The Pew Research Center has just issued a massive study on religion in America showing that the decline of Christianity has paused for several years. After decades of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians is at 62%, and has been relatively stable since 2019, hovering between 60 and 64% of the population, according to a survey of 36,908 U.S. adults.
The largest subgroups of Christians in the United States are Protestants – now 40% of American adults – and Catholics, now 19%. People who identify with all other Christian groups (including the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many others) total about 3% of U.S. adults.
Jews comprise about 1.7% of United States adults, while 1.2% of respondents identify as Muslim. A surprisingly large number of Americans say they are Buddhist (1.1%) and Hindu (0.9%).
Those who identify as atheists, agnostics or as “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion account for 29% of the population. The size of the religiously unaffiliated population, which Pew calls the “nones,” has plateaued in recent years after a couple of decades of rapid growth.
Other standard survey measures contribute to this emerging picture of stability:
Though down significantly since 2007, the share of Americans who say they pray daily has consistently held between 44% and 46% since 2021. In the new RLS, 44% say they pray at least once a day.
Similarly, since 2020, the percentage of U.S. adults who say they attend religious services monthly has hovered in the low 30s. In the new RLS, 33% say they go to religious services at least once a month.
Many of those who say they are not religious nevertheless hold elements of religion, or at least a belief in the supernatural. For example:
86% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
83% believe in God or a universal spirit.
79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we can’t see it.
70% believe there is an afterlife (heaven, hell, or both).
Younger Americans are far less religious than older adults. Those in the 18 to 24 age bracket are far less likely than those 74 and older to identify as Christian (46% vs. 80%), pray daily (27% vs. 58%), and say they attend religious services at least once a month (25% vs. 49%).
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Cor. 1:18
