Americans see religion as more important, and more important for morality, than Western Europeans, according to a new poll carried out by the Pew Research Centre.

The poll, published yesterday, 50pc of Americans deem religion very important in their lives.

From the European side, the survey looked at Spain, Germany, France and the UK but not at more religious countries like Poland.

It found that in Spain, 22pc thought of religion as very important, while 21pc of Germans, 17pc of British people and 13pc of French people share this view.

Americans are also far more inclined than Western Europeans to say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values; 53pc say this is the case in the U.S., compared with just one-third in Germany, 20pc in Britain, 19pc in Spain and 15pc in France.

However the survey showed certain differences in attitude towards religion across different demographic group in the US, while for Europeans, attitudes remained relatively constant.

In the U.S., women and older respondents place more importance on religion and are more likely than men and younger people to say that faith in God is a necessary foundation for morality and good values.

Six-in-ten (59pc) American women say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 41pc of men; and while a majority (56pc) of Americans ages 50 and older say religion is very important to them, 48pc of those ages 30 to 49 and 41% of those younger than 30 place similar importance on religion.

Similarly, while a majority of American women (58%) say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values, men are nearly evenly divided, with 47% saying belief in God is a necessary foundation for morality and 51% saying it is not. Among Americans ages 50 and older, 58% say one must believe in God in order to be moral and have good values; 50% of those ages 30 to 49 and 46% of those younger than 30 share this view.

Education also plays a role in views of religion in the U.S., to some extent. Although Americans with a college degree are about as likely as those without to say religion is very important to them (47% and 51%, respectively), the less educated are far more inclined to say that one must believe in God in order to be moral; 59% of those without a college degree say this, compared with 37% of those who have graduated from college.

But the survey’s authors said that views of religion and whether belief in God is a necessary foundation for morality “vary little, if at all, across demographic groups in the Western European countries surveyed”.

However, they noted that in Spain, “respondents ages 50 and older place more importance on religion than do younger people, although relatively few in this age group say it is very important to them; 33pc say this is the case, compared with 16pc of those ages 30 to 49 and 11pc of those younger than 30”.

However, the survey did find that, politically, conservatives in Spain and Germany were more likely than liberals to say it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.

A far greater percentage of US conservatives, though, held this position as compared to their European counterparts. Sixty six percent of US conservatives said that it was necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values, while fewer than half of conservatives in Spain (31pc) and Germany (45pc) share this view.

Meanwhile, just 26pc of liberals in the U.S., 11pc in Spain and 19pc in Germany say belief in God is a necessary foundation for morality.

And it found that, conservatives in the U.S. were also far more likely than liberals to consider religion very important in their lives (67pc vs. 29pc); in Western Europe, few across ideological groups place high importance on religion.

Christians in the U.S. are more likely than their Western European counterparts to think of themselves first in terms of their religion rather than their nationality; 46pc of Christians in the U.S. see themselves primarily as Christians and the same number consider themselves Americans first.

In contrast, majorities of Christians in France (90pc), Germany (70pc), Britain (63pc) and Spain (53pc) identify primarily with their nationality rather than their religion.

In Britain, France and Germany, more Christians now see themselves in terms of their nationality than did so five years ago, when national identification was already widespread in these countries. This change is especially notable in Germany, where the percentage seeing themselves first as Germans is up 11 percentage points, from 59pc in 2006.

Among Christians in the U.S., white evangelicals are especially inclined to identify first with their faith; 70pc in this group see themselves first as Christians rather than as Americans, while 22pc say they are primarily American.

Among other American Christians, more identify with their nationality (55pc) than with their religion (38pc).

The survey also suggested that there had been some changes in attitudes to religion over a relatively short span of time.

For example, in 2007 in Spain, 18pc said that religion was “very important”, while this year 22pc agreed with this view. Spanish Christians were also more likely to identify with their religion before their nationality; in 2006 only 14pc of Spanish Christians considered themselves Christians first and Spanish second. By 2011 this figure had risen to 22pc.

The U.S., while significantly more religious than Western Europe, has itself seen a fall in religiosity .

In 2002, 59pc of respondents said they thought religion was very important; by 2007 this had fallen to 56pc, and this year, 50pc expressed this view.

By contrast Spain saw an increase in the percentage of people agreeing that religion was very important. In 2007 18pc thought that religion was very important; by 2011, 22pc felt this way.