The new Religious Landscape Study (RLS) shows that average family size varies by religious affiliation.
To compare how many children are born to parents in various groups, we asked all respondents how many biological children they have ever had during their lives. Since most Americans have completed childbearing by the time they reach ages 40 to 59, we focus on answers from respondents in this age group to estimate “completed fertility.”
In the new RLS, Christians have a higher completed fertility rate (2.2 children per respondent) than religiously unaffiliated Americans (1.8) and Americans who belong to non-Christian religions (1.8).
Another way to gauge family size is by asking respondents whether they are currently parents or guardians of children under the age of 18 living in their home. Overall, Christian adults (27%) are a little less likely to be living with minor children than are religiously unaffiliated adults (29%) or adults who identify with non-Christian religions (31%).
How is it that U.S. Christians are less likely than other Americans to have children under 18 at home, but also that they’ve had more children over the course of their lives than other Americans, on average? A key factor is age. U.S. Christians are older, on average, than religiously unaffiliated people and people who identify with other religions. Just 42% of the Christian respondents in the RLS are between the ages of 25 and 54 – ages in which children are often present in homes – compared with 60% of religiously unaffiliated people and 56% of people who belong to other religions.
In addition to asking about family size, the survey also asked parents whether they engage in various religious activities with their children under 18 who live at home, and if these children receive specific types of religious education.45
Approximately four-in-ten respondents who are parents or guardians of minor children at home say they pray or read scripture with at least one of their children. About a third of parents of minor children say they send their kids to a religious education program, and 17% say they opt for homeschooling or private religious schooling instead of public school.
Among parents who are highly religious, 81% say they pray or read scripture with their children; 66% say they send their children to a religious education program; and 29% say they homeschool or send their children to a private religious school instead of a public school. Overall, 89% of highly religious parents say they do at least one of these things.46
Read more about how religious groups answer the survey’s questions about:
Parental status and fertility rates across religious groups
Overall, 28% of U.S. adults report being the parent or guardian of at least one child under 18 currently living with them.
Similar shares of religiously affiliated (28%) and religiously unaffiliated (29%) adults say this, although sizable differences exist within these groups.
Among people identifying with a religion, for example, Hindus (44%) and Muslims (42%) are most likely to be raising children at home. At the other end of the spectrum, 22% of Jewish adults and 21% of mainline Protestants say they are the parent or guardian of a minor child in their home.
(On average, Jewish Americans and mainline Protestants are much older than Hindus and Muslims. Therefore, Jewish and mainline Protestant respondents are more likely than Hindu and Muslim respondents to be past the period of their lives when parents typically have minor children living with them. Refer to Chapter 24 for additional details about the age of people in various religious groups.)
The survey finds that among adults between the ages of 40 and 59, Christians have had 2.2 children, on average. Jewish Americans ages 40 to 59 report having had 2.0 children during their lifetimes, on average, while religiously unaffiliated adults in this age range have had an average of 1.8 children.
Parents’ religious activities with children
Among Christians in the new survey who are currently the parents or guardians of at least one child in their home, 58% say they pray or read scripture with their children. About half (48%) say they send their child to a religious education program, and 22% say they homeschool their children or send them to a private religious school instead of public school.
In total, 70% of Christian parents engage in at least one of these forms of religious education for their children.
Parents who identify as evangelical Protestants (82%) or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (84%) – who are widely known as Mormons – are even more likely than Christian parents overall to say they do at least one of these things with their children.
Far fewer religious “nones” who are parents of children under 18 living at home say they participate in these kinds of religious activities with their children. For example, just 9% say they send their child to a religious education program.
(The survey did not include enough responses from Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu respondents who are currently parenting minor children to be able to report their answers to these questions.)
