Fewer Americans today consider themselves to be religious and more than ever before have moved away from organized religion. This according to a new study from Gallup.
Released just in time for the holidays and the end of the year, Gallup offers Americans, ” Five Key Findings on Religion in the U.S.”
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So what did they find out? Well first of all, the percentage of Americans without any religious identity has been increasing for decades. Today about one in five U.S. adults (21%) do not have a formal religious identity. The share of non-affiliation among Americans is not only going up but the rate at which it is happening is increasing.
Until the 1960s the share of Americans with no religious identity was only 3%. By the end of the 1970s it had increased to about 10%. And the amount has doubled in the last 30 years.
Also, only 56% of all Americans are members of some house of worship whether a Church, Synagogue or Mosque.
Gallup also found that only a simple majority of Americans say that religion is important in their lives and most Americans believe that religion is intertwined with their country’s politics. But they also believe that religion is losing its influence on American society. In this way Americans are becoming more like Europeans.
Finally, to no one’s surprise, Gallup also found that the vast majority of Americans are Christian. Of them, 74% identify as such and only 5% identify with other religions.
