Among its neighbors, Singapore is a spiritual anomaly. Surrounded by deeply religious countries with overwhelming Muslim or Buddhist majorities, the island city-state is by some measures the world’s most religiously diverse society, with no faith composing a majority.
Today, 2 out of 3 Singaporeans don’t see religion as very important. Yet it has the region’s highest rate of conversions—including into Christianity—according to a special Pew Research Center study on religion in South and Southeast Asia released today.
Singapore’s lack of a single dominant religion coincides with more “religious switching,” Pew’s terminology for adults converting to a different religion from the one they were raised in. The percentage of Singaporeans who say they are Buddhists or followers of Chinese traditional religions has dropped, while those claiming to be Christians or religiously unaffiliated have risen.
By contrast, in the five neighboring nations included in the…
