Author: Jcoleman

The American Trends Panel survey methodology Overview Data in this report comes from Wave 164 of the American Trends Panel (ATP), Pew Research Center’s nationally representative panel of randomly selected U.S. adults. The survey was conducted from Feb. 24 to March 2, 2025. A total of 5,123 panelists responded out of 5,737 who were sampled, for a survey-level response rate of 89%. The cumulative response rate accounting for nonresponse to the recruitment surveys and attrition is 3%. The break-off rate among panelists who logged on to the survey and completed at least one item is 1%. The margin of sampling…

Terminology Throughout this report, religious switching refers to a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood). The rates of religious switching are based on responses to two survey questions we asked of adults ages 18 and older: “What is your current religion, if any?” “Thinking about when you were a child, in what religion were you raised, if any?” The responses to these two questions allow us to calculate what percentage of the public has left a religious group (or “switched out”) and what…

Terminology Throughout this report, religious switching refers to a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood). The rates of religious switching are based on responses to two survey questions we asked of adults ages 18 and older: “What is your current religion, if any?” “Thinking about when you were a child, in what religion were you raised, if any?” The responses to these two questions allow us to calculate what percentage of the public has left a religious group (or “switched out”) and what…

Terminology Throughout this report, religious switching refers to a change between the religious group in which a person says they were raised (during their childhood) and their religious identity now (in adulthood). The rates of religious switching are based on responses to two survey questions we asked of adults ages 18 and older: “What is your current religion, if any?” “Thinking about when you were a child, in what religion were you raised, if any?” The responses to these two questions allow us to calculate what percentage of the public has left a religious group (or “switched out”) and what…

The religious composition of the United States has been fairly stable in half a dozen Pew Research Center surveys conducted since 2020. The Christian share of the adult population has been between 60% and 64% in these surveys, while the religiously unaffiliated share has ranged from 28% to 31%. Adherents of religions other than Christianity have consistently accounted for 6% or 7% of U.S. adults throughout this period. Over the longer term, however, Christians have been declining as a percentage of the U.S. adult population, while the share that is religiously unaffiliated has been rising. (For an extended discussion of…

Millions of Americans have changed their religion over the course of their lifetimes, switching from one religion to another, leaving religion altogether, or choosing to identify with a religion after having grown up without one. If Protestants are counted as a single category – rather than separated into subgroups such as Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. – then the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) finds that 35% of U.S. adults were raised with a different religious identity than the one they have now. This is roughly on par with what we found in the 2014 RLS, using the same definition of…

For many years, Pew Research Center’s standard question about religious identity has asked, “What is your present religion, if any?” We asked that question again in the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS). This new survey, coming after a long period of decline in U.S. religious affiliation, also sought to measure whether Americans feel connected to religions that they do not identify with religiously. So we asked respondents if they think of themselves as Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu for reasons “aside from religion” – for example, ethnically, culturally, or because of their family background. Respondents had the option to…

In the new Religious Landscape Study (RLS), nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults who are currently married (74%) say they have the same religion as their spouse, a similar share as in the 2014 RLS (75%). And 26% of married U.S. adults in the new study say their spouse has a religious identity that is different from their own. They include: 13% of married U.S. adults who are Christians paired with a religiously unaffiliated spouse, or vice versa; 7% of married U.S. adults who are Christians and whose spouse is part of a different Christian tradition, such as a Catholic married…

The vast majority of Americans were raised in a religion. Fully 86% say that as children, they identified with Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam or another religion. Just 13% of U.S. adults say that as children, they did not identify with any religion. The Religious Landscape Study (RLS) shows, furthermore, that 68% of U.S. adults say they grew up attending religious services at least once or twice a month, including 56% who say they went at least once a week. Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say they received at least some formal religious education as children, attending either a private religious school or…

The new Religious Landscape Study (RLS) shows that average family size varies by religious affiliation. To compare how many children are born to parents in various groups, we asked all respondents how many biological children they have ever had during their lives. Since most Americans have completed childbearing by the time they reach ages 40 to 59, we focus on answers from respondents in this age group to estimate “completed fertility.” In the new RLS, Christians have a higher completed fertility rate (2.2 children per respondent) than religiously unaffiliated Americans (1.8) and Americans who belong to non-Christian religions (1.8). Another…