Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off
Americans raised in religiously observant families are more likely to retain their religious identity in adulthood
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- Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off
- After years of decline, the Christian share of the U.S. population stabilizes
- 7% of U.S. adults now identify with a religion other than Christianity
- Large majorities of U.S. adults believe in the existence of a soul, something spiritual beyond the natural world
- Big age gaps in shares of Americans who identify as Christian, pray regularly
- As they have grown older, U.S. adults in all birth cohorts have become less likely to pray daily and less likely to identify as Christian
- Since 2020, signs of religious stability across birth cohorts in the United States
- In the U.S., young adults are far less traditionally religious than older adults
- On measures of spirituality, gaps between younger and older Americans are relatively modest
- Share of U.S. adults identifying as Christian is down since 2007, but it has held steady in recent years
- Long-term decline in Christianity is much more pronounced among political liberals than conservatives
- Long-term trends of religious identification within Christianity
- Trends in size of Protestant denominational families
- A look at the largest Protestant denominations in the 2023-24 RLS
- 1.7% of U.S. adults identify religiously as Jewish; Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus each make up roughly 1% of Americans
- Among U.S. immigrants, 58% are Christian and 14% identify with other religions
- Long-term decline in Christianity, growth of religiously unaffiliated is evident among both U.S.-born adults and immigrants
- Trends in the racial composition of U.S. Christians, religiously unaffiliated adults
- Racial composition of religious groups in the U.S.
- Racial composition in U.S. congregations
- Gender gap in U.S. religion shows signs of narrowing
- On some key religion measures, the gender gap is smaller among younger adults than among older people
- Americans raised in religious families are more likely to attend religious services as adults
- Americans raised in religiously observant families are more likely to retain their religious identity in adulthood
- 40% of U.S. adults say they attend religious services less often than they did as children
- Compared with older U.S. adults, fewer young people say they were raised in religious households or received a lot of formal religious education
- How ‘sticky’ is a religious upbringing? It seems to be less sticky among young adults than older Americans
- Today, 4 in 10 U.S. parents say they send their kids to religious education
- 26% of parents currently raising children report attending religious services at least weekly
- Religious intermarriage: 19% of married Protestants have a non-Protestant spouse, and 25% of married Catholics have a non-Catholic spouse
- Protestants, Catholics in religiously mixed marriages tend to be less religious
- 22% of U.S. adults were raised as Christians but no longer identify as such
- On balance, Christians lose more people than they gain by religious switching; ‘nones’ gain far more than they lose
- Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to have left Christianity
- More Americans say their spirituality has increased than decreased over the course of their lives
- Relatively modest age gaps among Americans on some questions about spirituality
- Americans who say they’ve become more spiritual stand out on a variety of spirituality, religion measures
- Religiously affiliated Americans are more apt than ‘nones’ to say they’ve grown more spiritual over their lives
- Religious ‘nones’ who say they’ve grown more spiritual during their lives have very different beliefs and experiences than ‘nones’ who have not grown more spiritual
- Three-quarters of U.S. adults born since 1980s say they attend religious services a few times a year or less, if at all
- Short-term trend in share of U.S. adults who say they attend religious services at least monthly
- More young U.S. adults say their religiousness has decreased than say it has increased
- Between 2007 and 2023-24, there is no evidence in Religious Landscape Studies that Americans are becoming more religious as they get older
- The U.S. has seen growth at the low end of the religiousness spectrum and a decline at the high end
- Young adults are less religious than older adults; ‘religious middle’ makes up between 45% and 49% of most age categories
- Among U.S. Christians, belief in heaven and hell has been steady or rising, while rates of daily prayer and absolutely certain belief in God have been declining