(RNS) — More Asian Americans identify as atheist, agnostic or nonreligious than before, according to a survey released Wednesday (Oct. 11) by Pew Research Center. But 40% of those Pew surveyed, who included Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese backgrounds, said they feel close to a religion for reasons aside from religion, such as family or cultural ties.
Pew’s survey, which studied over 7,000 participants over the course of a year, found that Asian Americans are part of the ongoing trend of Americans who don’t follow any religion, often referred to as “nones.” Today, 32% of Asian Americans are religiously unaffiliated, compared with 26% in 2012.
Asian Americans as a whole are mostly Christian (34%), especially Korean (59%) or Filipino Americans (74%), who are evenly split between Protestantism and Catholicism (16% and 17%). Born-again or evangelical Protestants make up 10% of Asian Americans.
But it is those Asian Americans who identify as Christians who have shown the sharpest declines in affiliation with religious institutions since 2012, dropping by 8 percentage points.
Some 56% of Chinese Americans and 47% of Japanese Americans said they are not affiliated with any religion, comprising the largest groups of religious nones. They are also the groups least likely to consider religion very important.
“Most Filipino and Korean Americans are Christian; about half of Chinese Americans are religiously unaffiliated” Graphic courtesy of Pew Research Center
Buddhists and Hindus, both at 11%, were the next largest faith groups. Vietnamese Americans are the most likely of the Asian origin groups to identify as Buddhist (37%), and Indian Americans are far more likely than the other groups to be Hindu (48%).
The survey’s findings reflected a complex understanding of religiosity in many Asian American cultures, in which religious identity can mean more than just adhering to a set of beliefs. In particular, daily life…
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