Surveys of American religious beliefs have shown a steady decline in people identifying as Christians since 2007. At that time, a Religious Landscape Study (RLS) found that 78% of Americans identified as Christians.
The RLS is a massive survey involving 35,000 randomly sampled respondents. "That’s enough to paint a statistical portrait of religion not only nationally, but also in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in 34 large metro areas," reports the Pew Research Center, which conducted the study.
The RLS found that the number of American Christians dropped to 71% in 2014 and 62% in 2023-24. However, the last four years have seen the number of Christians hold steady, hovering between 60% and 64%.
Considering the precipitous 16-point drop in Christians since 2007, there appears to be a significant pause in the decline. Whether it's a permanent one remains to be seen.
While young Americans continue to reject religion, young conservative males are embracing Christianity as part of their conservative identity. David Campbell, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, told the New York Times, “If you’re a young white male these days and you think of yourself as conservative, then being religious is a part of that."
Conversely, the percentage of liberals who identify as Christian has dropped by 25 points since 2007. "Just over a third of liberals now identify as Christian, and more than half say they have no religion," reports the New York Times.
Researchers caution that the data does not indicate an actual reversal in the decline of Christianity, or even that the plateau will last. Young adults are still significantly less religious than older adults, meaning they will pull down the average religiosity over time. It is unlikely that the current group of young adults will become more religious as they age.
But some experts suggest that most people who were going to leave a religion have done so by now, raising the possibility that the data might offer a hint at the natural ceiling of nonreligiosity in the United States.
“The ‘nones’ have run through the easy parts of the market, and now they’re hitting the bedrock of committed evangelicals” and theological traditionalists in other faiths, said Dr. Burge, who was also pastor of an American Baptist church for 17 years. Going forward, “if you’re going to make advances, you have to make advances with conservatives.”
Some of the cross-tabs of this survey are a fascinating glimpse into how Americans view spirituality.
- 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 in an afterlife (heaven, hell, or both).
Of those born between 2000 and 2006, just 46% identify as Christians, while 43% claim to be religiously unaffiliated.
In addition to a gap in generations, there's also a gender gap among the young, although it's smaller than other age groups.
The youngest survey participants stood out in other ways, too. The gap in religiosity between men and women is far smaller than it is in older generations. Typically, women are more religious than men on a variety of measures. It’s a pattern so consistent across time, geography and culture that some scholars characterize it as a fact of human life. The pattern shows up in Pew’s oldest cohorts, where, for example, women are 20 points more likely than men to say they pray every day.
Considering the full-scale assault on Christianity by the dominant culture, these numbers are hardly surprising. Whether the pause in the decline will result in a Christian revival is possible, but given the non-religiosity of the youngest cohort of Americans, it doesn't appear likely at this time.
A PJ Media VIP membership is a tremendous value on its own, but you can use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off! We're not just trying to save America here; we're trying to save the West as we know it.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member