Survey examines extent of religious nationalism worldwide

A new survey by the Pew Research Center looks at support for religious nationalism in countries around the world, finding that two predominantly Muslim countries, Indonesia and Bangladesh, have the highest rates of religious nationalism.

To collect the data, Pew interviewed 55,000 people in nearly three dozen countries. Respondents were asked to reply to four questions: How important is belonging to the historically predominant religion to being truly part of your national identity? How important is it to you for your national leader to share your religious beliefs? How much influence do you think the historically predominant religion’s sacred text should have on the laws of your country? and When the sacred text conflicts with the will of the people, which should have more influence on the laws of your country?

Based on the replies it received, Pew found that Indonesia has the highest number of religious nationalists at 46%, followed closely by Bangladesh at 45%. Sweden came in last, with a mere 1% identifying with religious nationalism.

Other countries include India at 24%, Israel at 9%, Kenya at 32% and Canada at 3%.

Pew found that a relatively low number of Americans — 6% — identify as religious nationalists. The 6% figure may be a reflection of the specific questions asked by Pew. Other surveys have found higher numbers of Christian Nationalists in America. For example, a study done by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in 2024 found that 10% of Americans are adherents of Christian Nationalism and another 20% sympathize with it.

PRRI reported, “These percentages have remained stable since PRRI first asked these questions in late 2022.” The group noted that a majority of Republicans qualify as either adherents or sympathizers of Christian Nationalism but found far lower levels of support among independents and Democrats. PRRI also noted, “Support for Christian nationalism is positively associated with lower education levels and higher age.”

Laura Silver, an associate director at Pew, told Sojourners magazine that a respondent had to reply “very important” to all four questions to be counted as a religious nationalist.

“We wanted to set a really high bar, so we didn’t overcount people as religious nationalists, particularly in places in middle-income countries, for example, where there is much more of a relationship between religion and state,” Silver said.

Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, told Sojourners that the Pew data isn’t far off from PRRI’s findings, given that PRRI found that 10% of Americans are Christian Nationalist adherents. He noted that when you add in the 20% who are sympathizers and account for the fact that a majority of Republicans and white evangelicals are Christian Nationalists, it explains why the movement has such political power.