{"id":12885,"date":"2016-05-04T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T23:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/5-facts-about-prayer\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:18:20","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:18:20","slug":"5-facts-about-prayer","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/05\/04\/5-facts-about-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"55%<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

May 5 is the\u00a0National Day of Prayer<\/a>, on which\u00a0presidents annually proclaim<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.\u201d The day has spawned a rival\u00a0National Day of Reason<\/a>\u00a0on the same day, started by humanist groups and other opponents of the National Day of Prayer.<\/p>\n\n

Here are five facts about prayer, including survey data on Americans\u2019 prayer habits and historical instances of prayer intersecting with the government:<\/p>\n\n

The National Day of Prayer was\u00a0enacted in 1952<\/a>\u00a0by the Congress and President Harry S. Truman. As with the\u00a0addition of \u201cunder God\u201d to the Pledge of Allegiance<\/a>\u00a0in 1954, the move came during the Cold War and was\u00a0seen as a way of\u00a0contrasting the more religious United States<\/a>\u00a0with the officially atheistic Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n

The\u00a0Freedom From Religion Foundation<\/a>\u00a0unsuccessfully challenged the National Day of Prayer in court. The\u00a07th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled<\/a>\u00a0in 2011 that the group, which aims to promote the separation of church and state, did not have legal standing to challenge the law.<\/p>\n\n

For many Americans, every day is a day of prayer. More than half (55%) of Americans say they pray every day, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center survey<\/a>, while 21% say they pray weekly or monthly and 23% say they seldom or never pray. Even among those who are religiously unaffiliated, 20% say they pray daily. Women (64%) are more likely than men (46%) to pray every day. And Americans ages 65 and older are far more likely than adults under 30 to say they pray daily (65% vs. 41%).<\/span><\/p>\n\n

A Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2014 found that 45% of Americans \u2013 and a majority of Christians (55%) \u2013 say they rely a lot on prayer<\/a> and personal religious reflection when making major life decisions. The same survey found that 63% of Christians in the U.S. say praying regularly is an essential part of their Christian identity.<\/p>\n\n

In 2014\u00a0\u2013 in the case\u00a0Town of Greece v. Galloway<\/a> \u2013 the Supreme Court ruled that U.S. legislative and administrative bodies may begin their sessions with a prayer<\/a>. On some occasions, however, the high court has rejected other types of state-sponsored prayer. For instance, in 1962\u2019s Engel v. Vitale, the court famously struck down a policy requiring public school students<\/a> to begin their day with a nonsectarian prayer.<\/p>\n\n

This is an update of a blog post originally published May 1, 2014.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the National Day of Prayer, we rounded up survey data on Americans\u2019 prayer habits, as well as historical instances of prayer intersecting with the 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