Christianity Still the Most Common Religion among Asian Americans, Pew Research Finds
According to a new Pew Research study, Christianity continues to remain the most common religion among Asian Americans despite its decline seen in the demographic throughout the years.
As reported by The Christian Post, the study found that “about a third of Asian American adults (34 percent) say their present religion is Christianity,” evenly split among Catholics (17 percent) and Protestants (16 percent).
In Pew’s last in-depth survey in 2012, 42 percent of Asian Americans said they were Christian.
The recent survey also found that about 32 percent are not affiliated with any religion, which is a notable increase from 2012 (26 percent).
Additionally, one-tenth of the Asian American population is Buddhists and Hindus, respectively, while 6 percent is Muslim.
The survey, which was conducted from July 5, 2022, through Jan. 27, 2023, featured six Asian-origin groups — Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans — which make up roughly 81 percent of all Asian Americans.
Although a slight majority of Asian Americans surveyed “express a connection to Christianity,” there are still “large differences in religious affiliation among Asian Americans depending on their ethnic origin group.”
The study also found that more than half of Chinese Americans (56 percent) and 47 percent of Japanese Americans are not affiliated with any religion, which was also the highest percentage of religious “nones” among the Asian-origin groups surveyed.
Close to three-quarters of Filipino Americans (74 percent) identify as Christian, mainly Catholic. Meanwhile, 59 percent of Korean Americans identify as Christian, mainly Protestant. Approximately 34 percent of Korean Americans identify as born-again or Evangelical Protestants.
According to Pew Research, roughly a third of Asian Americans consider religion to be “very important” in their lives, including 60 percent of Asian American Muslims and 54 percent of Christians. Meanwhile, 33 percent of Asian American Hindus and 31 percent of Buddhists felt the same.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
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