Pew: Religion in America Continues to Decline

The notion that the United States is becoming more religious is undermined by the findings of a new Pew study.

We’ve had rising shares of people who don’t identify with any religion—so-called “nones”—and declining shares who identify as Christian, in all parts of the country, in all parts of the population, by ethnicity and race, among both men and women, and among people at all levels of the educational spectrum.
—Alan Cooperman, director of religion research for the Pew Research Center, about the survey findings

The results: Surveying more than 35,000 Americans, Pew found:

• Overall, 62 percent of U.S. adults now call themselves Christian, down from 78 percent in 2007.
• Religiously unaffiliated adults rose to 29 percent, up from 16 percent in 2007.
• The shift is particularly stark among Gen Z and younger millennials: 44 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds have no religious affiliation.
• Among 18-to-29-year-olds, 45 percent identify as Christian—compared to 78 percent of those 65 and older.
• The decline in people identifying as Christians has also been steep among self-described liberals: It dropped to 37 percent from 62 percent in 2007. By contrast, among self-described conservatives that number dropped from 89 to 82 percent.
• Researchers say this decline has slowed in the past five years.

‘Spiritual, not religious’: Meanwhile, 92 percent of Americans believe in souls or something beyond the natural world. They consider themselves spiritual but not religious, adopting pagan beliefs like a universal spirit, a connection to nature or an afterlife of some kind.

True religion: The rising numbers of non-Christians in America doesn’t tell the whole story of the nation’s religious life. A great deal of Christianity is not faithful to the teachings of the Bible and of Jesus Christ. To learn more, read Andrew Miiller’s article “What’s Wrong With American Christianity?”