Michael Lipka is an associate director of research at Pew Research Center, where he studies Americans’ experiences with news and information. Over more than a decade at the Center, he has been a part of several major projects related to the information environment, including our survey of U.S. journalists and our studies of podcasts, Black Americans’ experiences with news, and alternative social media. Michael also spent several years writing about trends in religion in the U.S. and globally, contributing to dozens of reports and short reads on various topics. He has a degree in journalism from Boston University and started his career as a sportswriter for The Boston Globe and the Associated Press.
55% of Catholics rated Francis positively on addressing sex abuse, and 53% gave him high marks on environmental issues. But these were two out of nine areas in which Francis drew the least positive ratings.
Two-thirds (66%) of U.S. Mormon adults are currently married, down slightly from 71% in 2007 – but still high compared with current rates among Christians overall (52%) and U.S. adults overall (48%).
In recent years, the share of Americans who identify with mainline Protestantism has been shrinking significantly, a trend driven partly by generational change.
The growth of the religiously unaffiliated in the U.S. is occurring across genders, generations and racial and ethnic groups.
The 35% of Millennials who do not identify with a religion is double the share of unaffiliated Baby Boomers (17%) and more than three times the share of members of the Silent generation (11%).
Christians are declining, both as a share of the U.S. population and in total number, while religious “nones” continue to rise.
If current demographic trends hold, by 2050, Muslims are projected to be more numerous in the U.S. than people who identify as Jewish on the basis of religion.
What will the world’s religious landscape look like a few decades from now?
A new Indiana religious freedom law has sparked national debate. Some say it strengthens protection of religious liberty, while others say it could provide legal cover for businesses to discriminate. The U.S. public is divided over these types of issues.
The Jewish population in Europe has dropped significantly over the last several decades – most dramatically in Eastern Europe and the countries that make up the former Soviet Union.
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