A recent study from the Pew Research Center found an increase in the number of Asian Americans who say they’re religiously unaffiliated.
According to the survey, 32% of Asian Americans identify as religiously unaffiliated, up six percent from 26% in 2012.
The finding comes out of a broader survey conducted by the Pew Research Center published on Wednesday. It surveyed 7,006 Asian adults from July 5, 2022, to Jan. 27, 2023 in six different languages. Pew Research Center said the sample size was large enough to report on the views of six different groups: Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
The survey also examined the importance of religion in the lives of Asian Americans. It found that 31% of respondents said religion is very important. Another 29% reported that they attended religious services at least once a month.
Christianity is the most popular faith among Asian Americans, with 34% of respondents identifying as Christian. However, affiliation with Christianity also dropped 8 percent from 2012.
Religious affiliation also differed by ethnic groups. According to the survey, 56% of Chinese Americans and 47% of Japanese Americans said they weren’t affiliated with any religion.
Christianity was the dominant religion among Filipino Americans and Korean Americans. According to the survey around 74% of Filipino Americans identified as Christian (mostly Catholic) and 59% of Korean Americans said the same.
Vietnamese Americans were the most likely to identify as Buddhist (37%). Religious affiliation among Indian Americans was incredibly diverse: 48% identified as Hindu, 15% as Christian, 8% as Muslim and 8% as Sikh.
The study also found that Asian Americans expressed openness to religions that were not their own. Around 77% of respondents said they would feel comfortable if a family member married outside of their religion.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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