According to a new survey released by the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans identifying as Christian has been steadily declining for years, but signs suggest that this drop is beginning to slow.
The Pew Religious Landscape Study between July 2023 and March 2024, included a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The study reveals that 62 percent of U.S. adults consider themselves Christians. While this is a notable decrease from 2007, when 78 percent identified as Christian, Pew found that the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019.
The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated, often referred to as the “nones,” appears to have reached a temporary plateau, with approximately 29 percent of U.S. adults identifying as religiously unaffiliated, including 5 percent who are atheist, 6 percent agnostic, and 19 percent who identify as “nothing in particular.”
Gregory Smith, a co-author of the Pew study, remarked on the recent period of stability in American religion following an extended decline, stating, “It’s striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline.”
A substantial number of Americans hold a supernatural perspective, with 83 percent believing in God or a universal spirit, and 86 percent believing that people have a soul or spirit. Approximately 70 percent of Americans believe in heaven, hell, or both.
Despite this widespread spirituality, Pew identified signs of future religious decline, particularly an age gap: 46 percent of the youngest American adults identify as Christian, compared to 80 percent of older adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated.
“These kinds of generational differences are a big part of what’s driven the long-term declines in American religion,” stated Smith from Pew, noting that as older cohorts of highly religious individuals pass away, they are replaced by younger adults who are less religious than their predecessors.
Between 2007 and 2024, Pew’s religious landscape studies did not show indications that Americans become more religious with age. Smith indicated that “something would need to change” to halt the long-term decline of American religion, whether that means adults becoming more religious as they age or new generations being more religious than their parents.
The survey also found that a majority of immigrants in the U.S. are Christian (58 percent), but they also reflect the trend towards higher numbers of the religiously unaffiliated, with a quarter of foreign-born U.S. adults indicating no religion.
The number of Americans belonging to religions other than Christianity has increased, although it still represents a small portion of the population (7 percent), which includes 2 percent who are Jewish and 1 percent each who are Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu.
Among U.S. Christian adults, 40 percent are Protestant and 19 percent are Catholic. The remaining 3 percent consist of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and smaller Christian groups.
