The Religious Decline Has Stopped

Pew has also conducted the RLS in 2007 and 2014, so with the help of Pew’s smaller year-to-year studies, it’s possible to track trend lines.

In this post, we’ll look at the overall findings about the state of religion in the United States.  We’ll zero in on some specific issues in future posts.

The big news, which is being written about in the media:  The much-heralded religious decline seems to have stopped.  There is definitely a decline since the first study in 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christians.  By 2014, that number declined to 71%.  In 2019, as determined by other surveys, the number dropped to 63%.  But between 2019 and 2024, the percentage has stayed pretty much the same, going as low as 61% and as high as 64%.  The new RLS puts it in the middle of that range, at 62%.

Other measures also show stability.  Since 2021, between 44% and 46% of Americans pray daily.  The new number is 44%.  Since 2020, the percentage of Americans who attend religious services at least monthly has consistently been in the low 30s.  The new number is 33%.

Why is this?  Young people are still less religious than older people.  (Among 18-24 year-olds, only 46% identify as Christians, only 27% pray every day, and only 25% go to religious services at least once a month.)  But, according to the Pew analysts, the different age cohorts, both for the young and the old, are holding onto their religion more, instead of losing it as they had before.  And while women are overall more religious than men, the gender gap is shrinking among young adults, with slightly more men than women identifying with a religion.

To complete the picture, with 62% of Americans identifying as Christians (40%, Protestants; 19% Catholics; others, 3%) , 7% belong to non-Christian religions (Jewish, 1.7%; Muslim, 1.2%; Buddhist, 1.1%; Hindu, .9%; other, 2.2%), and 29% are Nones (17% atheist; 20% agnostic; 63% “nothing in particular,” including private spiritualities).

Despite all of this non-affiliation, religious belief is surprisingly high across all age groups and demographics.  According to the Pew Report,

• 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).

Moreover, for 63% of American adults, the Bible is “extremely” (44%) or “somewhat” (19%)  important to them.

I wish they asked about Americans’ belief in Christ!

Though a good many people who hold religious beliefs of some kind seem to hold little store by “organized religion” and though denominations have declined in membership, I was fascinated by the denominational breakdown of American Christianity.

Here are the different “families” of Protestantism, in order of size, with the percentage of the population they represent:

Baptist  12%

Non-denominational 7.1%

Pentecostal   3.9%

Methodist 3.5%

Lutheran 2.9%

Presbyterian 1.7%

Restorationist 1.3%

Episcopalian/Anglican 1.1%

Holiness  .6%

Congregationalist .5%

Adventist .3%

Reformed .3%

Anabaptist <.3%

Pietist <3%

Friends <3%

Other evangelical/fundamentalist <3%

Nonspecific Protestant 4.2%

Most of these Protestant traditions have their liberal, conservative, and fundamentalist denominations, which are broken out separately.

What gets me is that there are a lot more Lutherans than there are Calvinist Presbyterians and Reformed.  And there are a lot more Lutherans than there are Episcopalians/Anglicans.  And yet they get all the attention and influence.

This just shows how America has an English culture, so the English versions of Christianity are more prominent, no matter what the numbers are.  Of course, the Baptists and the Methodists are also English.  They represent the dissenters to the English state church (Anglicans) and the Scottish state church (Presbyterians).  A persecuted or marginalized minority in the old country, they fled to America, where they are now among the largest Protestant denominations.

Then there are the denominations with American origins:  Pentecostals, Restorationists, Holiness, Adventists, and the recently emergent Non-denominationals.  These are highly individualistic, exuberant, and anti-traditional.  Hence, highly American.

The other immigrant churches, besides the Lutherans, are the Anabaptists (such as the Amish and Mennonites) and the Pietists (Brethren, Evangelical Free).  And, of course, the Catholics (19% of the population).  And the Orthodox (1%).  These are more communal, orderly, and traditional.  Hence, highly European.

Tomorrow we will take a deep dive into what the Religious Landscape Survey has to say about the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, with comparisons to other denominations.

Photo:  Two Churches in Cumberland, Maryland by Lee Cannon via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0