Yesterday, the Pew Forum released the second installment of their original “US Religious Landscape Survey.” I blogged some comments on the last report and will do the same on the second installment in the next day or two. If you have time, I would highly encourage you to check out their survey on religious beliefs and practices in the American religious landscape.
Popularity: 2% [?]
This morning the New York Times reported on the Pew Forum On Religion And Public Life’s latest survey entitled, “US Religious Landscape Survey.” It is a 143 page document outlining the seismic religious shift the American culture is undergoing. And what does it find? It uncovers what we’ve sort of known all along but were afraid to admit: it’s a very competitive marketplace, with constant movement characterizing the American religious marketplace.
Here are some interesting numbers from their massive 35,000 person survey:
- More than 1 in 4 (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised for another religion or no religion at all.
- 44% of adults have switched affiliation, moved from be affiliated from unaffiliated, or dropped any connection to a specific affiliation all together.
- Fully 16% of adults are now unaffiliated with any particular faith, making it the 4th largest “religious” group. But that doesnt mean they are all athiests or agnostics: 4% of adults are athiests or agnostics and 12% describe their religion as “nothing in particular. This last group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).
- 1 in 5 men say they have no particular religious affiliation, compared to 1 in 13 for women.
- Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly…) 1 in 4 young adults (18-29) have no religious affiliation at all.
- Those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin.
- 6 in 10 Americans age 70 and older (62%) are Protestant but that this number is only about four-in-ten (43%) among Americans ages 18-29. Conversely, young adults ages 18-29 are much more likely than those age 70 and older to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion (25% vs. 8%). If these generational patterns persist, recent declines in the number of Protestants and growth in the size of the unaffiliated population may continue.
- People not affiliated with any particular religion stand out for their relative youth compared with other religious traditions. Among the unaffiliated, 31% are under age 30 and 71% are under age 50. Comparable numbers for the overall adult population are 20% and 59%, respectively.
Some interesting findings indeed. Without sounding like Chicken Little or repeating the omen mantras of some fundamentalists who say the Church will die in a generation, I’d like to offer some thoughts on the implications an emerging generation will have on the Church, in light of these findings.
Popularity: 100% [?]
