category, which includes atheists, agnostics, and those identifying as “nothing in particular.”
The data indicates that Christianity is one of the most affected religions by this shift. In Sweden, for instance, 29% of adults raised as Christians now identify as religiously unaffiliated.
In Germany, the ratio of people leaving Christianity to those joining stands at 19.7 to 1.0, meaning nearly 20 Germans raised as Christians no longer identify with the faith for every one individual who converts to Christianity.
In Singapore, however, Christianity is seeing small gains, with a ratio of 1.0 to 3.2, indicating that for every Singaporean who leaves Christianity, approximately three others join.
In contrast, some countries, such as Nigeria, maintain a balance, with an equal number of individuals leaving and joining Christianity (1.0 to 1.0), reflecting a more stable religious landscape for the faith in those regions.
South Korea has the highest proportion of adults (9%) who were raised without any religious affiliation but now identify with a specific faith, most of whom have become Christians. Other countries, such as Singapore and South Africa, also show significant rates of adults switching between distinct religions.
The survey highlights that religious switching is not uniformly distributed across all religious traditions or regions.
Christianity, the world’s largest religion, is predominant or historically influential in 25 of the 36 countries surveyed. Islam, the second-largest religion globally, holds a predominant presence in six of the surveyed nations, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Turkey.
Buddhism, historically significant in countries like South Korea, Japan, and Thailand, has witnessed notable disaffiliation in certain areas, while Hinduism and Judaism, each primarily found in only one of the surveyed countries (India and Israel, respectively), exhibit much lower rates of religious switching.
