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Decline of Christianity in the U.S. Has Slowed, May Have Leveled Off
A look at the largest Protestant denominations in the 2023-24 RLS
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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
- The most highly religious Americans also are the most Republican, conservative