Decline of Christianity slows in US but future among the young looks bleak: study

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Friday, February 28, 2025

Regardless of a constant decline within the share of adults in the US who recognized as Christians over the past 17 years, the pattern seems to have slowed within the final 5 years of a long-term Pew Analysis examine.

The slowdown might not final, nevertheless, as different knowledge from Pew’s third Spiritual Panorama Examine reveals America’s youngest adults are considerably extra prone to be unaffiliated with faith than their older counterparts, suggesting potential future declines within the “American non secular panorama.” 

With greater than 36,000 respondents within the 2023-24 version, the Spiritual Panorama Examine is the biggest single survey Pew Analysis Heart conducts. It paints a spiritual portrait of the US, highlighting the non secular identities, beliefs and practices of U.S. adults in each state, the District of Columbia and 34 massive metro areas.

The survey was beforehand performed in 2007, when 78% of U.S. adults recognized as Christian, and in 2014, when that share dropped to 71%.

Information from the most recent examine reveals that between 2019 and 2024, the share of U.S. adults who recognized as Christian hovered between 60% and 64%, with a present studying of 62%.

The most important share of American Christians recognized as Protestants (40%) adopted by Catholics (19%).

About 3% of People recognized with different teams, such because the Greek and Russian Orthodox Church buildings, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, that are categorized as Christian subgroups by Pew. 

Adults who mentioned they’re unaffiliated with any non secular group and recognized as atheists, agnostics or “nothing specifically” represent some 29% of the inhabitants, in keeping with the most recent knowledge.

Whereas this group had been rising in recent times, the group of religiously unaffiliated, also called the “nones,” has additionally “plateaued,” researchers mentioned.

The charges at which People pray and attend church have stabilized within the current examine regardless of being decrease than the charges for 2007. About 44% of People say they pray no less than as soon as each day, whereas 33% say they attend non secular providers no less than as soon as month-to-month.

Different findings within the examine present that vital majorities of People imagine individuals have a soul of spirit (86%), imagine in God or a common spirit (83%), imagine there’s something religious past the pure world, even when we won’t see it (79%); and imagine in an afterlife (70%).

And whereas 83% of People say they imagine in God or a common spirit, likelihood is many don’t imagine in God as described within the Bible.

In 2018, a Pew examine discovered that 80% of People mentioned they believed in God however solely a slim majority mentioned they believed in God as described within the Bible. Amongst respondents youthful than 50, perception within the God of the Bible was decrease than 50%.

Within the newest Pew examine, in comparison with America’s oldest adults (these 74 and older), America’s youngest adults between the ages of 18-24 are a lot much less non secular or Christian.

Solely 46% of the youngest grownup People determine as Christian, simply 27% pray each day and solely 25% say they attend non secular providers month-to-month. At 43%, the share of America’s youngest adults who determine as religiously unaffiliated is nearly equal to the share who determine as Christian.

“Youthful People are much less seemingly than older adults to say they had been raised in non secular households,” researchers famous. “And, in contrast with older adults, fewer younger individuals who had been raised in non secular households have remained non secular after reaching maturity.”

Pew’s knowledge means that the religiousness of most start demographics has “remained comparatively secure” since 2000. The examine discovered that the youngest cohort of adults is “no much less non secular than the second-youngest cohort in quite a lot of methods.”

“People born in 2000 by 2006 (these ages 18 to 24 within the 2023-24 RLS) are simply as seemingly as these born within the Nineties (now ages 24 to 34) to determine as Christians, to say faith is essential of their lives, and to report that they attend non secular providers no less than month-to-month,” the Pew evaluation reads. 

“Time will inform whether or not the current stability in measures of spiritual dedication is the start of a long-lasting shift in America’s non secular trajectory. However it’s inevitable that older generations will decline in measurement as their members progressively die. We additionally know that the youthful cohorts succeeding them are a lot much less non secular. Because of this, for lasting stability to take maintain within the U.S. non secular panorama, one thing would want to alter. For instance, right now’s younger adults must grow to be extra non secular as they age, or new generations of adults who’re extra non secular than their mother and father must emerge.”