Study: Michigan is becoming less Christian
As Lent begins, fewer Michiganders will be observing it than a decade ago, according to a new Pew study.
Why it matters: The increase in Michigan residents who don't identify with any religion mirrors a nationwide trend.
The big picture: "This is a broad-based social change," says Alan Cooperman, the director of religion research at the Pew Research Center.
"We've had rising shares of people who don't identify with any religion — so-called nones — and declining shares who identify as Christian, in all parts of the country, in all parts of the population, by ethnicity and race, among both men and women, and among people at all levels of the educational spectrum."
Caveat: The so-called secular surge has plateaued since 2020, and the national decline in Christianity seems to have leveled off, showing "relative stability in the last few years," according to the researchers.
Zoom in: 61% of Michigan residents identified as Christian in 2024, according to Pew's Religious Landscape Study. That's down from 70% in 2014.
Meanwhile, nearly one in three residents say they are not affiliated with a religion, up from 24% in 2014.
The number of Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist Michiganders remained flat at around 1% each.
State of play: The Archdiocese of Detroit's new leader, Bishop Edward Weisenburger, acknowledged declining membership when he was publicly introduced last month after Pope Francis appointed him.
There are about 900,000 Catholics in the archdiocese's six-county region, but that's down by about 500,000 since 2009, per the Free Press.
What they're saying: Weisenburger, who has led the Catholic diocese in Tucson, Arizona, said the church can grow by fostering community connections as loneliness and alienation become growing problems.
"I think that we will reverse these numbers and our parishes will grow when we do everything we can to help people once again establish community," he said.
Between the lines: The trend away from religion is driven in large part by Gen Z and younger millennials, according to the study.
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