Are religions growing or declining? Self-reported religion and personality

Abstract

It is not clear whether religions are on the rise or fall today. The present study investigated whether personality trait factors can predict the combined growth of religious affiliations and non-affiliations (i.e., the number of people who self-identify with a religion or do not identify with any religion) across socio-cultural contexts through an analysis of online survey data collected from 111 countries and 4,270 individuals. In a multiple-discriminant analysis, religion self-reports constituted three independent dimensions. Religious affiliations and non-affiliations (whether a person identifies as a member of a specific religion or identifies him/ herself as an atheist or agnostic) formed separate clusters along one axis, while on the other two, they did not. Across countries, religions? growth rates significantly predicted the trait factor configuration classifying religious affiliations (seeing oneself as a member of a specific religion) differently from non-affiliations (seeing oneself as an atheist or an agnostic). The personality profile grouping affiliations together with non-affiliations had a non-significant relationship with religions? growth rates. In sum, although self-identifying with no religion (i.e., agnosticism and atheism) might not replace affiliating with a religion in the short run, it can show a non-significant trend toward competing with adhering to most popular religions. The results may have implications for understanding the impact of religious pluralism on religions? growth rates and the different growth trends associated with the complexity of religious affiliations.