Global East Survey

Global East Survey of Religion and Spirituality 

In response to calls for improved measures of religion by social scientists of religion (e.g., Wuthnow 2015; Finke and Bader 2017), we have developed a new set of measures to capture individual religiosity and spirituality in the context of a globalized world. With special attention to distinctly East Asian characteristics that are quintessentially universal in the globalizing world, the questions allow for comparisons of religiosity across cultures or societies.  

Some of the Distinct characteristics of the Global East Measures (GEM) 
From no or single to multiple religious identity (MRI)
From no or single to multiple religious beliefs (MRB)
From no or single to multiple religious practice (MRP)
Distinctly Asian and Western rituals based on traditional calendars
Ancestor worship and family values
Individual and small-group practices  

In 2024, with the generous grant support of the John Templeton Foundation, we worked with several research teams and conducted the Global East Survey of Religion and Spirituality in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria and Guangdong of China, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In 2025, we carried out the Global East Survey in Italy and Brazil.  

The Global East Survey questionnaire (link). 

The Global East Survey datasets (coming soon). 

Publications using the Global East Measures (GEM): 

  1. Yang, Fenggang and Brian McPhail. 2023. “Measuring Religiosity of East Asians: Multiple Religious Belonging, Believing, and Practicing.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 62(2):221-241.  
  2. Yang, Fenggang and Joey Marshall. To be added. 
  3. To be added.