Religion in Western Europe

DOI

10.17605/OSF.IO/PX7QT

Summary

Pew Research Center conducted surveys among 24,599 adults (ages 18 and older) across 15 countries in Western Europe between April 2017 and August 2017. Interviewing was carried out under the direction of GfK Belgium using both cellphones and landlines. The questionnaire was designed by Pew Research Center staff in consultation with subject matter experts and advisers to the project. The wording of several questions was subjected to cognitive testing, and the full survey questionnaire was pretested in all countries prior to fieldwork. Survey questions address attitudes toward religion, respondent income, key social issues, general opinions about religion's role in society.

The ARDA has added four additional variables to the original data set to enhance the users' experience on our site.

Data File

Cases: 26096
Variables: 369
Weight Variable: WEIGHT

Data were weighted to account for differences in probability of selection and to match demographic characteristics of the population.

Data Collection

April 2017 - August 2017

Original Survey (Instrument)

Religion in Western Europe

Funded By

The Pew Charitable Trusts
The John Templeton Foundation

Collection Procedures

Pew international surveys are conducted via telephone or face-to-face interviews, depending on the country. Face-to-face interviews are either computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) or pen and paper interviews (PAPI). The results are based on national samples, unless otherwise noted. For more information on country specific methodology, please click here. For more general information on how Pew Research Center conducts international surveys, please click here.

Sampling Procedures

Pew Research Center's cross-national studies are designed to be nationally representative using probability-based methods and target the non-institutional adult population (18 and older) in each country. The Center strives for samples that cover as much of the adult population as possible, given logistical, security and other constraints. Coverage limitations are noted in the detailed methods for each country.

Sample sizes for Pew Research Center's cross-national studies are usually designed to yield at least 1,000 interviews, though larger samples may be required for more robust within-country comparisons. Reported margins of error account for design effects due to clustering, stratification and weighting.

In the case of both telephone and face-to-face surveys, weighting procedures correct for unequal selection probabilities as well as adjust to key sociodemographic distributions - such as gender, age and education - to align as closely as possible with reliable, official population statistics.

In this data set, geographic data that could potentially reveal a respondent's location has been withheld. Responses to religious identification and education identification questions that contain few respondents have been recoded to protect confidentiality.

Principal Investigators

The Pew Research Center

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