Americans decreasingly call religion important to their lives and are divided over its role in society

By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

(CNN) — A major new study on religious views in the United States finds – as Americans’ connection to organized religion continues to fade – there are deep divides over the appropriate role for religion in American public life, with sizable shares in favor of a more formalized role.

Less than half of all adults now say religion is very important in their lives, down from majorities who felt that way in earlier studies. Just 44% in the new poll say they pray daily, also down from majorities in prior polls. And while the vast majority continue to say they believe in a God or universal spirit, the share who say they are absolutely certain one exists has dropped from 71% in 2007 to 54% now.

Those findings come from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, which aims to provide a comprehensive measurement of Americans’ religious beliefs and practices. The survey suggests, though, the decline in Christian affiliation and corresponding growth in the share who lack a religious affiliation that had been persistent over the past few decades appears to have plateaued.

A majority of Americans identify as Christian (62%, including 40% who are Protestant, 19% Catholic and 3% with another Christian affiliation), with 29% religiously unaffiliated and 7% saying they belong to religions other than Christianity, such as Judaism (2%), Islam (1%), Buddhism (1%) or Hinduism (1%).

Within these broad categories, the study finds shifts between sects of Christianity.

Since 2007, Pew finds that all major subsets of Protestantism have shrunk: Evangelical Protestants represent 23% of US adults, down from 26%, Mainline Protestants now make up 11% of adults, down from 18%, and members of historically Black Protestant churches are 5% of all adults, down from 7%.

At the same time, the share of nondenominational Protestants remains small (7% in the new study) but is on the rise (up from roughly 5% in 2007).

Still, when coupled with other recent Pew surveys, the findings suggest that shifts in religious affiliations overall have stabilized in recent years. The share identifying as Christian and the share who say they are religiously unaffiliated has held roughly steady since 2020, and that’s true even within most birth cohorts, or groups of people born in the same decade.

There is no official, current government estimate of the religious beliefs and practices of the American public. The US Census Bureau is barred from measuring religious affiliation in mandatory data collection such as the decennial census. The Pew study is one of the most significant such private efforts, drawing on a very large, representative sample to generate estimates of the public’s religious affiliations and religiosity.

Researchers collected data in the new release from 36,908 adults nationwide between July 2023 and March 2024. Pew previously conducted two similar studies in 2007 and 2014 using a different methodology than the current study; some measures in the poll are not comparable to previous studies.

The role of religion in public life

Amid religion’s shifting place in Americans’ personal lives, a sizable group are at least somewhat supportive of a more prominent role for religion in public life: 47% in the survey say that the federal government ought to declare the US a Christian nation, about half (52%) favor allowing teacher-led prayer that refers to Jesus in public schools with more (57%) in favor of prayer that references God but not a specific religion, and 53% are at least somewhat in favor of allowing cities and towns to display religious symbols on public property.

Smaller shares are strongly in support of each of these measures (21% strongly favor declaring the US a Christian nation, 27% strongly favor teacher-led Christian prayers in public schools and 20% strongly favor allowing religious displays on public property), and support overall is concentrated among Christians (broad majorities of those who affiliate with non-Christian religions or who are religiously unaffiliated oppose each of these actions, while at least 6 in 10 Christians support each of them).

Americans’ overall perceptions of religion tilt positive, according to the survey, but appear to have cooled since 2014.

Overall, 51% express mostly positive views of religious institutions across six questions on its role in society, with 21% expressing mixed views and 29% mostly negative.
In 2014, 63% held mostly positive views with 18% negative across the same six questions. Americans are also more apt to say that religion does more good than harm (44%), outpacing the 19% who feel the opposite, but with roughly a third (35%) saying religion does equal amounts of good and harm.

Results among younger Americans suggest continued decrease in religious affiliation

The survey’s findings among younger Americans point to a possible continued decline in religious affiliation and practice, as younger people with religious upbringings appear less likely than older ones to carry those behaviors into adulthood.

Fewer young adults who had a highly religious upbringing remain so as adults when compared with older adults, while those younger people with a non-religious upbringing are more likely to hold on to that view as adults.

Comparing the youngest and oldest groups in the poll, 51% of those born in the 1940s or earlier who, as children, attended religious services weekly and considered religion very important have the same degree of attachment to their religion now.

Among those born in the 1980s or later and who had a similarly religious upbringing, only about 3 in 10 have retained that same degree of religious involvement as adults (31% among those born in the ‘80s, 29% for those born in the ‘90s and 28% for those born between 2000 and 2006).

On the flipside, while older adults who were raised with a non-religious upbringing are about as likely as their highly religious counterparts to say they’ve retained those traits (50% for those born in the 1940s or earlier), younger Americans raised in non-religious households are even more likely than their more religious peers to continue that way in adulthood (69% among those born in the ‘80s, 72% for those born in the ‘90s and 76% for those born between 2000 and 2006).

Connections between religious affiliation and political views

While the overall change in religious views over time has happened in similar ways across key demographic groups, there are differences in how it’s playing out by political ideology.

Among people who call themselves liberals, just 37% now identify as Christian, down from 62% in 2007, and liberals are now more likely to say they have no religion (51%, up 24 points since 2007) than to consider themselves Christian. Among conservatives, by contrast, the share who are Christian has declined just 7 points to 82%.

Americans’ degree of religious engagement is also closely tied to their partisanship. The most religiously engaged people are most likely to consider themselves Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, while those with little engagement are broadly likely to be Democrats or Democratic-leaning.

This is especially true among White Americans, with smaller gaps by religiosity among Hispanic and Asian adults. Black Americans tend to be Democratic aligned regardless of their degree of religiousness.

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