Religious Statistics: Politics & Public Opinion

The Association of Religion Data Archives provides QuickStats about religious beliefs and attitudes using data from major national surveys.

"The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, launched in 2001, seeks to promote a deeper understanding of issues at the intersection of religion and public affairs.  The Forum pursues its mission by delivering timely, impartial information to national opinion leaders, including government officials and journalists. As a nonpartisan, non-advocacy organization, the Forum does not take positions on policy debates."

• Surveys
  As part of its mission to explore the role religion plays in American public life, the Pew Forum develops and releases an annual survey on religion and public life. In addition, the Forum periodically commissions shorter polls on particularly timely issues.
• Datasets
  This page contains links to the Pew Forum's survey data which are currently available on the Web. Survey data are released after all reporting is completed and are posted on the Web as quickly as possible.

Featured Study
Faith on the Hill: The Religious Affiliations of Members of Congress

Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public opinion surveys that encompasses a broad array of subjects ranging from people's assessments of their own lives to their views about the current state of the world and important issues of the day.
Some of these surveys include questions about religion.  In particular, views on Jews and Muslims.

• Survey Reports
• Datasets

The World Values Survey investigates values and cultural changes in societies all over the world. A variety of questions on religion and morality are included. Registration is required to access data files.  Online anlysis options are available.

Publications based on this survey that discuss religion include:

The American National Election Studies (ANES) produces high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation to serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists who want to better understand the theoretical and empirical foundations of national election outcomes.

The surveys include questions on religion.  For quick stats look in the Guide to Public Opinion for Social & Religious Characteristics of the Electorate.