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Conrad Hackett

@conradhackett.bsky.social
29K followers 3.6K following 1.9K posts

Demography nerd at Pew Research Center Global religious change, sociology

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A rising share of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) no longer identify with the faith. Meanwhile, the church has become more racially diverse. New report: www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/0…
The church’s retention rate also has fallen over this time span. About half of Americans who say they were raised as Latter-day Saints still identify as members of the church in adulthood (54%), according to the 2023-24 RLS. That retention rate has steadily declined since 2007, when it stood at 70%.While most Latter-day Saints today are White, the church’s members have grown more racially and ethnically diverse in recent decades. The portion of Latter-day Saints who are White has fallen from 85% in 2007 to 72% in 2023-24. Hispanic adults have doubled in share – from 6% to 12% – over this time span, while the percentage of Latter-day Saints who are Black has grown from 2% to 6%.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Here's a "top scientists & science 🧪communicators" starter pack from @mkeyoung.bsky.social & @lassehjorthmadsen.bsky.social.
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Léo Fitouchi @lfitouchi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Looking forward to speaking at SPSP Religion & Spirituality Preconference, alongside Conrad Hackett, Patty Van Cappellen, and Kristen Laurin, on Feb 11 in Philadelphia! Submissions are open until October 8: spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2027-p...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
I look forward to giving the keynote address at the 2027 SPSP Religion & Spirituality Preconference on February 11 in Philadelphia. Submissions open. Propose a research talk, data blitz, or poster by October 8. spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2027-p... Graduate-student registration fees will be waived.
The 2027 Religion & Spirituality Preconference will be a full-day in-person session on February 11 in Philadelphia, PA (8am - 5pm).


We are now accepting submissions for research talks, data blitzes, and posters through October 8. Plenty of time has been allotted for submitted presentations, so we encourage you to apply.


We have an exciting lineup of invited speakers, including a keynote presentation from Conrad Hackett (Pew Research Center), and podium talks from Patty Van Cappellen (Duke University), Kristin Laurin (UBC), and Léo Fitouchi (MIT & Harvard). There will also be a panel on translational research, a mentorship lunch, and a preconference happy hour. 


Graduate-student registration fees will be waived through the support of The John Templeton Foundation.


Details and submission: https://spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2027-preconference-submission-portal/ 


Please feel free to forward this announcement to graduate students, postdocs, faculty, or research groups working on the psychology of religion and spirituality.


Any questions about submission details may be directed to Nava Caluori (ncaluori@umass.edu)
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Linda Woodhead writes of Christianity in Britain: "Today, revival is virtually impossible." theconversation.com/there-may-not-b…
The resilience of old churches But Britain’s churches are not doomed. In light of the recent Christian decline in America, the stately power and traditional ways of the UK’s older churches may turn out to be an asset.  Though few people attend regularly, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland are still the largest and most powerful of the UK churches. Institutional embeddedness matters.  The Church of England is constitutionally established, and all these churches play a central role in the school system by way of state-supported faith schools. Although the Church of England is not funded through taxation like some of its sister churches in Scandinavia, its considerable wealth – around £11 billion – protects it.  If generation Z show an interest in religion, it is traditional forms that appeal to them as much as the trendier forms that seek the attention of youth. We see this not just in Christianity, where both the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches are reporting new interest, but also in Orthodox Judaism and, to some extent, in Islam.  Still, the traditional churches are unlikely to return to a position like they held in society as recently as the 1980s. Today, revival is virtually impossible. When American evangelist Billy Graham won converts in Britain, he was not winning over people who had grown up nonreligous, he was speaking to people with a Christian background.  Graham projected on a large screen in front of a crowd American evangelist Billy Graham preaching to Christians in Britain, 1989. RichardBaker/Alamy It is sometimes suggested that war or social collapse could lead to a revival of Christianity. That is possible, but history suggests that a plethora of different intense, sectarian kinds of religion and spirituality emerge in such situations.  Others argue that the Holy Spirit stirs individual hearts and minds, irrespective of the state of the churches. That is how Protestant Christians have often thought about revival, perhaps recalling Methodist enthusiasm or the chapel movement in Wales.  The striking thing about such revivalism, however, is how quickly it can fade. The chapels are mostly closed now. The Methodists are dying out. “Nonconformity” as a whole, still a major force in England in the 1950s, is almost forgotten.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Here's an interesting workshop opportunity in Mexico City (Jan 2027) focusing on formal models of religious and moral phenomena. For early career researchers. Travel funding available. sparrc.substack.com/p/request-fo...
The SCORE Project for Advancing Research on Religion and Cooperation (SPARRC)
Modeling and Theory Development Workshop
January 10-12, 2027
Mexico City
Call for Proposals from Early-Career Investigators
With the support of a grant from the Templeton Religion Trust, and in advancement of its ambitious, multi-decade Social Consequences of Religion (SCORE) Initiative, the SCORE Project for Advancing Research on Religion and Cooperation (SPARRC) will host its second methodology workshop on January 10-12, 2027 in Mexico City.
Our topic this year is “Developing Formal Computational Models of Religious and Moral Phenomena.” Theoretical psychologists have in recent years developed methods for teaching researchers how to translate the informal verbal theories that undergird most social-science thinking into formal computational models, generally articulated in the language of mathematics that are specific, generative, and falsifiable. These methods are new territory for many practicing social scientists, and this small, two-day workshop will provide a gentle introduction to this new way of building research programs.
This workshop will be led by two field leaders in the development and testing of formal computational models in psychology: Professors Fiery Cushman (Harvard University) and Noah Van Dongen (Erasmus University).
We welcome proposals from early-career investigators for travel grants of $3,000 to fund the cost of attending the workshop.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
PLEASE SHARE: The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion has immediate opportunity for new Executive Officer. This part-time, remote position pays $55k. Details in attachment. Apply here bit.ly/SSSR-2026-EO.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
PLEASE SHARE: The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion has immediate opportunity for new Executive Officer. This part-time, remote position pays $55k. Details in attachment. Apply here bit.ly/SSSR-2026-EO.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
NEW: The number of countries with high or very high social hostilities involving religion increased for the third year in a row www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/0…
Four of the world’s five major geographic regions had overall increases on the Social Hostilities Index (SHI) in 2023: the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the Middle East-North Africa region. Sub-Saharan Africa was the only region to register a decrease.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
These questions were asked in a survey of 10,357 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 17-30, 2025, using Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel – a nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. www.pewresearch.org/politics/202...
pewresearch.org
Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology
Our typology sorts the public into nine groups based on their political and cultural values, not their party – painting a picture of American politics with far more than two colors.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
NEW QUIZ: Where do you fit in the American political typology? Please share your results!
pewresearch.org
Political Typology 2026
Take our quiz to find out which one of our nine political typology groups is your best match.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Is a religious revival happening? Watch this video for answers from me, Kati Tervo-Niemelä (University of Eastern Finland), Joel Thiessen (Ambrose University), Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme (University of Waterloo) & David Voas (University College London). www.youtube.com/watch?v=glgPhZ01-O0
youtube.com
Wishful Thinking? Is There a Religious Revival?
Recent media stories in a number of countries suggest that there is a religious revival taking place, with increased worship attendance and young people expr...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Here's a great (free) training opportunity in survey research for undergrads & recent college grads this summer surveydatascience.isr.umich.edu/education/un...
surveydatascience.isr.umich.edu
Undergraduates | MPSDSUndergraduates – MPSDS
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Vegard Skirbekk @vegardskirbekk.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
Are enough births occurring to replace expected deaths? We introduce the “births observed / births needed” ratio as a simple indicator of demographic sustainability — showing why similar fertility rates can imply very different population futures. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
When researchers asked LLMs whether they should switch between religions, LLMs tended to encourage becoming Catholic & shedding atheist & Jehovah's Witness identities. arxiv.org/abs/2605.22975
Models are 58% more likely to encourage users to leave the Jehovah’s Witness religion than the Catholic faith, and 67% less likely to encourage joining it. Atheism is 17% less likely to receive support for joining, and 103% more likely to receive support for leaving.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
From my perspective, it is generally a measurement problem rather than a definitional challenge. Of course, there are relevant conceptual challenges to consider, particularly in an East Asian context. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
pewresearch.org
Is China a religious country or not? It’s a tricky question to answer
Based on formal religious identity, China is the least religious country in the world - with just 10% of Chinese adults self-identifying with a religion.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
How Measurement Changes Can Exaggerate the Growth of Religious "Nones" no paywall: sociologicalscience.com/download/vol...
Academic and popular interest in nonreligion has risen in parallel with the growth of religiously unaffiliated populations. In many countries, census and survey questions used to measure religion have been modified to better capture nonreligious identities. Little attention has been given to how these changes in measures affect specific claims about the rise of the “nones.” Although there is no doubt that religiously unaffiliated populations have grown in many countries during the twentyfirst century, the degree of such growth has sometimes been exaggerated due to measurement effects. We review methodological issues that affect the estimates of the size of religiously unaffiliated populations.
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Trish Greenhalgh @trishgreenhalgh.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Hmm, you may be right, but I assumed that most demographers were persuaded by Morgan's 2003 PAA presidential address that below replacement fertility should not be considered synonymous with crisis.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
It may have been this report ifstudies.org/reports/worl... It seems to assume that "sustainable fertility" is a self-evident social good. I don't think it's self-evident that any particular fertility level is optimal despite widespread focus on a TFR of 2.1.
ifstudies.org
Chapter 1 | World Family Map 2019 | Institute for Family StudiesChapter 1 | Institute for Family Studies
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This particular report had language implying that is is self-evident that below replacement fertility is bad for society. Maybe I'll try to dig it up.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
My sense is that pronatalists consistently believe it is a social problem for any country to have below replacement fertility. A few years ago, IFS put out a report bemoaning below replacement rates. I remember pressing Brad & Lyman to defend their normative assumptions about this at a DC event.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
No doubt there are extreme claims being made. But the idea that most countries will continue to have below replacement fertility rates and should consider economic policies to adapt for populations that will, in the long term, probably shrink, seems compelling. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Is Low Fertility a Twenty-First-Century Demographic Crisis?
Nearly half of the world's population in 2000 lived in countries with fertility rates at or below replacement level, and nearly all countries will reach low fertility levels in the next two decades. C...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
These are important, consequential issues affecting many people. They may raise TFRs slightly above what they would otherwise have been, just as China's one-child policy may have made the country's TFR slightly lower than it was otherwise trending before policy was in place.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Yes, but trends like the movement away from agriculture-based economies and women's rising educational attainment have pushed fertility rates in a consistent direction.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I'm of two minds about this. On one hand, I do see danger in focusing just on long-term consequences of a most extreme case. On the other hand, some of our population projections have had a built in assumption of fertility rate rebound based on little evidence.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Well, I'm not sure fluctuation from a TFR of 0.75 to 0.8 in S. Korea is indicative of a reversal in the trend. Yes, there will no doubt be all kind of minor variations and perhaps long term plateaus and some upticks in country rates. But under what circumstances would we expect a big rise?
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I am not defending alarmism. However, I am in favor of allowing people to understand the consequences of demographic dynamics. This is why I think @ourworldindata.org's latest feature (ourworldindata.org/population-s...) is so great.
ourworldindata.org
Population tool: how will populations across the world change in the 21st century?
We created an interactive tool that lets you test how changes in fertility rates, life expectancy, and migration rates will change future populations.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I haven't watched the video. I'm just responding to the text of the post. To me, it seems to be clearly formulated in the THIS IS JUST A HYPOTHETICAL manner that distinguishes projections from predictions. How else could one more clearly signpost this is a "what if?" scenario?
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
This old graphic comes to mind
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Okay, I know what you mean. & yet UN, IIASA and IMHE projections have gone out to 2100 for some time. Plenty has been changing in the much shorter term. That said, outside Africa, the general trend in recent decades has been faster fertility declines than projected without the anticipated rebounds.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Are you suggesting it is unrealistic that to assume that a TRF might remain as low as 0.8 for the long term or are you saying that with the assumption in place, the math is wrong? Notably, the original post refers to a fixed TFR not a TFR that continues to decline toward zero.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Average Sunday service attendance in the Church of England 2019 - 690,000 2025 - 590,000
christiantoday.com
Church of England celebrates continued post-pandemic growth
The Church said it was encouraged by five years in a row of growth while acknowledging that growth, attendance and participation remain below pre-pandemic levels.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
"citation count & journal impact factor reveals quantitative studies on secularization tend to be published in higher ranked journals & get more citations. Topics related to philosophy, Catholicism & law get fewer citations. The topic of science & religion is often found in lower ranked journals."
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Elis @eliscl.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
Out now in @jssreligion.bsky.social: Using Swedish full-population data, I show that exposure to religious pluralism through social ties is associated with a lower likelihood that parents baptize their child in the Church of Sweden 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Religious Pluralism and Social Networks: How Exposure to Religious Pluralism Through Social Ties Influences Baptism Decisions
A longstanding debate in the sociology of religion has focused on how religious pluralism affects religious participation. Existing research shows mixed findings, often relying on macro-level measure...
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Nonreligion in a Complex Future @nonreligioncf.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Register now for our upcoming webinar, co-hosted with the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, "Wishful Thinking? Is There a Religious Revival?," happening on Zoom on May 27 from 12:30pm-2pm ET. Register here: uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Reminds me a bit of Jonas Jonasson’s books like The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I loved all his books. I wonder what else is in this genre of audiobook.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Reminds me a bit of Jonas Jonasson’s books like The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. I loved all his books. I wonder what else is in this genre of audiobook.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Just finished the quirky, delightful Jonathon Fairfax audiobooks. If there was a fifth book, it would be my next listen. www.audible.com/pd/152887160...
audible.com
The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax
Check out this great listen on Audible.com. When Jonathon Fairfax accidentally helps a murderer bump off Sarah Morecambe, the secretary of a senior politician, he sets off a chain of events that aston...
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Newly published analysis of 2025 British Social Attitudes data provides no support for claims of a Quiet Revival of churchgoing in Britain. natcen.ac.uk/news/no-revi...
natcen.ac.uk
No revival in sight: Church attendance in Britain remains below pre-pandemic levels, new BSA data confirms | National Centre for Social Research
Latest findings from the British Social Attitudes survey.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
"Opt-in polls have been shown to generate erroneous data for young adults and estimates of relatively rare behaviors."
pewresearch.org
Q&A: Do AI and bogus respondents threaten polling’s future?
Courtney Kennedy, vice president of methods and innovation, answers some common questions about the current polling landscape in the U.S.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I was puzzled by Lauren's claim that atheist & agnostic #s dropped to 2014 levels. That's not what we found in our @pewresearch.org Religious Landscape Study (based on a large random sample). I think she had in mind @ryanburge.bsky.social's tweet about his analysis of the nonprobability CES survey.
In Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study surveys, atheists were 3% of US adults in 2014 and 5% in 2023-24. Agnostics were 4% in 2014 and 6% in 2023-24.This tweet from Ryan Burge says that atheist and agnostic shares were identical in 2025 and 2014, based on his analysis of the Cooperative Election Study, a survey that does not use random samples of the population.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Call for proposals: $10,000 seed grants for research about religion in the U.S. www.ssrc.org/programs/religion-and-… Great opportunity!
ssrc.org
Innovation in Religion and Spirituality Seed Grants
The Religion and the Public Sphere program at the Social Science Research Council aims to foster research on the wider implications of new forms of religious and spiritual life. This program is offered with the support of the Luce Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I agree that this is another great article from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com. How is it related to work by @demographyvienna.bsky.social researchers? I didn't see work from these researchers in the article's links. Maybe I missed something.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
The call for papers for the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR) conference in Buenos Aires (February 15-20, 2027) is open until June 10. I'm looking for submissions about religion & demography. conference-system.sisr-issr.org/con…
This is a flyer advertising the conference session I'm organizing on research at the intersection of religion and demography.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
I am honored to become (in August) the president-elect of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. sociologyofreligion.org
sociologyofreligion.org
Association for the Sociology of Religion - Home
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
David Voas notes YouGov & Bible Society never published the full dataset from the (now retracted) Quiet Revival report. They declined invites for debate. www.iflscience.com/they-basically-r…
Another point of contention surrounding the Quiet Revival report is that, from its publication to its eventual retraction, YouGov refused to let anyone see the data it was built on. “In scientific work, there's this whole movement towards open science,” Voas explained. “If you publish a paper now in a social science journal, you will be expected to make your dataset available to other researchers so they can attempt to replicate your findings. And I think that's a good thing generally.” “Certainly, for something like what amounts to an opinion poll, that should be the case. Well, people like me have been asking YouGov for the last year to release the data, and they resolutely refused to do so.” Now this is not to imply that YouGov were doing anything underhanded with this survey, but the inability to check the claims made in the final report against the data should prompt caution. The Quiet Revival was not a peer reviewed study, and so there was no chance for independent, disinterested
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Andrew Copson @andrewcopson.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
I joined host Adam Fleming and fellow panelist Pat Allerton (better known as the ‘Portable Priest’) on BBC Radio 4’s 'Anti-Social' today to tackle a perennial but increasingly contentious question: Is Britain still a Christian country? www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
bbc.co.uk
BBC Radio 4 - AntiSocial
Peace talks for the culture wars.
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