Prayer, reading scripture & other religious practices among Americans

10. Prayer and other religious practices

Fewer than half of Americans (44%) say they pray each day. This is a substantial decline from the first Religious Landscape Study (RLS) conducted in 2007, when 58% said they prayed at least once a day.⁵²

Most of the decline occurred between 2015 and 2021, a period in which the shares of U.S. adults who reported praying daily tumbled from 57% to 45%. Since 2021, the percentages who say they pray at least once a day have been relatively stable.

Line chart showing fewer Americans are praying daily

At least two factors help explain the long-term decline. First, the share of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated – those who answer a question about their religion by saying they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – has increased by 6 percentage points since 2014. This group, sometimes called the “nones,” is less inclined than other Americans toward frequent prayer.

Second, the self-reported frequency of prayer has declined among U.S. adults in some of the largest religious groups, such as Catholics, evangelical Protestants and mainline Protestants.

This chapter discusses the findings of the 2023-24 RLS about the religious practices of the U.S. public. Unlike the question about prayer, however, we do not have valid data on trends over time for most of these questions. Some were asked for the first time as part of the new RLS. Others cannot be compared with previous surveys because of changes in methodology or question wording. (Read Appendix A for more details.)

Bar chart showing 33% of Americans often or always say grace or pray before meals

Among the key findings on religious practices:

33% of U.S. adults often or always say grace before meals.
29% read scripture at least monthly.⁵³
28% read other holy texts, devotions or inspirational literature (aside from scripture) at least monthly.
19% participate in prayer groups, scripture-study groups or religious educational programs at least monthly.
18% share their views about religion with people from other religious backgrounds at least monthly.

Read more about how Americans in different religious groups answer the survey’s questions about:

Personal prayer
Reading scripture, other holy texts and inspirational literature
Grace before meals
Participation in prayer or scripture-study groups
Sharing religious views with others

For details on religious service attendance and congregation involvement, read Chapter 8.

Personal prayer

More than four-in-ten Americans (44%) report that they pray at least once a day, and an additional 23% say they pray weekly or a few times a month. Nearly one-third of U.S. adults seldom or never pray.

Table showing Latter-day Saints are among the most likely to pray daily

Most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as Mormons, (73%); evangelical Protestants and people who identify with the historically Black Protestant tradition (72% each); and Muslim Americans (67%) pray daily.

The share of Americans who pray daily has dropped 14 points since 2007. This decline has been fairly widespread: Catholics, all three major Protestant traditions and religiously unaffiliated adults all have shown statistically significant declines in daily prayer of between 6 and 10 points since 2007.

Table showing daily prayer has declined in the U.S. since 2007

Overall, Black Americans are more likely to report praying daily (64%) than Hispanic (47%), White (40%) and Asian (34%) Americans.

Also, women are more likely than men to pray daily (50% vs. 37%), and older Americans are more likely than younger ones to say they pray once or more per day.

The survey did not include enough interviews with Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus or people in other small religious groups to be able to subdivide them by sex, age, education and race.

Table showing women, Black Americans, older Americans and those with lower levels of educational attainment are more likely than others to pray daily

Reading scripture, other holy texts and inspirational literature

Upward of one-in-five Americans (22%) report that they read scripture outside of religious services at least once a week, while 7% say they do so once or twice a month, and 9% read scripture several times a year. Most U.S. adults (61%) seldom or never read scripture outside of religious services.

Latter-day Saints (59%) and people who belong to the evangelical Protestant (51%) and historically Black Protestant (46%) traditions are the religious groups whose members are most likely to read scripture outside of religious services at least once a week.

Table showing most Latter-day Saints read scripture outside of church at least weekly

One-in-five Americans say they read other holy texts, devotions or inspirational literature (besides scripture) at least weekly. An additional 8% say they do this monthly and another 11% do it yearly, while 60% say they seldom or never read other holy texts.

Latter-day Saints (48%) and people who identify with historically Black (41%) and evangelical (39%) Protestant churches are the most likely to say they read other holy texts at least once a week.

Religiously unaffiliated Americans are much less likely than those who identify with a religion to read other holy texts, devotions or inspirational literature on a weekly basis (4% vs. 27%).

Table showing 20% of Americans read holy texts aside from scripture at least weekly

Putting these two questions together, we see that about a third of U.S. adults (35%) read either scripture or other holy texts, devotions or inspirational literature at least once a month.

Table showing 35% of U.S. adults read either scripture or other holy texts at least monthly

Grace before meals

One-third of Americans always or often say grace or pray before meals, and an additional 18% do this sometimes, according to the 2023-24 RLS. Nearly half of Americans (48%) seldom or never say grace or offer prayers before meals.

About two-thirds of Latter-day Saints (68%) and people who belong to churches in the historically Black Protestant tradition (67%) always or often say grace or pray before meals. Large shares of evangelicals (58%) and Muslims (54%) also do this regularly.

People in other religious groups are far less likely to report that they pray or say grace before they eat.

Participation in prayer or scripture-study groups

Overall, 13% of Americans say they participate at least once a week in prayer groups, Bible-study or other scripture-study groups, or religious education programs. An additional 6% report that they participate in such groups once or twice a month, and 7% participate several times a year. Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults seldom or never participate in these groups.

Table showing 13% of Americans participate in prayer groups, scripture-study groups or religious education programs on a weekly basis

Weekly participation in prayer and scripture-study groups appears to have declined since the previous religious landscape survey conducted in 2014, when 24% of adults surveyed said they took part in such groups each week. But methodological changes may account for some of the difference.⁵⁴

In the 2023-24 RLS, Latter-day Saints are the most likely to participate in prayer or scripture-study groups on a weekly basis (45%). Among evangelical Protestants, 30% participate in such groups this often, as do 28% of members of historically Black Protestant churches and 25% of Muslims. Smaller shares of people affiliated with other religions say they participate weekly in such groups.

When it comes to sharing their views about religion with people from other religious backgrounds, 9% of U.S. adults say they do this at least once a week.⁵⁵ An additional 9% share their views on religion once or twice a month, and 16% say they do this several times a year.

Table showing 9% of Americans discuss their religious views with people from other faith backgrounds at least weekly

About two-thirds of U.S. adults (65%) say they seldom or never share their religious views with people of other faiths or religious backgrounds.

The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) was conducted mainly online and on paper, whereas the previous landscape studies were conducted by telephone. This “mode switch” makes it complicated to make comparisons between results from the new survey and the previous studies. However, our analysis finds that the new survey’s question about prayer frequency can be safely compared with the prior studies. The percentage of people who say they pray daily is somewhat higher in a companion bridge study we conducted by telephone than in the main RLS survey (by 3 percentage points), and the share of people who say they seldom or never pray is somewhat lower in the bridge study than in the main survey (by 4 points). However, previous Pew Research Center analysis found little difference in answers to this question between a telephone survey and self-administered surveys. And both the main survey and the companion bridge study suggest that the share of Americans who pray daily has declined since 2014. For additional details, refer to Appendix A.↩

This question also was asked in the 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies. However, the results are not comparable because of differences in the way the surveys were conducted. In 2007 and 2014, the RLS was administered entirely by live interviewers on the telephone. The 2023-24 RLS was conducted mostly online and on paper (by mail). These differences in the survey’s “mode” of administration can affect the way people answer some questions, and that seems to be the case with the question about reading scripture. Refer to Appendix A for more details.↩

Comparisons between the new RLS and the earlier studies are complicated by differences in the ways they were conducted. The landscape studies in 2007 and 2014 were conducted by live interviewers over the telephone, while the 2023-24 RLS was conducted mainly online and on paper. This “mode shift” affects the results of some survey questions more than others. Analysis of a nationwide companion telephone survey, which was conducted alongside the 2023-24 RLS for testing purposes, indicates that on self-administered surveys (like the new RLS), Americans are 3 points less likely than on interviewer-administered surveys (like the earlier studies) to say that they participate at least once a week in prayer groups, scripture-study groups or religious education programs. But both the main RLS survey and the companion telephone survey suggest that regular participation in these kinds of groups has declined since 2014. Refer to Appendix A for details.↩

The 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies included two similar, but not identical, questions. Religiously unaffiliated adults were asked: “How often do you … share your views on God and religion with religious people?” And religiously affiliated adults were asked: “How often do you … share your faith with non-believers or people from other religious backgrounds?” Since these questions were not previously asked of everyone, and since they were not asked in the same way, the results are not comparable with findings from the 2023-24 RLS.↩