"A Survey of Contemporary Chinese Christianity: Based on CGSS and CFPS Survey Data"

Policy Brief: Based on the two national social survey data of China Comprehensive Social Survey (CGSS) and China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS), this paper explores three aspects of contemporary Chinese Christianity: the size and pattern of Christians, Christ The population and social stratification characteristics of the disciples, and the social mentality of Christians. The analysis shows that the proportion of Christians in China's adult population in 2010 is roughly between 1.9% and 2.2%, corresponding to the total size of Christians in the country of 25.68 million to 29.36 million. Christianity has become the second largest religion after Buddhism in the Han area of ​​China. Compared with Buddhists, Christian activities are more dense and organized, and believers pay more attention to religious beliefs. Therefore, we believe that Christianity has formed a pattern of "national existence, partial settlement" in China. In the characteristics of believers, Christians have a high proportion of women, old age structures, and relatively many believers living in rural areas. In terms of social and economic status, Christians' personal income, education level, and professional status are not only lower than non-belief groups, but also ranked lowest or almost lowest among religions. Despite this, Christians' average trust, fairness, well-being, mental health and non-belief groups are not significantly different. Even at the bottom of society, Christians' social mentality is more active than non-believing groups.

Writer: Lu Yunfeng Department of Sociology, Peking University

 Zhang Chunni Department of Sociology, Peking University