When it comes to remembering God, America seems to be closer to a developing economy like Bangladesh than people in richer countries, according to a newly released survey. In fact, it is the most religious wealthy country in the world.
The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center Study, found that Americans prayed more often, were more likely to attend weekly religious services and ascribed higher importance to faith in their lives than adults in other wealthy, Western democracies, such as Canada, Australia and most European states.
Nearly 55 percent of American adults say they pray daily, a figure that compares more with Bangladesh where 57 percent of respondents are reported to have the same prayer habits.
Pew Center’s Dalia Fahmy points out that the United States is the only country out of 102 examined in the study that has higher-than-average levels of both prayer and wealth. In every other country surveyed with a gross domestic product of more than $30,000 per person, fewer than 40% of adults say they pray every day.
For instance, only 25 percent of people in Canada pray daily and that number drops to 22 percent in Europe, 18 percent in Australia and just 6 percent in Britain.
In South Asia, Afghanistan tops the chart with more than 95 percent respondents saying they pray every day. It’s followed by India with nearly 75 percent and Pakistan at 65 percent.
The United States being the most devout of all the rich Western democracies has for long been a subject of discussion for sociologists.
“Recent research points out that there is a link between relatively high levels of income inequality in the U.S. and continued high levels of religiosity,” says Ms Dahmy, adding, “Less-well-off people in the U.S. and other countries with high levels of income inequality may be more likely to seek comfort in religious faith because they also are more likely to experience financial and other insecurities.”
The survey also finds that even though the U.S. is more religious than other wealthy countries, it hasn’t been completely immune from the secularisation that has swept across many parts of the Western world.
Pew Research Center studies have shown slight but steady declines in recent years in the overall number of Americans who say they believe in God. This lines up with the finding that American adults under the age of 40 are less likely to pray than their elders, less likely to attend church services and less likely to identify with any religion – all of which may portend future declines in levels of religious commitment.