Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study (RLS) Restricted-Use File, United States, 2023-2024 (ICPSR 39498)
Version Date: Oct 27, 2025 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Pew Research Center;
Gregory Smith, Pew Research Center;
Alan Cooperman, Pew Research Center;
Becka Alper, Pew Research Center;
Besheer Mohamed, Pew Research Center;
Michael Rotolo, Pew Research Center;
Patricia Tevington, Pew Research Center;
Justin Nortey, Pew Research Center;
Asta Kallo, Pew Research Center;
Jeff Diamant, Pew Research Center
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR39498.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The Religious Landscape Study (RLS) is a survey that paints a religious portrait of the United States. With more than 36,000 respondents in 2023-24, it permits detailed examination of the religious identities, beliefs and practices of U.S. adults.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
City
Restrictions View help for Restrictions
This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited. To protect respondent privacy, the data files in this collection are restricted from general dissemination. To obtain these restricted files, researchers must agree to the terms and conditions of a Restricted Data Use Agreement.
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
- For more information on the Religious Landscape Study, please visit the Pew Research Center website.
- The public version of the data is available through openICPSR.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of the RLS is to fill research gaps by employing detailed questions and a large sample size in order to capture representative data about numerous religious traditions.
Study Design View help for Study Design
Respondents were recruited by mail, using address-based sampling (ABS). People who received our invitation had the option of completing the survey online, on paper, or by calling a toll-free number and completing the survey by telephone with an interviewer.
Most respondents in the 2023-24 RLS participated online or on paper, while 3% opted to complete the interview on the telephone.
Sample View help for Sample
This study used address-based sampling (ABS), which involved mailing invitation letters to randomly sampled addresses from the United States Postal Service's Computerized Delivery Sequence File. The invitation asked the adult in the household with the next birthday to complete the survey.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
All U.S. adults.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
The survey contains information on religious identity, religious belief and practices, social and political values, and spirituality. Demographic variables include race, gender, and sexual orientation.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
NORC assigned all sampled cases a result code and used these codes to compute response rates consistent with the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) definitions. The response rates are weighted by the base weight to account for the differential sampling in this survey. The AAPOR RR3 response rate was 20%.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2025-10-27
Version History View help for Version History
2025-10-27 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Weight View help for Weight
- The variable WEIGHT is the full sample adult raked weight. The variables REPWT_001 to REPWT_500 are the replicate weights.
- The variable WEIGHT or the replicate weights should be used for conducting analysis of national- and state-level data.
- Analysis of metro areas should be conducted using the variable WEIGHT_MSA.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?
One or more files in this data collection have special restrictions. Restricted data files are not available for direct download from the website; click on the Restricted Data button to learn more.