A new study finds today’s young Americans are less religious—and a lot more likely to stay that way
In 2007, 92% of US adults believed in God. By 2014, that figure was 89%: a modest dip, none too noteworthy or dramatic.
But upon closer inspection, America’s religious ties are actually fraying much more than this one data point would indicate. An exhaustive new religion report from the Pew Research Center shows that, despite the steadiness of the percentage of Americans who believe in God, religious interest is declining quite steeply by a number of other measures.
Pew’s report—which surveyed more than 35 thousand people in 2014, can be juxtaposed with the group’s similarly sized 2007 study on the same topic. Americans who are “absolutely certain” in God’s existence have decreased by eight percentage points in the intervening time. Religiously unaffiliated people now make up 23% of the adult population, compared to 16%; even among the pious, regular service attendance is faltering.
And when sorted by generation, the contrasts get even starker. Younger Americans, by some measures, are almost twice as likely to be uninterested in religion as their parents and grandparents. One other finding, the emphasis on the importance of religion is also lagging.