Fewer Americans than ever are Christian as more say they have no religion, poll finds

The percentage of Americans who say they identify as Christian continues to drop in the United States, while those who do not follow a religion remains on the rise, a new poll shows.

The trend was noted in a poll by Pew Research Center, which found nearly three-in-ten American adults see themselves as either atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” The percentage is nearly double of that from 2007, when 16% identified as such.

“If the unaffiliated were a religion, they’d be the largest religious group in the United States,” Elizabeth Drescher, an adjunct professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, told The Associated Press.

When the Pew Research Center began its annual poll in 2007, 78% of respondents said they identified as Christians. That number has shrunk to 63%, which aligns with other questions the center asked regarding religion in the United States.

The center found 45% of Americans say they pray daily, down from 58% in 2007. Additionally, 41% say religion is “very important” in their lives — after 56% said so in 2007.

The decline in Christianity is most concentrated in Protestantism, the poll found. This year’s figures show 40% of U.S. adults identify as Protestant, down from 52% 14 years ago. Meanwhile, Catholics have seen relatively stable numbers in recent years, with 21% of Americans polled identifying as Catholic compared to 24% in 2007.

Around 35,000 adults have been interviewed in the poll since it began, including nearly 4,000 this year. Respondents were polled between May 29 and Aug. 25. It has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 0.6 percentage points.

Pew’s poll is similar to other polls that also show a decline in religious activity. Gallup found earlier this year that for the first time, fewer than half of Americans belong to a house of worship.

“Church attendance is the first thing that goes, then belonging and finally belief — in that order. Belief goes last,” Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist minister, told Religion News.

The decline in membership coincides with an increase in the number of Americans who do not identify with a particular religion, according to Gallup.

Millennials, the American Worldview Inventory survey found, are less likely to identify with organized religion and instead are embracing other spiritual beliefs.

“Many Americans — especially young people — see religion as bound up with political conservatism, and the Republican party specifically,” David Campbell, professor and chair of the University of Notre Dame’s political science department, told The Guardian in April. “Since that is not their party, or their politics, they do not want to identify as being religious. Young people are especially allergic to the perception that many — but by no means all — American religions are hostile to LGBTQ rights.”

Kevin Bolling, the executive director of the Secular Student Alliance, believes this generation could be the first “to be majority non-religious versus majority religious,” he told the AP.

This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 6:48 AM with the headline "Fewer Americans than ever are Christian as more say they have no religion, poll finds."