Pew: US Christianity downturn leveling, but Catholics suffer 'greatest net losses'

(OSV News) -- A multiyear decline in Christianity in the U.S. may have leveled off, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. However, the Catholic Church, the survey found, is seeing the greatest net losses of believers compared to other religions in the U.S.

The data indicates that for every one person received into the Catholic Church, another 8.4 individuals have left the faith, either altogether or for another worship tradition. This increases the trend Pew found in 2014, when 6.5 Catholics left the faith for every person who entered.

Pew's new survey also shows just 29% of the nation's Catholics attend religious services weekly or more often. Altogether four in 10 Catholics attend religious services monthly or more.
In addition, support among U.S. Catholics for legalized abortion, homosexuality and other stances at odds with church teaching has increased over the past decade and a half.

On Feb. 26, Pew Research released the results of its 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study. The RLS polled 36,908 U.S. adults on a range of topics regarding religious belief and practice, as well as issues such as abortion, homosexuality, immigration and the role of government.
The survey was conducted in English and Spanish from July 2023 to March 2024, with participants sharing their thoughts online, via mail or phone.

Researchers noted that a multiyear decline in the number of U.S. adults identifying as Christian -- noted in Pew's 2007 and 2014 RLS reports -- has appeared to stabilize "at least temporarily" since 2019.

The rise in those who are religiously unaffiliated, or "nones," has also leveled off for now, after "rising rapidly for decades," Pew noted.

However, the new survey "cannot answer definitively" whether that short-term stability will be "permanent," cautioned Gregory A. Smith, senior associate director of research at Pew.

While he and his team "cannot predict the future," Smith told OSV News the data "very clearly" shows that "the underlying forces that drove the long-term declines are still very much in evidence."

"The youngest adults in the population are still far, far less religious than the oldest adults," Smith said. "We know, furthermore, that the oldest cohort of Americans ... will decline as a share of the population as the people in that cohort pass away."

For the stability Pew has observed to prove permanent, "something would have to change," Smith explained. "Either today's young adults would have to become a lot more religious as they get older, or new generations are going to have to come along in the future that are far more religious than today's young adults."

The report found that 62% of U.S. adults currently describe themselves as Christian, with the majority (40%) Protestant, 19% Catholic and 3% as Christians from other denominations.

The total number of self-identified U.S. Christians is down from 78% in 2007 and 71% in 2014.
In 2007, 24% of the nation identified as Catholic, which dropped to 21% in 2021.

Over one quarter (29%) of the U.S. population identifies as religiously unaffiliated, with most (19%) describing themselves as religiously "nothing in particular," 5% as atheist and 6% as agnostic. Another 7% of the U.S. population belongs to religions other than Christianity, with 2% being Jewish, and Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus counting as approximately 1% each.

Yet overall, most Americans (86%) believe people have a soul or spirit, and 83% say they believe in God or a universal spirit. A majority (79%) also hold there is a spiritual reality beyond the natural one, and 70% believe in heaven, hell or both.

Still, less than half (44%) say they pray at least once a day, a figure that has held steady since 2021, and 33% report attending religious services at least once a month.

Pew researchers speculated that "in future years we may see further declines in the religiousness of the American public." It pointed out that "young adults are far less religious than older adults" and "no recent birth cohort has become more religious as it has aged."

The "stickiness," or persistence, of a religious upbringing appears to have declined, while that of a nonreligious upbringing "seems to be rising," said Pew researchers.

Generally, "younger Americans remain far less religious than older adults," said Pew, noting that 46% of the survey's youngest respondents (ages 18-24) identified as Christian, with 27% praying daily and 25% attending religious services at least monthly. In comparison, the survey's oldest respondents (ages 74 and older) saw 80% identify as Christian, 58% pray daily, and 49% attend religious services at least monthly.

Catholics polled by Pew have also shown an increased acceptance of abortion and homosexuality since 2007.

Among Catholic survey respondents, 59% said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, compared to 48% in both Pew's 2007 and 2014 surveys. The Catholic Church holds that human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception, and since the first century has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.

A majority (59%) of religiously affiliated persons in the U.S. say homosexuality should be accepted by society, with 74% of Catholic respondents endorsing that view. The Catholic Church, which teaches that sexual activity can only morally take place in marriage between a man and a woman, also teaches that persons with homosexual inclinations "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity."

Catholics have also "experienced the greatest net losses" due to what Pew researchers called "religious switching," with 43% of the people raised Catholic no longer identifying as such, "meaning that 12.8% of all U.S. adults are former Catholics," said the report.

However, Smith said, "It is also important to point out that 1.5% of U.S. adults are converts to Catholicism."

"That's millions of people," he said.

"That means there are more converts to Catholicism in the United States than there are Episcopalians, for example. There are more converts to Catholicism than there are members of congregational churches, and so on," he added.

"There are lots of people who are joining the Catholic Church," Smith said. "It's just that they are far outnumbered by those who say they've left the Catholic Church."

Smith also said that "it's not necessarily that there's lots and lots of people switching their religion at any one moment in time.

"These are gradual processes," he explained. "It takes time to observe them."