Christianity holds steady in the US as decline in Americans identifying as Christian comes to a halt: Pew study

A newly released study has revealed that the decline of Christianity among US adults has tapered off, remaining steady over the past few years at around 6 in 10 US adults.

The Religious Landscape Study (RLS), conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that 62 percent of US adults identify as Christian, putting it in line with totals seen in the Center’s National Public Opinion Reference Survey that have been conducted since 2020, which were between 60 and 64 percent. In the 2007 RLS, 78 percent of US adults identified as Christian, and in the 2014 RLS, 71 percent identified as such.

The latest survey found that the largest share of Christians in the US are Protestants, at 40 percent, with Catholics in second place at 19 percent. Those who identify with other Christian groups, such as Orthodox, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, were around 3 percent. Pew noted that the shares of those who identify as Protestant have remained fairly stable since 2019, and the shares of those who identify as Catholic have remained level since 2014, with only small fluctuations seen in the Center’s annual surveys.

While still in the single digits, those who identify with a religion other than Christianity have trended upwards. In the latest RLS survey, 1.7 percent of respondents said they were Jewish, the same level as the 2007 RLS. Those who identify as Muslim have seen a nearly 1 point increase, rising from 0.4 percent in 2007 to 1.2 percent in the latest survey. Those who identify as Buddhist have risen from 0.7 percent in 2007 to 1.1 percent in the 2023-24 survey.

Overall, the number of people who identify with a non-Christian religion has risen from 4.7 percent in 2007 to 7.1 percent in the latest survey.

The RLS also found that the youngest set of survey takers, those between 18 and 24, remain far less religious than the oldest survey takers, those ages 74 and older. 80 percent of the oldest survey takers identify as Christian, while 46 percent of the youngest ones identify as such. In contrast, 43 percent of the youngest survey takers identify as "religiously unaffiliated," while just 13 percent of those 74 and older identify as such. 

There was around a 20-point difference between the youngest and oldest survey takers in whether they were raised religious, with 94 percent of those 74 and older saying they were raised religious, while 75 percent of the youngest survey takers responded as such. However, just shy of half of all survey takers, despite their age group, said that religion was very important to their family when growing up, ranging between 44 and 47 percent depending on age group. 

40 percent of US adults said that they attend religious services less often than they did as children, while 53 percent said that this rate has stayed the same into adulthood. 32 percent said that religion is less important to them now than it was during childhood, while 50 percent said it was equally as important.

The Religious Landscape Study was conducted between July 17, 2023 and March 4, 2024 of 36,908 US adults and has a margin of error of 0.8 percent. While the latest version of the study allowed participants to take the survey over the phone, on paper, or online, prior versions of this study, conducted in 2007 and 2014, were conducted solely over the phone.