Ethnic Religion That Is Close to Family Andregion

Muslims and Hindus take larger households than Christians and religious 'nones,' in patterns influenced past regional norms

Members of the Rabari ethnic grouping in Rajasthan, India. (Tuul and Bruno Morandi/Getty Images)

Our households – who lives with united states of america, how we are related to them and what part nosotros play in that shared space – have a profound event on our daily experience of the world. A new Pew Enquiry Center analysis of information from 130 countries and territories reveals that the size and composition of households often vary by religious affiliation.

Worldwide, Muslims live in the biggest households, with the average Muslim individual residing in a dwelling house of 6.4 people, followed by Hindus at 5.7. Christians autumn in the middle (4.v), forming relatively large families in sub-Saharan Africa and smaller ones in Europe. Buddhists (3.9), Jews (3.seven) and the religiously unaffiliated (iii.7) – defined every bit those who do not identify with an faith, also known as "nones" – live in smaller households, on average.

Why study households from an individual'southward bespeak of view?

This report looks at households from the perspective of an average person, rather than an average household. While it is possible to calculate statistics either mode, researchers chose the individual perspective because it meliorate captures the lived experience of most people. Consider ii homes, one with a family of nine people, the other with a sole resident. The two households incorporate a full of 10 people, so the average household size is five. Only most of the individuals in these 2 homes – nine out of x – alive with more than v people. In fact, in this simple example, the average individual resides in a household of 8.2 people. (Here's the math: Nine individuals, each living amongst nine people, plus ane household of one person, is 9+9+9+nine+9+9+ix+9+9+ane = 82 /10 people total = an boilerplate person residing in a household of 8.ii people.) For more on this topic, see this sidebar.

Household size is ane like shooting fish in a barrel way to compare the lived experiences of people around the earth. Bigger households are common in less-developed countries, where people tend to have more children and families share express resources. Smaller households are prevalent in wealthier countries, which tend to have crumbling populations and lower nascence rates.

Household types defined

But the number of people in whatsoever given household is only one dimension of living arrangements. Since households of the same size can be and then qualitatively unlike from each other – a 3-person household might consist of a couple and one child, a child with a parent and grandparent, a married man and two wives, or numerous other combinations – agreement the distribution of various types of households besides is valuable.

Globally, the most common household blazon is the extended family, bookkeeping for 38% of the world's population. But some religious groups are more likely to live in extended families than others. Hindus are the simply major grouping in which a majority lives with extended family, such equally grandparents, uncles and in-laws. Muslims, Christians and Jews are more likely to reside in two-parent households, composed of two partners with i or more minor children. Living lone is unusual among all religious groups, but it is more common amid Jews than amongst the world's other major religions: About one-in-ten Jews worldwide are in solo households. From a global perspective, Jews also are much more likely than non-Jews to alive in households consisting of a couple without children or other relatives.¹

How or why religion is linked with living arrangements has been the subject of much research and argue. Holy texts and spiritual leaders offering a range of guidance – from didactic anecdotes to outright prohibitions – on many aspects of family life, including union and intendance for elders. Previous social science enquiry, particularly in the United States, suggests that the extent to which people value religion and participate in a religious community is tied to their patterns of marriage, divorce and childbearing. (For a give-and-take of how religious teachings and family life may exist connected, see this sidebar. For more than on academic research exploring the ties between living arrangements and religion, see this sidebar in Chapter two.)

To be sure, religion is far from the but factor – or even the primary factor– affecting household sizes and types around the world. People'due south living arrangements are shaped past many circumstances, including laws, cultural norms, personal situations and economic opportunities. Yet, examining the connections between households and religion helps to illuminate the weather condition nether which members of diverse religious groups grow up, practice their religion and laissez passer on traditions to the next generation.

Geography and other factors affect household formation

Some household patterns tin can be explained, at least in part, by the distribution of religious groups across the globe. Six-in-ten Christians live in the Americas and Europe, where households tend to be comparatively small, while viii-in-ten Muslims live in the Asia-Pacific and Centre Due east-N Africa regions, where households generally contain more individuals. Most of the earth's Jews live in the United states and State of israel – 2 economically developed countries where advanced transportation and wellness intendance networks, educational opportunities, and other forms of infrastructure affect many life choices, including living arrangements.

At the same time, in that location are relatively few religiously unaffiliated people in the regions where families are largest – sub-Saharan Africa and the Center East-N Africa. Moreover, because some religious groups are concentrated in a few countries, the economic conditions and government policies in those places can have a big influence on a group'south global household patterns.

China, for example, is home to a bulk of the earth'southward "nones" and about one-half of all Buddhists. From 1979 to 2016, the Chinese government enforced a "one-child policy" that penalized couples who had more than than i kid.ⁱⁱ As a result, the size of households amidst Chinese Buddhists and "nones" is pocket-sized – and China's huge population has a large influence on the global figures for these groups. Meanwhile, more than nine-in-ten of the earth's Hindus are found in India, where prevailing cultural norms shape many of the findings for that religious group.

Nigeria exemplifies the complication and interconnectedness of factors that influence living arrangements. Africa'due south nigh populous country is virtually evenly split between 2 religious groups, with Muslims and Christians each accounting for about half of the population. These groups accept different historical legacies, laws and geographic distributions. Largely due to the influence of Christian missionaries, who entered Nigeria via the Atlantic coastline to the south, most Nigerians in the southern states are Christian, while those living in the n tend to exist Muslim. Sections of Africa that were reached by missionaries oft take more than advanced systems of formal schooling today, while assistance and research agencies have found that in Nigeria, the northern states have lower rates of educational attainment and economic development.^three

These differences extend to household formation. Typically, Muslims in Nigeria share their homes with almost three more than people than their Christian compatriots, with an average household of 8.7 people among Nigerian Muslims, compared with 5.nine among Nigerian Christians. Too, although there is no national law providing for polygamy in Nigeria, polygamous marriages are recognized in 12 northern, Muslim-majority states – and Nigerian Muslims are much more likely than Christians to live in polygamous households (twoscore% vs. viii%). (For a detailed discussion of polygamy in laws and religion, meet here.)

In broad strokes, these examples show why it is difficult to isolate the causal touch of religion, which is inextricably linked to economical, geographic, legal and cultural factors not only in Nigeria just around the globe. Each country and part of the globe has its own complex gear up of influences that impact household germination, resulting in a varied landscape of living arrangements.

Among the 130 countries with information bachelor on households and religious affiliation, the household size experienced past the average person ranges from ii.7 people (in Germany) to xiii.8 people (in The gambia). Past region, people tend to form the smallest households in Europe (iii.one) and N America (3.iii). The biggest households are in sub-Saharan Africa (half dozen.9) and the Centre East-North Africa (half-dozen.two). Latin America and the Caribbean (4.6) and the Asia-Pacific region (5.0) fall in the middle.

Likewise, sure types of households are more than prevalent in some parts of the earth than in others. For example, almost half of all people in the Asia-Pacific region live with extended family, compared with merely i-in-ten North Americans. Polygamous households are rare outside of West Africa, where the practice is quite common in some countries.⁴ And couples rarely live on their own – without children or extended family – outside of Europe and Northward America.

Regional patterns, in plow, influence the living arrangements amongst religious groups. Muslims in Europe, for example, generally live in larger households than non-Muslims in Europe (four.one vs. 3.1, on average). Nonetheless, European Muslims follow the region'due south overall tendency toward relatively small households, and Muslims in Europe live with fewer people than Muslims in other parts of the world.

Measuring households from the individual's perspective – why does it matter?

To gain a better understanding of how the private-level figures in this report might differ from the more conventional household-level analysis, our researchers also generated results for all the variables on the household level, whenever possible. The tables in this sidebar summarize the differences.^five

Wealth and pedagogy: Smaller homes in more-developed countries

Levels of prosperity – defined by a range of measures including financial stability, life expectancy and teaching – are strongly linked with the size and blazon of households around the world. Europe and North America, the two wealthiest regions every bit measured by per-capita gross domestic product, are also those with the smallest households. Conversely, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East-North Africa region, which accept the biggest households, take the everyman per-capita Gross domestic product.⁶

Extended-family arrangements in detail are linked with economic development: Fiscal and other resource stretch farther when shared inside one household. Childcare and domestic chores are more easily accomplished if separate among several adults living in the same home. Supporting a family in developing countries is frequently labor-intensive, requiring farming and other activities that do good from multiple workers. And in countries where governments provide fewer retirement benefits or other safe nets for older adults, families take a greater responsibility to care for aging relatives. (Cultural factors, such equally esteem for elders, also play a role.)

On the other mitt, people are more likely to alive alone in countries with higher levels of schooling. Young adults often delay or forgo childbearing to pursue advanced education, contributing to the tendency of highly educated couples to live without other family members. And in places where people tend to live well across their childbearing years, they are more likely to live alone as seniors or as couples without children.

Economic development also affects patterns within regions. In Europe, relatively minor households predominate in prosperous Eu countries (the boilerplate German language or Swede lives in a home of ii.7 people, for example), while larger households are found in the less economically advanced countries of the Balkans (Kosovo 6.8, N Macedonia 4.half-dozen). In Due east Asian countries with advanced economies, people tend to live in smaller-than-boilerplate households (S Korea 2.9, Nippon iii.i), while residents of less-adult countries in South asia tend to have bigger households (Afghanistan 9.viii, Pakistan viii.5).

Although the regional distribution of religious groups often coincides with economic factors that impact the types and sizes of households people tend to live in, there are noticeable differences among religious groups within the six regions covered in this report, and fifty-fifty within single countries.^seven

Indeed, this report shows that the experiences of religious groups around the earth differ in many ways:

• Islam is the largest religion in all just ane of the 15 countries with the biggest households: Republic of benin. These acme 15 include nations in Africa, such as Gambia and Senegal; the Heart Due east, namely Republic of yemen and Iraq; and the Asia-Pacific region, including Transitional islamic state of afghanistan and Pakistan. On the other hand, Christians and the religiously unaffiliated brand up the largest groups in the 15 countries with the earth's smallest households (all of which are located either in Europe or the Asia-Pacific region).
• Within regions, Muslim-bulk countries tend to have larger households, affecting members of all religious groups, while nearby Christian-, Jewish- or Buddhist-bulk countries tend to have smaller households. For example, in Kosovo, which has a Muslim majority, both Christians and Muslims tend to live in bigger households than adherents of these religions in nearby Romania, which has a Christian majority.
• Within countries, religious groups frequently differ in their living arrangements. In Senegal, for example, Muslims on average live in 14-person households, while Christians live in homes of most 9 members. In Nigeria, a nine-member household is the average Muslim'south experience, while the average Christian lives in a six-person dwelling house. And in Republic of india, Muslims live in the largest households, with an average size of more half-dozen people, compared with slightly fewer than six people for Hindus, on average. Christians in Republic of india have even smaller households, with an average of most five members.
• Relatively few people in any group live alone (4% globally), though Jews (10%), Buddhists (7%), Christians (7%) and "nones" (seven%) all live alone at college rates. Muslims and Hindus rarely grade solo households (ane% each).
• Similarly, Muslims and Hindus are the to the lowest degree likely to live as couples (without children or other relatives), with just iii% in each group living in such an organisation. Past dissimilarity, at least one-in-ten Christians, Buddhists and "nones" live this way, equally do ane-in-five Jews.
• Polygamy is very rare, except in some sub-Saharan African countries where this blazon of union is largely legal. While African Muslims are more probable than Christians to alive in polygamous households (25% vs. 3%), the do is also widespread among adherents of folk religions (who are non analyzed separately in this study) and "nones" in certain countries.
• In the U.S., Christians (three.four), "nones" (3.two) and Jews (three.0) live in similarly sized households, on average. However, U.S. Jews are much more than probable than non-Jews to live as couples without children or other relatives, and they are less likely to reside in extended families and unmarried-parent households.⁸
• Men in every country are older, on average, than their wives or female cohabiting partners. This age gap is widest among Muslims and Hindus, and smallest among Jews and the religiously unaffiliated.
• Women ages 60 and older are more likely than men in this historic period grouping to live alone. Three-in-ten Christian and Jewish women over 60 live solitary, while only 6% of Hindus do.
• More Christians than members of any other religious grouping live in single-parent homes (vi%). And women, especially Christian women, are more probable than men to alive as single parents. In the U.S. – the country with the world'due south largest Christian population – well-nigh a quarter of children alive in single-parent homes, making them more likely than children in any other country to do and so. American children in Christian homes are just equally likely as those in unaffiliated homes (23% each) to live in unmarried-parent situations.

These are amid the central findings of a new Pew Research Center analysis of demography and survey data collected by governments and survey organizations in 130 countries since 2010. This report was produced by Pew Research Center every bit role of the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures project, which analyzes religious change and its impact on societies around the earth. Funding for the Global Religious Futures project comes from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation. Previous reports from the Global Religious Futures project explored links between religion and gender, education, historic period and personal well-existence, and produced population growth projections for major religious groups.

Statistics come from Pew Inquiry Center assay of sources, which include Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, Demographic and Health Surveys, demography data archived by IPUMS International, General Social Surveys and European Social Surveys, also as country-specific studies. The study covers countries where 91% of the global population lives.⁹ Unless otherwise specified, results describe the average living arrangements experienced by people of all ages (that is, children and adults). For more details, see Methodology.

In addition to analyzing household sizes using demography and household survey information and transforming information technology to present the boilerplate individual's perspective (as opposed to the average household), researchers besides analyzed eight household types among the major religious groups, broken downwards by age and gender. The report focuses on descriptions of seven household types that are made up of individuals living alone or with family members, though near 2% of all people living in households fall into the residue eighth ("other") category, including those who share housing with unrelated roommates or a mix of relatives and non-relatives. All statistics in this report exclude institutionalized populations, such as people in prisons, college dormitories and nursing homes.

The adjacent section of this report explores how holy texts and spiritual leaders have addressed the question of household formation. Subsequent chapters outline patterns in household sizes and types by region and religious group, including a give-and-take of previous social science enquiry on the connections between living arrangements and religion. The final chapter focuses on how living arrangements vary by age and between women and men.

Religious teachings on families and homes

Holy texts and spiritual leaders have much to say about domestic life. All the major world religions – including but non limited to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism – promote specific types of family formations and offering guidance on the roles that people play within the domicile. These teachings take many forms, from explicit rules to pop sayings and stories.¹⁰

Just teachings are not static or universal. Interpretations of religious texts vary past place and shift across fourth dimension, and religious leaders in the same context often disagree. For well-nigh two centuries, scripture was used by some U.S. Christian clergy to justify opposition to interracial spousal relationships. Simply societal views and laws shifted in the 20th century, and Bible passages one time viewed equally censuring ties between races accept largely been pushed bated.

Procreation

Bearing, raising and protecting children is a central theme in many religions. Christianity and Judaism encourage adherents to take children, and in Genesis – the first book of the Jewish Torah and the Christian Onetime Testament – God allowable humans to "be fruitful and multiply." The Quran, which emphasizes the importance of motherhood and childbearing, has a handful of references to pregnancy and nascence.¹¹

Outside of the Abrahamic religions, the Hindu Vedic texts as well comprise passages about having children. The Marriage Hymn of the Rig Veda, which is sometimes recited at Hindu weddings, states "Let Prajapati create progeny for u.s.a.," and "Generous Indra, give this woman fine sons. … Identify x sons in her and make her husband the eleventh."¹²

Buddhism is non considered to exist particularly pro-natalist, which some scholars have tied to relatively depression fertility rates in that religious grouping.¹³

A religion can promote having children even if it does not accept specific doctrines endorsing procreation. Some scholars say that teachings of conservative Islam and Christianity indirectly lead people to have more than children due to the gender roles they endorse.¹⁴ Organized religion also can indirectly encourage procreation through other ways, such every bit opposition to birth control. In Judaism, a couple'due south inability to accept children can be grounds for divorce.

Spousal relationship

Closely tied to childbearing, religions often set rules for marriage and sexual relations. According to Genesis 2:18, woman was created considering "it is not skillful that the man should be alone." In the Christian New Testament, Paul the Apostle wrote, "Because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own married woman and each woman her ain married man." In Islam, the Quran states that God created "love and mercy" between spouses.

In Hinduism, the ashrama system specifies four stages of the life class, including the second stage of life, grihastha, in which one becomes a householder and focuses on spousal relationship, raising children and fulfilling obligations toward elders and other relatives.

In Buddhism, the Sig­ālaka Sutta offers instructions on how spouses should care for one some other: "There are v ways in which a husband should minister to his wife equally the western direction: by honoring her, past not disparaging her, by not being unfaithful to her, by giving authority to her, by providing her with adornments."¹⁵

Scriptures provide a mix of guidance on interfaith marriage. In the Torah, Moses tells the Jews that they must non intermarry with those from the vii nations of Canaan, which some translate as a prohibition on all religious intermarriage. And, according to the Talmud, a rabbinic commentary on Jewish scripture, both participants must come across the marriage ceremony equally sacred in society for it to be religiously valid.¹⁶ The Christian New Attestation, however, is less articulate on the topic of intermarriage. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul wrote: "Do not be mismatched with unbelievers," which is oft thought to prohibit marriage to non-Christians. Still, Paul too instructed believers non to divorce their unbelieving spouses.

In Islam, critics of interfaith marriage typically cite Surah 2:221: "Practice non marry idolatresses until they believe: a believing slave adult female is certainly better than an idolatress, fifty-fifty though she may delight you. And do not requite your women in matrimony to idolaters until they believe: a believing slave is certainly ameliorate than an idolater, even though he may please you."

Polygamy

Polygamy was practiced by central figures in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and, more than recently, past early leaders of the Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 19th century. Many prominent biblical figures were polygamous, including Jacob, David and Solomon. Generally speaking, polygamy is no longer encouraged by the leaders of major religions, though it is proficient by some Muslims, fundamentalist Mormon sects and Christians in Africa. Muslim supporters of polygamy ofttimes cite Quran verse 4:3, which permits a man to marry upwardly to 4 women, but encourages him to exist monogamous if he cannot be off-white to all of them.¹⁷ Scholars have interpreted this text as a fashion to regulate and limit polygamy in seventh-century Arabia, where it was widely practiced. (For more on polygamy laws and teachings, meet this sidebar.)

Divorce

Religions oft discourage divorce. The Christian New Testament specifies, "Therefore what God has joined together, permit no 1 carve up." Still, many religions recognize the reality that some marriages will non final. In the Onetime Attestation, Deuteronomy states that the process of divorce is enacted when a man writes his wife a certificate.

The Quran specifies the requirements for divorce and outlines a man'due south responsibilities toward his former wife. Islam allows a woman to retain whatsoever assets she earns or receives during a marriage and gives her the right to receive support from her former husband.¹⁸

According to a Confucian text, The Tape of Ritual of the Elder Dai, in that location are seven valid reasons a husband may divorce his wife – including "if she has no children" or "if she steals" – and three situations in which a married woman may not be divorced, including if "there is no longer a home to which she can render."¹⁹

Teachings that accost the status of elders and other relatives outside of the nuclear family may also encourage certain types of living arrangements, including extended families. Hinduism, which emphasizes a respect for elders, likewise has guidelines for responsibilities toward other relatives in the second stage of life, the grihastha ashram.²⁰

Judaism and Christianity instruct followers to respect their elders in the Ten Commandments: "Honor your father and your mother." And the Book of Leviticus, which is part of both Christian and Jewish scripture, states: "You shall ascension before the aged, and defer to the former." Similarly, the New Attestation says: "And whoever does not provide for relatives, and peculiarly for family members, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever."

Confucian texts also encourage support for aging parents and emphasize filial piety.²¹

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Source: https://www.pewforum.org/2019/12/12/religion-and-living-arrangements-around-the-world/

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