The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released a report this week documenting the change in American religiosity based on their most recent surveys. The report delivers the findings from interviews with 35,556 adults in the United States which indicate that increased diversity and dynamism of American religiosity make it hard to develop predictions for the future of religion and public life in the United States.
News reports on the Religious Landscape Survey highlight:
Faith is fluid: 44% say they’re no longer tied to the religious or secular upbringing of their childhood. They’ve changed religions or denominations, adopted a faith for the first time or abandoned any affiliation altogether.
“Nothing” matters: 12.1% say their religious identity is “nothing in particular,” outranking every denomination and tradition except Catholics (23.9%) and all groups of Baptists (17.2%).
Protestants are fading: 51.3% call themselves Protestant, but roughly one-third of this group were “unable or unwilling” to describe their denomination.
Immigrants sustain Catholic numbers: 46% of foreign-born U.S. adults are Catholics, compared with only 21% of native-born adults. Latinos are now 45% of all U.S. Catholics ages 18-29.
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