---
title: "Key findings about Americans’ belief in God"
description: "The overwhelming majority of Americans, including a majority of the religiously unaffiliated, say they believe in God or a higher power. Read six key takeaways from a report on Americans' belief in God. "
date: "2018-04-25"
authors:
  - name: "Dalia Fahmy"
    job_title: "Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dalia-fahmy/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/04/25/key-findings-about-americans-belief-in-god/"
categories:
  - "Atheism & Agnosticism"
  - "Beliefs & Practices"
---

# Key findings about Americans’ belief in God

[![Michelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. (Lucas Schifres/Getty Images)](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/FT_18.04.25_typologyBeliefsGod_feature-jpg.webp)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/04/25/key-findings-about-americans-belief-in-god/ft_18-04-25_typologybeliefsgod_feature-jpg/)
*(Lucas Schifres/Getty Images)*

In recent years, the share of American adults who do not [affiliate with a religious group](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/) has risen dramatically. In spite of this trend, the overwhelming majority of Americans, including a majority of the religiously unaffiliated – those who describe themselves, religiously, as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” – say they believe in God or a higher power, according to a [new Pew Research Center survey](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/04/25/when-americans-say-they-believe-in-god-what-do-they-mean) conducted in December of 2017. At the same time, only a slim majority of Americans now believe in the God of the Bible and roughly one-in-ten U.S. adults don’t believe in any higher power or spiritual force.

Here are six key takeaways from the report:

**The vast majority of Americans (90%) believe in some kind of higher power**, with 56% professing faith in God as described in the Bible and another 33% saying they believe in another type of higher power or spiritual force. Only one-in-ten Americans say they don’t believe in God or a higher power of any kind.

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/04/23153835/04.25.18_beliefingod-00-00.png)

**In the U.S.,** **Christians are particularly likely (99%) to believe in God or a higher power, with 80% claiming faith in a biblical God.** Three-quarters of Christians describe God as all-loving, all-knowing and all-powerful. Like Christians, most Jews (89%) have faith in a deity. But just a third of Jews (33%) say they believe in God as described in the Bible, while 56% say they believe in some other higher power. Jews are also more likely than Christians to say they don’t believe in a spiritual force of any kind (10% vs. 1%). Finally, among those who describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated – also known as "nones" – 72% say they believe in a higher power of some kind.

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2018/04/23153841/04.25.18_beliefingod-00-04.png)

**About half (48%) of U.S. adults believe God determines what happens to them most or all of the time.** Nearly eight-in-ten U.S. adults think God or a higher power has protected them, and two-thirds of Americans say they have been rewarded by the Almighty. At the same time, fewer see God as judgmental and punitive, with just four-in-ten saying *they* have been punished by the deity in which they believe.

**Younger adults (those under the age of 50) are less inclined than older Americans to believe in a biblical God and more likely to say they don’t believe in *any* higher power or spiritual force.** While roughly two-thirds of older adults say they believe in the biblical God, just 49% of those in their 30s and 40s – and just 43% of adults under 30 – say the same. Even with this age gap, an overwhelming majority of the youngest adults continue to believe in God or a higher power: Eight-in-ten of those ages 18 to 29 say they believe in at least some kind of spiritual force.

**Americans with a high school education or less are more likely than college graduates to believe in God or a higher power (94% vs. 84%). **They also are more likely than those who graduated from college to believe in the God of the Bible (66% vs. 45%) and to believe that a higher power determines what happens in their lives most or all of the time (59% vs. 33%).

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/FT_18.04.25_typologyBeliefsGod.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/04/25/key-findings-about-americans-belief-in-god/ft_18-04-25_typologybeliefsgod-png/)

**Republicans and Democrats have very different beliefs about God.** Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party are less likely to say they believe in the God of the Bible than Republicans and Republican leaners (45% vs. 70%). Democrats are more likely than Republicans (39% vs. 23%) to say they believe in a higher power other than the biblical God. They also are more likely to say they *don’t* believe in any deity at all (14% vs. 5%). The survey also finds big racial differences among Democrats; most nonwhite Democrats – who are predominantly black or Hispanic – believe in God as described in the Bible (61%), compared to just 32% of white Democrats.