https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8848-1114
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Chan Zhang, Philip S Brenner, Lirui He, Measuring Religious Non-Affiliation in China: A Comparison of Major National Surveys in China, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Volume 34, Issue 1, Spring 2022, edac005, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edac005
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Abstract
Measuring the rate of religious non-affiliation is a difficult task in China, one of the least religious countries in the world, and elsewhere. This study evaluates the trend of religious non-affiliation in China using 22 surveys spanning three decades. We found that two surveys asking beliefs in a mix of gods and religions yielded dramatically lower estimates of non-affiliation compared to the others that measured affiliation explicitly. Among the latter, using a filter question (a yes/no question for religious affiliation) increased the reports of non-affiliation but allowing multiple choices and putting “no religion” toward the end of the lists of response options moderately decreased the reports of non-affiliation. After accounting for question design and demographic differences across the surveys, the decline in religious non-affiliation is reduced and becomes not significant during more recent years.
