Protestantism, which includes many denominations of different sizes as well as nondenominational Protestant churches, is the largest subgroup of Christians in the United States. This analysis looks at the reasons Protestant adults give for being Protestants, the reasons former Protestants give for having left, and the reasons some other Americans give for having become Protestants. (This chapter does not examine religious switching within Protestantism, such as from Methodist to Presbyterian.)
Overall, four-in-ten U.S. adults are Protestants, according to Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS). This includes:
- 32% of U.S. adults who are Protestants today and were also raised Protestant
- 8% of U.S. adults who are Protestants today after having been raised another way (including 4% who were raised Catholic and 3% who were raised in another religion or no religion)
The RLS also finds that 14% of U.S. adults are former Protestants – people who say they were raised Protestant but no longer identify as such. This group includes:
- 10% of U.S. adults who were raised Protestant but now are religiously unaffiliated
- 1% who were raised Protestant but now identify as Catholic
- 2% of U.S. adults who were raised Protestant but now identify with another religion
Why do Protestants say they are Protestant?
A Pew Research Center survey conducted in May 2025 finds that most current Protestants cite the following as extremely or very important reasons why they identify as Protestant today:
- They believe in the religion’s teachings (71% of Protestants).
- Their religion fulfills their spiritual needs (66%).
- Their religion gives meaning to their lives (61%).
This data on Protestants’ reasons for being Protestant comes from a broader set of survey questions that asked U.S. adults who identify with a religion why they do so. The survey also asked religiously unaffiliated Americans why they don’t identify with any religion. And it asked people who switched religions between childhood and adulthood why they left their childhood religion.
Former Protestants say the following are extremely or very important reasons why they no longer identify as Protestant:
- They stopped believing in the religion’s teachings (45%).
- They just gradually drifted away (40%).
- The religion just wasn’t important in their life (38%).
Read on to explore the following:
- Why people who have become Protestant left their former religion
- Why religious ‘nones’ who grew up Protestant are now unaffiliated
- Experiences with being raised Protestant
Why people who have become Protestant left their former religion
An estimated 8% of U.S. adults are Protestants who were raised in another religion or in no religion at all.
Our May 2025 survey asked U.S. adults who now identify with a religion other than the one they grew up in why they left their former religion. Around half (51%) of adults who switched to Protestantism from their childhood religion say an extremely or very important reason they left their childhood religion is that their spiritual needs were not being met. A similar share (49%) says feeling called to a new faith was an extremely or very important reason.
Some other factors commonly cited by people who left their childhood religion for Protestantism include no longer believing in the religion’s teachings (35%), scandals involving clergy or religious leaders (29%), and unhappiness with their former religion’s teachings about social and political issues (26%).
Why religious ‘nones’ who grew up Protestant are now unaffiliated
An estimated 10% of U.S. adults are former Protestants who are now religiously unaffiliated, meaning they identify religiously as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” (The unaffiliated are often called religious “nones.”)
When asked to evaluate several possible reasons why they are not affiliated with a religion, 81% of these former Protestants who are now “nones” say an extremely or very important reason is that they believe they can be moral without having a religion.
Other common reasons include:
- Questioning a lot of religion’s teachings (cited by 67% of former Protestants who are now “nones”)
- Not needing religion to be spiritual (57%)
- Not liking religious organizations (49%)
- Distrusting religious leaders (49%)
The survey did not include enough adults who were raised Protestant and now identify with a different religion to analyze them separately.
Experiences with being raised Protestant
The May 2025 survey also included several questions about how much religion people had in their lives growing up, and whether their childhood religious experiences were positive or negative.
Upward of eight-in-ten Americans who were raised Protestant and are still Protestant (83%) say they grew up attending religious services at least once or twice a month, while fewer former Protestants who are now religiously unaffiliated (66%) say this.
And most Americans who were raised Protestant and are still Protestant say they had a mostly positive experience with religion when they were growing up (72%). Far fewer former Protestants who are now religious “nones” say this (29%).5
People raised Protestant who still identify that way also are more likely than those who are now “nones” to say their parents talked about religion extremely or very often; that they grew up in an extremely or very religious household; and that they grew up regularly doing at least four of the five religious activities that we asked them about (including saying prayers at night, saying grace or praying before meals, doing religious arts and crafts, listening to religious music or reading religious stories).
