Pollsters are turning to religion just as more Americans are losing theirs.
In the past decade, the number of people asked in surveys about their religious identities, beliefs and practices has risen sharply, resulting in a wealth of new data on how many Americans belong to each of the world’s religions, or to none. …
Questions remain, however, about how to count population by religion, and how to define those who have no religion. Different surveys use different question wording and definitions, which, combined with the huge variety of beliefs and practices, complicate researchers’ work. [cont.]
Carl Bialik, Wall Street Journal