The Pew Research Center’s newest statistical research on the religious landscape of the United States of America is out as of today, February 26, 2025. If you want to look at the whole study (including a nearly 400 page report available via PDF!), you can find it here: https://pewrsr.ch/3EXnfrS .
It JUST came out and I am traveling, not able to dig into the whole thing. But I wanted to share three things I have noticed right away. (More to come!)
By slide, I mean the number of people identifying at Christian has remained mostly the same the past couple of years, hovering around 62% of Americans. That sounds like a lot, and honestly, it’s good to remember that it is still a majority. However, that 62% is a slide from 78% less than 20 years ago. In terms of religious movement, all of those people lost in the slide are in the religiously unaffiliated (“nones”) category, which has moved from 16% (2007) to 29% (now)…basically they have doubled. The number of people who identify with other major religions outside Christianity rose a meager 1%, not statistically relevant. The choices Christians are making are for Christianity or nothing.
- The future for Christianity in the USA is daunting without deliberate intervention.
Pew mentions this as well in their executive summary of the document. Although the slide has slowed, the reality is that the younger generations (Gen Z and Millenials) are much more disaffiliated than the older ones (43% and 44%). Pew also notes that people are not “turning to religious affiliation” as they grow older. If you put together the reality that our older generations will be dying in the next 10-25 years, we are looking at a landscape that probably will make Christianity a minority religion in the United States very soon. Significantly, our younger generations are already experiencing Christianity as a minority voice within their generation. Do Gen X and the boomers understand that? Are we (the older) supporting them (the younger) in their reality?
- The rise of the nones is not just a younger generation reality: these numbers are rising everywhere.
Admittedly, the numbers skyrocket for disaffiliation the younger the generation is, but Pew notes the numbers have risen since 2007 in every single demographic group. This is a widespread cultural shift of values and beliefs that need to be seen for what it is, not just saying that these young people refuse to commit.
Bonus item: 19% of the USA self-identifies as Catholic. 19% self-identifies as “no religion” (as opposed to atheist or agnostic).
Still mulling that one….
I know what I will be looking for as I have time: the Catholic breakdown, and especially the Spanish-speakers in the USA breakdown. I’m curious about the political connections, and also family breakdowns and religion. And I do find it heartening that an overwhelming majority say that they have a spiritual life (although it sounds vague, they are identifying with elements of religion and faith).
However, what is clear is that nothing good will happen automatically unless we take up our baptismal call to go and make disciples seriously, and within a different context than existed in recent generations past. We ignore the reasons behind the rise of the nones at our peril. While hefty statistics make it clear we are shrinking and people are leaving Christianity (if they were in it to begin with), they don’t tell the story as to why people are not interested. Ask questions. Open conversations. Strive to learn why people think and believe the way they do.
And let’s not presume people know the good news. The rise of our younger generations is a rise that is increasingly fueled not by leaving the faith, but not growing up in it in the first place. It’s a Romans 10:14 moment if there ever was one: How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
If we don’t share the good news, the statistics indicate that in the near future, no one else will.
Have questions or thoughts about this latest set of data? Feel free to email us and share your thoughts! We’d like to know what you think.
