Report: Number of Americans identifying as Christian considered stable after years of decline

Yahoo

28-02-2025

AUSTIN (KXAN) — After years of steady decline, the number of Americans who identify as Christian is 'leveling off' at around six out of 10 people, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.
The religious landscape study released this week is the largest single survey that the center conducts, and the numbers are considered authoritative figures on the size of U.S. religious groups, because the U.S. Census does not collect this kind of information.
The mass survey included 37,000 Americans with the center. According to the new study, it found that 62% of U.S. adults identify as Christians, which is a 9% decline since 2014 and a 16% drop since 2007.
In the last five years, the Christian share of the adult population 'has been relatively stable, hovering between 60% and 64%' between 2019 and 2024, according to the study.
Additionally, the survey said 36% of adults in Texas 'are highly religious.' Furthermore, 67% identify as Christians, 6% identify with other religions and 26% identify as religiously unaffiliated.
To break down the survey, KXAN's Avery Travis and Will DuPree spoke with Director of Religion Research at Pew Research Center Alan Cooperman.
Read a transcribed version of the interview below, or watch in the video player above. Some responses have been edited for clarity.
Avery Travis: Before we get into the findings and results of this survey, we want to ask you, why is it important for the center to study this, especially on such a large scale?
Alan Cooperman: Well, we study religion because we think religion is really important to individuals and to societies. We don't promote any particular religion or religion as a whole.
Will DuPree: And Alan, according to this survey, what does religion in America look like today? And how has that really changed over time?
Cooperman: Well, the big news in American religion is stability. Because over the last 20 plus years, organized religion has broadly been in decline in really all across the United States. The percentages of Americans who identify as Christians had been going down by about one percentage point per year, and the shares who don't identify with any religious group. We sometimes call them the nones, N-O-N-E-S, have been rising by about one percentage point per group per year. And this has been going on for a few decades now. But just in the last few years, those numbers have leveled off. So we're now hovering right around 62% Christian nationwide, 29% who don't identify with any religion.
Travis: Let's talk about Texas. How does our state compare with what we're seeing in the rest of the country?
Cooperman: So Texas is a religious state, as I'm sure your folks know. In Texas right now, it's about 67% of adults who identify as Christian. Now Texas has not been immune from the big national trends. That number is 10 points lower than it was in 2014 when it was 77%. But still, Texas is a little more Christian than the nation as a whole. The share of people who don't identify with any religion is a little lower in Texas than it is across the whole. Texans are religious, not just in their identities, but also in what they do. So for example, 50% of Texans say they pray every day. Nationwide, it's 44% and Austin, I hate to break this to you, if it ever was weird, it's not so weird. Austin looks a lot like the country as a whole. It really does, in terms of the shares that are present, that are Christian, the shares that are nuns, and the shares who pray daily, attend religious services. Austin's very much kind of like the national average.
Travis: Really interesting. So as you mentioned there, the study is not only looking at what people say they believe, but how those beliefs influence people's daily practices. What are we seeing as a national trend over time? You mentioned going to church, praying daily. Have we seen a change in recent years in people's day to day lives?
Cooperman: Yes, Avery. Almost every measure of religious behavior and engagement had been down, had been declining over the past few decades. But again, just in the last few years, since around 2019-2020, those things seem to have leveled off. So the share of people who say they pray daily is leveled off. The share of people who say they attend religious services. Religious services, about a third of Americans who say they go once a month or more. Again, a little over four in 10 say they pray every day. Same with belief in God and a lot of these other measures that after long term declines seem to be stabilizing.
DuPree: Alan, final question for you here this morning, what about other religions outside of Christianity? What did the survey find there?
Cooperman: So, those shares are still fairly low, but they're growing. So all the non-Christian religions together today make up about 7% of the U.S. population. Ten years ago, 5% and that includes Jews, who are about 2% and that number is pretty stable. Muslims, about 1% also rising over time. Hindus, Buddhists, each also around 1% and also have been rising over time. And immigration is part of the reason for the increase in those non-Christian religions, aside from Judaism.
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