The Pew Research Center's recent study reveals a drop in Christians in the U.S.
America's religious demographic has changed in the last seven years as the number of American Christians has dropped in both percentage and overall number. On Tuesday, the Pew Research Center released a study showing the changes in the American religious landscape for the year of 2014.
The report includes a sample size of more than 35,000 Americans and shows that Christianity is not as prominent as it was seven years ago. In 2007, when the last report was published, 78.4% of U.S. adults claimed to belong to a Christian group, which includes Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and more. In the most recent report, the percentage dropped to 70.6 percent. In terms of number, there are about five million fewer Christians in America today, than in 2007. Within this group of Christians, the largest drop has been in the mainline Protestant and Catholic groups. America, however, still has more Christians than any other country in the world.
In 2007 Mainline Protestants and Catholics accounted for 18.1 and 23.9 percent of U.S. adults respectively. 7 years later, they accounted for 14.7 and 20.8 percent. Evangelical Protestants, however, only dropped from 26.3 to 25.4 percent.
While the general number of Christians in the U.S. has dropped, the number of those not associating with a faith grew. About 22.8 percent of U.S. adults had no religious affiliation in 2014; in 2007 it was 16.1 percent. 18 percent of the U.S. adult population reportedly grew up in religious homes and now consider themselves to have no religion. The general increase in this group affects many demographic groups, reports the Pew Research Center. The unaffiliated group is one of the younger groups compared to religious groups, and continues to get younger. The average age of the group dropped from 38 in 2007 to 26 in 2014.
Further, the percentage of Christian college graduates has dropped from 73 to 64 percent. The percentage of those with less than a college education also dropped, from 81 to 73 percent. Also, gender lines show distinction in terms of religious affiliation; 27 percent of men consider themselves to have no religious affiliation while 19 percent of women identify with that group. Both males and females have increased percentage in this group, however.
Though the Christian faith has lost members, Islam and Hinduism have gained prominence in America. Muslims grew from .4 percent to .9 percent of U.S. adults, while Hindus grew from .4 to .7 percent. Currently, non-Christian faiths make up about 5.9 percent of the U.S. adult population, an increase from the 4.7 percent in 2007.
The survey was conducted through telephone interviews and has a margin of error of .6 percent.
