Who Believes in God? A Global Snapshot of Faith
Across 22 countries, belief in God, gods, or spiritual forces ranges from a staggering 100% in Egypt to just 20% in Japan.
Childhood predictors of adults’ belief in god, gods, and spiritual forces across 22 countries
Attending religious services as a child is the most consistent predictor of believing in God as an adult across the globe.
Many life experiences commonly thought to shape religious belief, such as parental divorce, childhood poverty, or abuse, showed little to no consistent effect on adult faith across different cultures.
The influence of any given childhood experience on adult religious belief varies dramatically from one country to another, showing that culture is a critical factor.
“Understanding someone's faith means understanding their world, not just their personal history.”
This research challenges many long-held assumptions about why people are religious. It suggests that simple explanations, like the idea that people turn to God primarily because of hardship, don't hold up on a global scale. The findings are a crucial reminder that most psychological theories about religion have been developed in Western countries and may not apply elsewhere. This pushes science to become more culturally aware and less quick to assume universal human truths. For anyone interested in faith, society, or human development, this study shows that context is key. It's not just about what happens *to* you in childhood, but *where* it happens. Understanding someone's belief means understanding their world, their culture, and their community's norms, which are often more influential than specific personal events. This has implications for everything from public policy to how we talk about faith across different cultures.
“Understanding someone's faith means understanding their world, not just their personal history.”
Why do some people grow up to believe in God while others don't? To find out, researchers studied over 200,000 people across 22 different countries, asking about their childhoods and their current beliefs. They looked at everything: family income, parents' marriage, experiences of abuse, feeling like an outsider, and whether they attended religious services.
“Childhood hardship, from poverty to abuse, does not universally predict whether a person will believe in God.”
The results were not what many would expect. Most of the factors commonly thought to shape faith had surprisingly little impact when viewed globally. For example, growing up in a poor family or having divorced parents didn't consistently predict whether someone would be religious as an adult. The same was true for childhood abuse or feeling like an outsider.
While these experiences mattered in a few specific countries, there was no universal pattern. In fact, the effects were sometimes opposite in different cultures. The only things that showed a somewhat consistent, though not universal, link to adult belief were attending religious services as a child, being a woman, and being part of an older generation. The biggest takeaway is that culture is incredibly powerful. The country and community you grow up in seem to matter far more than any single life event in shaping your spiritual beliefs.
There is no simple, one-size-fits-all recipe for faith.
When results from 22 countries were combined, adults who attended religious services at least weekly as a child were 1.29 times more likely to believe in God than those who never attended.
Across the 22 countries studied, women were 6% more likely than men to report believing in God, gods, or spiritual forces.
Across the nationally representative samples from 22 countries, 14% of adults reported having been physically or sexually abused while growing up.
In the global sample, nearly twice as many people reported attending religious services at least weekly during childhood compared to those who reported never attending.
Moon, J. W., Johnson, K. A., Case, B., Padgett, R. N., Johnson, B. R., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2025). Childhood predictors of adults’ belief in god, gods, and spiritual forces across 22 countries. Scientific Reports, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-98796-1
Across 22 countries, belief in God, gods, or spiritual forces ranges from a staggering 100% in Egypt to just 20% in Japan.
Attending religious services just once a week as a child nearly doubles your likelihood of praying or meditating daily as an adult.
Surprisingly, difficult childhood experiences like abuse or feeling like an outsider can make a person more likely to believe in life after death.
In some countries, having poor health as a child is linked to experiencing more inner peace as an adult.
People in Indonesia report feeling far more grateful than people in Japan, revealing vast cultural differences in this powerful emotion.
While 95% of people in Indonesia believe in life after death, only 21% of people in Japan do.