NPR - The portion of the U.S. population identifying as Christian has declined significantly over the last two decades, but a massive new Pew Research study finds that trend may be leveling off.
The study, which surveyed 37,000 Americans, found that 62% identify as Christian. By comparison, when Pew did a similar study in 2007, 78% said they were Christian.
Most of that decline occurred until 5 years ago, when it began to level off, according to the Pew study.
The current Christian breakdown in the U.S. is that 40% identify as Protestant, 19% identify as Catholic and the remaining 3% say they are Christian without specifying additional denomination.
All three major branches of Protestantism have declined in share of the population since 2007. Evangelical Protestants now make up 23%, down from 26%. Mainline Protestants account for 11% of U.S. adults, down from 18%. And people who attend historically Black Protestant churches make up 5% of the population, down from 7%.
The survey included nearly 37,000 U.S. adults and was conducted in 2023 and 2024.
Pew also found that nearly three in 10 people identify as religiously unaffiliated, which can mean atheist, agnostic, or no religion in particular. Younger adults who were raised in only nominally religious homes or outside of religion all together are more likely to be unaffiliated than are older adults . More
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