  A symmetry-preserving continuum approach to the two valence-body bound-state
problem is used to calculate the valence, glue and sea distributions within the
pion; unifying them with, inter alia, electromagnetic pion elastic and
transition form factors. The analysis reveals the following momentum fractions
at the scale $\zeta_2:=2\,$GeV: $\langle x_{\rm valence} \rangle = 0.48(3)$,
$\langle x_{\rm glue} \rangle = 0.41(2)$, $\langle x_{\rm sea} \rangle =
0.11(2)$; and despite hardening induced by the emergent phenomenon of dynamical
chiral symmetry breaking, the valence-quark distribution function,
${q}^\pi(x)$, exhibits the $x\simeq 1$ behaviour predicted by quantum
chromodynamics (QCD). After evolution to $\zeta=5.2\,$GeV, the prediction for
${q}^\pi(x)$ matches that obtained using lattice-regularised QCD. This
confluence should both stimulate improved analyses of existing data and aid in
planning efforts to obtain new data on the pion distribution functions.
