It is not news to most people that Christianity is declining in the West, especially in Europe. It may hearten American Christians to know, however, that their determined hold on their faith has been noticed. A recent study by Pew Research examined what it is like to be a Christian in different countries around the world and found that despite pressures to become more secular, the United States still ranked as a nation that had some of the most committed Christians in the world.

The study had Christians from all over the world respond to questions about their daily prayer life and how important religion was to them. Based on the survey, Ethiopia was ranked as having the world’s most committed Christians. Nearly 98 percent of self-identified Ethiopian Christians in the poll stated that faith was very important to their daily lives. The Philippines ranked second with 91 percent of Christian respondents stating that their faith was important in their daily lives.

The percentage of American Christians who said that their faith was very important to their daily lives was much lower than Ethiopia and the Philippines, only 68 percent, but it was lightyears ahead of many of its fellow Western countries. Only 23 percent of Christians in Italy said that their faith was important to their lives, and France, Germany and the United Kingdom had less than 13 percent of respondents claim that their faith was important to their lives.

When it came to daily prayer, the statistics were similar. The report noted that “Christians in Africa and Latin America…tend to pray and attend church at higher rates than Christians in most of the rest of the world. For instance, at least four out of five Christians in Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroon and Chad pray every day.” Once again, European countries had noticeably lower statistics. Less than 10 percent of Christians in no less than nine European countries said they attend church each week, and the results were similar when it came to daily prayer in Europe.

The survey relies largely on self-reporting, so there is greater room for error, but the study does support what seem to be common trends when it comes to religion. The West is becoming increasingly secular while faith finds fertile ground in Africa and Latin America. Unfortunately, the survey did not appear to deal with the level of commitment required of Christians in the Middle East, China and North Korea where believers may be imprisoned or killed for practicing their faith. Still, flawed though it may be, the survey does at least remind Christians surrounded by a secular culture that the religion is alive and well, even if their neighbors seem to belay that fact.