8 in 10 Americans Say Religion Is Losing Influence in Public Life
Most Americans say religion’s influence is shrinking, and about half (48%) see conflict between their own religious beliefs and mainstream American culture.
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Most Americans say religion’s influence is shrinking, and about half (48%) see conflict between their own religious beliefs and mainstream American culture.
Most Americans are spiritual or religious in some way and many also say their spirituality and level of religiosity have changed over time.
About a quarter of U.S. adults regularly watch religious services online or on TV, and most of them are highly satisfied with the experience. About two-in-ten Americans (21%) use apps or websites to help with reading scripture.
Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, even as their share among Latino adults has steadily declined over the past decade. The share of Latinos who are religiously unaffiliated is now on par with U.S. adults overall.
During the pandemic, a stable share of U.S. adults have been participating in religious services in some way – either virtually or in person – but in-person attendance is slightly lower than it was before COVID-19. Among Americans surveyed across several years, the vast majority described their attendance habits in roughly the same way in both 2019 and 2022.
Most U.S. adults are neutral toward several religious groups, though Americans tend to rate their own religious group positively. More than a third of Americans hold unfavorable views of multiple religious groups.
About a third of U.S. parents with children under 18 say it’s extremely or very important to them that their kids share their religious beliefs.
58% of U.S. adults say they do not believe “we are living in the end times” – the destruction of the world as we know it.
Evangelical Protestant adults under 40 are more likely than older evangelicals to say climate change is an extremely or very serious problem.
Most U.S. adults – including a solid majority of Christians and large numbers of people who identify with other religious traditions – consider the Earth sacred and believe God gave humans a duty to care for it. But highly religious Americans are far less likely than other U.S. adults to express concern about warming temperatures around the globe.
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