Religious Trends

“The stories below are a reflection of what our nation and the Church has walked through over the past 365 days, covering somber findings, stark divides, moments of healing and glimmers of hope for the coming year.” - Barna.com

“AEI’s Survey Center on American Life investigating contemporary religion in the U.S. found that among young adults (age 18 to 29)… (34%) young adults are religiously unaffiliated. Nearly nine in 10 (87%) Americans report they believe in God, but just over half (53%) report they believe in God without any doubts at all.” - CPost

“Registered Republican voters have seemingly moved away from God at a slower rate, dropping from 87% Christian in 2008 to 79% Christian in 2019. In comparison, the number of religiously unaffiliated voters has almost doubled from 15% to 28% in the same years.” - C.Post

“While millennials have shown the most radical shift away from the Bible, other generations did not fare much better. Only an estimated 9% of adults in both the Elder (75 and older) and Boomer generations (56 to 74 years of age) hold a biblical worldview.” - C.Post

“For the first time since 2013, Americans’ confidence in the institution of the church increased in Gallup’s annual tracking poll. The percentage who say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the church climbed from 36% to 42%.” - F&T

“The results show that while 60% of U.S. adults held the view that religious belief is a matter of personal opinion in 2018, that number dropped to 54% in 2020.” - C.Post

“though the Bible and traditional teachings of the Christian Church hold that Jesus truly existed as both man and God, among the key findings of the biennial State of Theology survey from Ligonier Ministries conducted with LifeWay Research, is that 52% of American adults believe that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more.” - C.Post

“All that said, teens appear to be very critical of those with strong traditional religious beliefs, with about half of them thinking they are too intolerant of others.” - Church Leaders

“huge proportions of people associated with churches whose official doctrine says eternal salvation comes only from embracing Jesus Christ as savior believe that a person can qualify for Heaven by being or doing good. That includes close to half of all adults associated with Pentecostal (46%), mainline Protestant (44%), and evangelical (41%) churches.

“According to American Bible Society’s (ABS) report, State of the Bible 2020, the number of American adults considered ‘Scripture engaged’ based on how frequently they read the Bible and its impact on their relationships and choices dropped from 28% to 23% …Yet the study also shows 68% of American adults (about 172 million people) are ‘Bible curious,’….