After Years of Decline, 'Striking' Stability for Christians

The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a new survey Wednesday from the Pew Research Center.

• The Religious Landscape Study finds that 62% of US adults call themselves Christians. While a significant dip from 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christian, Pew found the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019, per the AP.
• Of US Christian adults, 40% are Protestant and 19% are Catholic. The remaining 3% in Pew's survey include Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses, and smaller Christian groups.

• The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated—the so-called "nones"—has also reached at least a temporary plateau, according to the survey, conducted among nearly 37,000 Americans from July 2023 to March 2024. Approximately 29% of US adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, including those who are atheist (5%), agnostic (6%), or "nothing in particular" (19%).
• "It's striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline," said Pew's Gregory Smith, one of the study's co-authors. "One thing we can't know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country's religious trajectory."

• By some measures, the US remains overwhelmingly spiritual, with 83% believing in God or a universal spirit, and 86% believing that people have a soul or spirit. About 7 in 10 Americans, meanwhile, believe in heaven, hell, or both.
• Despite this widespread spirituality, there are harbingers of future religious decline. Most notably, Pew found a huge age gap, with 46% of the youngest American adults identifying as Christian, compared to 80% of the oldest adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated.

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