About this piece

This piece was made by Alvin Chang using data from the Global Flourish Study. The survey data includes nearly 130,000 respondents from 23 countries that completed both waves of the survey in 2022-23 and 2024. The room includes a representative sample of 1,500 respondents. The broad historical and cohort findings are from the Integrated Values Surveys, which combines the World Values Survey and the European Values Study. Percentages are included in the charts, but what drives the findings and the overarching story is the broad comparisons and the direction of change.

One thing that isn’t included in this piece is that the worldwide belief and religiosity numbers have stayed relatively steady. Researchers Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart have found that this is because of two phenomena that cut against each other: One is that people in wealthier countries faced a decreasing amount of existential threats—and, in turn, religiosity and fertility rates dropped. The other is that people in poorer countries still face existential threats, and religion continues to provide security and predictability; fertility rates in those countries have stayed high. As a result, belief has stayed steady worldwide, even though belief within countries has changed rapidly.

The two songs are original compositions, named “Sunday” and “Monday,” created in Ableton Live.

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