Trends

For those that don't know, the Pew Global Attitudes Project is a group that tries to measure people's opinions on various subjects, and how they differ from region to region. Out of this effort has come the latest report, which has some interesting findings: This chart plots responses regarding religious importance vs. economic affulence. You can see a stark trend, where the poorer countries tend to be more religious on average. The US and Kuwait are notable exceptions, and are flagged as such. Some other interesting results involve the response of predominantly Muslim nations to questions of gender equality: Regarding gender issues, there is a broad consensus that both boys and girls should receive an education. In all 47 countries surveyed, at least seven-in-ten respondents believe that education is equally important for boys and girls...The survey also asked about another often contentious gender issue: Muslim women wearing the veil. In 15 of 16 Muslim publics surveyed, majorities say women should have the right to decide whether they wear a veil. Other interesting stuff: Welfare? Majorities in every country surveyed say that the government should take care of the very poor who cannot take care of themselves. Support for a social safety net is widespread across all regions, although slightly weaker in Japan, Jordan and Egypt. How about environment vs. economy? Few publics favor economic growth at the expense of the environment. In 46 of 47 countries surveyed, majorities say the environment should be given priority, even if this means lower growth and fewer jobs. The most interesting thing about the entire report is to see the opinions reflected from the Muslim world, which are often different than what we are told. I wonder how much different our view of other religions and cultures would be if we simply knew more about them.