The confusion comes from a misunderstanding of the term, “evangelical.”
The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, led by pollster George Barna, released the fourth installment of its American Worldview Inventory 2024 last week.
The report concluded that “Evangelicals are far fewer in number than typically reported, often are far less biblical in their thinking than one might assume and tend to vote in far fewer numbers than expected.”
The Cultural Research Center estimates that Evangelicals constitute 10% of adults in the U.S., between 25 and 30 million people.
The report uses the National Association of Evangelicals’ definition of Evangelicals as “people who recognize their sinful life, rely upon Jesus Christ for their redemption, and receive practical life guidance and wisdom from the Bible in their quest to live under the lordship of Jesus”.
The report contrasted its findings with frequently cited estimates that place the Evangelical share of the U.S. population at 25% to 40% and suggested that other reports rely heavily on self-reporting, which results in counting people who merely describe themselves as Evangelical, even if they do not meet the criteria.
Other estimates are based on people who attend what the individual considers to be an Evangelical church, but without understanding what that term means.