Pew Research Center

The vast majority of Americans were raised in a religion. Fully 86% say that as children, they identified with Protestantism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam or another religion. Just 13% of U.S. adults say that as children, they did not identify with any religion. The Religious Landscape Study (RLS) shows, furthermore, that 68% of U.S. adults say they grew up attending religious services at least once or twice a month, including 56% who say they went at least once a week. Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say they received at least some formal religious education as children, attending either a private religious school or other religious education programs such as Sunday school or CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine). This includes 35% of Americans who received a lot of formal religious education (seven or more years attending either type). In addition, 45% of Americans say religion was very important to their family when they were children. The survey shows a clear relationship between people’s religious upbringing and how religious they are now. People raised in highly religious families are more likely to be religious themselves as adults. For example, among adults who say religion was very important to their family when they were children, 55% say religion is very important in their own lives today. Far fewer people who grew up in families in which religion was less important say it is very important in their own lives today. Still, growing up in a religious home is no guarantee that a person will view religion as very important as an adult. Among adults who say they were raised in homes where religion was very important to their family, 24% say religion is somewhat important to them today, and an additional 20% say it is not too important or not at all important. Age plays a role in how people answer these questions. The younger they are, the less likely U.S. adults are to say they were raised in religious homes. And the “stickiness” of a religious upbringing may be declining: In general, younger U.S. adults who were raised in highly religious homes are less religious today than older U.S. adults who were raised in highly religious homes. Read more in this chapter about: While this chapter includes data on U.S. adults’ religious affiliation and attendance at religious services as children – and on the importance of religion to them while they were growing up – you can read more about U.S. adults’ current levels of religious affiliation in Chapter 1, about current levels of religious attendance in Chapter 8, and about religion’s current importance to adults in Chapter 7. Childhood religious identity The vast majority of U.S. adults – 86% – say they were raised in a religion. This includes 80% who were raised as Christians and an additional 6% who were raised in other, non-Christian religions. Overall, 46% of U.S. adults say they were raised as Protestants, and 30% say they were raised as Catholics. Smaller shares were raised as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as Mormons (2%); Orthodox Christians (1%); and Jehovah’s Witnesses (1%). Among the survey’s respondents, 2% say they were raised Jewish by religion, 1% say they were raised Muslim, 1% were raised Buddhist, and 1% grew up Hindu. In addition, 1% of U.S. adults say they were raised as atheists, 1% were raised as agnostics, and 11% say they were raised in no particular religion. Religious service attendance during childhood A majority of U.S. adults (56%) say they went to religious services weekly or more often as children, and an additional 11% say they grew up going to religious services once or twice a month. Looking just at people raised as Christians, 78% say they grew up going to church at least monthly, including 63% who say they went at least weekly. People raised in religions other than Christianity report having attended religious services at lower rates as children. Among people who say they were raised religiously unaffiliated, 17% say they grew up going to religious services at least monthly. Importance of religion during childhood Overall, 45% of U.S. adults say that religion was very important to their family when they were growing up. Looking just at people who were raised as Christians, half say religion was very important to their family when they were children, including 49% of those raised Protestant and 51% of those raised Catholic. Among U.S. adults raised in non-Christian religions, the shares who say religion was very important to their family when they were children range from 27% among those raised Buddhist to 66% among those raised Muslim. Most adults who were raised without a religious affiliation say religion was not too or not at all important to their family when they were growing up (69%), while 15% say religion was very important to their family. Far fewer Americans say religion was very important to them personally when they were children than say it was very important to their family while they were growing up. This pattern is seen among people raised in a wide variety of religious traditions. Childhood religious education Most Americans (69%) say they received at least some formal religious education as children. This includes 62% of U.S. adults who say that as children, they attended Sunday school, CCD or some other kind of religious education for one to three years (20%), four to six years (13%), or seven or more years (28%). Fewer people (24%) say they attended a private religious school as a child for at least one to three years. We combined these two questions (about attendance at Sunday school or other religious education programs, and attendance at private religious schools) to construct a scale measuring levels of religious education. According to the scale, 35% of U.S. adults received a lot of religious education, meaning they attended either a private religious school or an extracurricular religious program for seven or more years. An additional 18% received a fair amount of religious

The percentage of Americans who say religion is very important in their lives has been relatively stable in recent years, though it appears to be lower than it was in the 2007 and 2014 Religious Landscape Studies. Today, about four-in-ten Americans say religion is very important to them. That’s what we’ve found both in the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) and in other surveys we have conducted since 2021. In contrast, more than half of U.S. adults said religion was very important in their lives in 2007 (56%) and 2014 (53%).  Some of this decline reflects the growth of religiously unaffiliated Americans: Adults who identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” rarely say religion is very important to them personally. The decline also may be partly due to a “mode effect,” as Pew Research Center has changed the way it conducts surveys. Unlike the 2007 and 2014 landscape studies, which were conducted by telephone, the new RLS was administered primarily online and on paper. The Center’s National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS), repeated annually since 2020, also is conducted online and by paper. A companion study conducted alongside the new RLS suggests that people are somewhat more inclined to say religion is very important in their lives when speaking to a live interviewer over the telephone than when reading questions by themselves and responding online or on paper. This aligns with social scientists’ findings that people taking surveys sometimes give more socially desirable answers when talking with another person, perhaps unconsciously leaning toward the answers they think the other person expects or wants to hear. The size and direction of this “mode effect” can vary, depending on the question. On the other hand, the percentage of Americans who say religion is very important in their lives was already slipping before we transitioned to online and paper surveys, and the mode effect on this question does not appear to be big enough to account for the entire decline since 2014. The 2023-24 RLS also asked respondents about the importance of the Bible in their lives. While most Christians say the Bible is either extremely important or very important, most adults in other U.S. religious groups say the Bible is not too important or not at all important. Read on for more details about how specific groups answer questions about the importance of religion and the importance of the Bible. Religion’s importance Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults say religion is very important or somewhat important in their lives. But there are sharp differences across religious groups. Among members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons), members of historically Black Protestant denominations, and evangelical Protestants, roughly seven-in-ten say religion is very important to them personally. Fewer than half of mainline Protestants and Catholics say religion is very important to them. Most U.S. Muslims (60%) say religion is very important in their lives, while Buddhists and Hindus are more likely to say religion is somewhat important than to say it is very important. Jewish Americans are among the most likely of the religiously affiliated groups studied to say religion is not too important or not at all important in their lives – though 27% say it is very important. Most people who are religiously unaffiliated say religion is not important in their lives, including 98% of atheists who say it is not too important or not at all important. The Bible’s importance Overall, 44% of U.S. adults say the Bible is extremely important or very important in their lives, while 19% say the Bible is somewhat important, and 37% say the Bible is not too important or not at all important. A majority of U.S. Christians say the Bible is extremely important or very important in their lives, but there are large differences across Christian subgroups. The vast majority of members of historically Black Protestant denominations, evangelical Protestants, and Latter-day Saints say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives. Fewer than half of mainline Protestants and Catholics say this. Most Americans who identify with non-Christian religions say the Bible is not too important or not at all important to them personally, though roughly one-quarter of Jews (22%) and Muslims (25%) say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives. Relatively few religiously unaffiliated adults (10%) say the Bible is extremely or very important in their lives. This modest share comes almost exclusively from people who say their religion is “nothing in particular,” rather than from atheists or agnostics.   This question was not asked in previous RLS surveys, so we are not able to show trends over time. source

In addition to asking workers how they feel about and use AI in the workplace generally, we asked a series of questions specifically about workplace use of AI chatbots – such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. A majority of workers (55%) rarely or never use AI chatbots at work. An additional 29% haven’t heard of this at all. Relatively small shares of workers say they have used AI chatbots for work: 9% say they use them every day or a few times a week, and 7% say they use them a few times a month. The groups who are more likely to have heard of AI chatbots are also more likely to use these tools: Workers ages 18 to 29 (23% say they use them at least a few times a month) Workers with a postgraduate degree (26%) How workers are using AI chatbots in their jobs The most common uses for AI chatbots among workers who’ve used them at work include: Doing research or finding information about a specific topic (57% of workers who have used AI chatbots at work say they’ve done this) Editing written content (52%) Drafting reports, documents, or other written content (47%) Four-in-ten or fewer say they’ve used AI chatbots at work to: Summarize information from documents or meetings (40%) Come up with new ideas, such as new projects or creative solutions (35%) Help with analyzing data or writing computer code (27%) Create or edit images or videos (21%) Workers ages 18 to 49 are more likely than those ages 50 and older to say they have used AI chatbots for almost all the work tasks we asked about. For example, among workers who have used AI chatbots at work, half of those ages 18 to 49 say they have used them to draft reports, documents or other written content, while only 38% of those ages 50 and older say they have done this. Similarly, 39% of workers 18 to 49 who have used AI chatbots say they have used them to come up with new ideas. This compares with 23% of those ages 50 and older. The only exception is on doing research or finding information about a specific topic. The shares of younger and older workers who say they have used AI chatbots to do this are not statistically different (58% and 53%). Among workers who have used AI chatbots for work, those with at least a bachelor’s degree are more likely than those with some college or less education to say they have used AI chatbots for some of the work tasks we asked about. There are significant differences by education when it comes to doing research or finding information about a specific topic; editing written content; drafting reports, documents or other written content; and coming up with new ideas. Do workers find AI chatbots helpful for their work? Among workers who have used AI chatbots for work, 40% say these tools have been extremely or very helpful in allowing them to do things more quickly. A smaller share (29%) say they have been highly helpful in improving the quality of their work. Views on this differ by age, education and how frequently workers use AI chatbots. Workers ages 18 to 49 are more likely than those ages 50 and older to find AI chatbots highly helpful in allowing them to do things more quickly (44% vs. 29%) and in improving the quality of their work (31% vs. 23%). Workers with at least a bachelor’s degree are also more likely than those with some college or less education to find AI chatbots highly helpful in allowing them to do things more quickly (44% vs. 34%). However, in terms of improving work quality, about the same shares of workers across education levels say AI chatbots have been highly helpful: 28% among those with some college or less education and 29% among those with at least a bachelor’s degree. Workers who use AI chatbots at least a few times a month are much more likely than workers who rarely use them to find these tools helpful. Among workers who use AI chatbots regularly, 54% say they’ve been highly helpful in speeding up their work and 41% say they’ve been highly helpful in improving their work quality. Smaller shares among workers who rarely use AI chatbots say the same (25% and 16%, respectively). Why some workers have not used AI chatbots for work Most workers (69%) do not use AI chatbots at work. This includes 40% who have never used them for work and 29% who have not heard about AI chatbot use in the workplace. Among workers who are not AI chatbot users, 36% say a major reason they have never used AI chatbots for work is that there isn’t any use for them in their job. About one-in-five (22%) say a major reason they haven’t used AI chatbots is because they’re not interested in using them. Smaller shares say they do not know how to use AI chatbots (10%) or their employer does not allow the use of AI chatbots (9%). Within this group of non-users, workers ages 50 and older are more likely than those ages 18 to 49 to say they haven’t used AI chatbots for work because they don’t know how to use them (13% vs. 8%). There aren’t significant differences by age for the rest of the items. Do employers encourage use of AI chatbots for work? Among all workers who are not self-employed, half say their employer neither encourages nor discourages the use of AI chatbots at work. Some 12% say their employer encourages it, and 8% say their employer discourages it. The shares of workers who say their employer encourages the use of AI chatbots for work are small across most industries, but the following stand out for sizable shares of workers saying their employer encourages it: Information and technology (36% say this) Banking, finance, accounting, real estate or insurance (24%) Professional, scientific and technical services

Millions of Americans have changed their religion over the course of their lifetimes, switching from one religion to another, leaving religion altogether, or choosing to identify with a religion after having grown up without one. If Protestants are counted as a single category – rather than separated into subgroups such as Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. – then the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) finds that 35% of U.S. adults were raised with a different religious identity than the one they have now. This is roughly on par with what we found in the 2014 RLS, using the same definition of switching. At that time, 34% of Americans were categorized as having switched religions when Protestantism was treated as a single group. (By this definition, religious switchers would include – to give just a few examples – a person who was raised Protestant and is now religiously unaffiliated; a person who was raised Catholic and now identifies as any kind of Protestant; a person who was raised in no religion but now identifies as Jewish; and a person who was raised as an Orthodox Christian and now identifies as a Catholic. However, a person who was raised as a United Methodist and now identifies as a Southern Baptist would not be considered to have switched religions, because both of those denominations are Protestant. Similarly, a person who was raised with no particular religion and now identifies as an atheist would not be counted as having switched, because both of those categories are part of the religiously unaffiliated grouping.) The overall patterns of religious switching in the 2023-24 RLS are similar to the patterns that appeared in the previous landscape studies. Christianity, as a whole, continues to lose more adherents than it gains through switching: For every American who has become Christian after having been raised in another religion or no religion, six others have left Christianity and now describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, as belonging to another – i.e., non-Christian – religion, or they don’t answer the question about their current religion. Both Protestantism and Catholicism experience net loss from switching. In the 2023-24 RLS, 1.8 people have left Protestantism for every person who has become a Protestant after having been raised in another religious group or in no religion. The ratio for Catholicism is even more lopsided: For every U.S. adult who has become a Catholic after being raised in some other religion or without a religion, there are 8.4 adults who say they were raised in the Catholic faith but who no longer describe themselves as Catholics. Pew Research Center uses the term “religious switching” rather than “conversion” to reflect the fact that movement occurs in all directions and is not necessarily accompanied by any rituals. The category that has grown the most through religious switching is the religiously unaffiliated population. This group is sometimes called the “nones” and is made up of Americans who answer a question about their present religion by saying they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” For every person who was raised as a “none” and now identifies with a religion, 5.9 people have switched away from their childhood religion and no longer identify with any religion. This chapter details the religious switching among U.S. religious groups. We show both sides of the equation: how many U.S. adults have entered and left each group. We also show the retention rates of the large groups: what percentage of all people raised in a religious group as children remain in it as adults. In addition, this chapter explores a pair of questions asking respondents to evaluate, in broad terms, how they have changed religiously and spiritually as they have aged. When asked how their religiousness has changed, 28% of Americans say they have become more religious, while roughly the same share – 29% – say they have become less religious. The remainder describe their religiousness as unchanged (21%), say they have sometimes grown more religious and other times less so (21%), or they decline to answer the question (1%). When asked how their spirituality has shifted over the course of their lifetimes, more U.S. adults say it has increased (43%) than decreased (11%). The remainder say their level of spirituality has stayed about the same (22%), indicate that it has sometimes risen and sometimes fallen (23%), or they give no answer (1%). Jump to sections on: Net gains and losses among religious traditions Religiously unaffiliated Americans have experienced the greatest net gains, as a share of the U.S population, through religious switching. Among all U.S. adults, 12.6% say they were raised with no religious affiliation (as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular”). About a quarter of that group – 3.5% of all U.S. adults – no longer identify as religious “nones.” Instead, they now identify with a religion (or, in a small number of cases, decline to answer the religion question). Still, the share of people who have joined the ranks of the “nones” is nearly six times larger: 20.2% of all U.S. adults were raised in a religion and now identify as religiously unaffiliated. The picture is reversed for Christianity. Overall, 21.9% of U.S. adults are former Christians – people who say they were raised as Christians but no longer identify as such. That’s six times higher than the share of U.S. adults who now identify as Christians after having been raised in some other way (3.6%). Catholics have experienced the greatest net losses due to switching. About three-in-ten U.S. adults (30.2%) say they were raised Catholic. But 43% of the people raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic, meaning that 12.8% of all U.S. adults are former Catholics. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, 1.5% of U.S. adults have become Catholics after being raised another way. Overall, 18.9% of U.S. adults currently identify as Catholics, according to the new RLS. Protestantism also has lost more people than it has gained through religious switching. Overall, 13.7% of U.S. adults say they

Overall, most American workers (63%) say they don’t use AI much or at all in their job. About one-in-six workers (16%) say at least some of their work is done with AI, including just 2% who say all or most of their work is done with AI. Some 17% of workers have not heard about AI use in the workplace. Majorities of workers across age groups and education levels say that not much or none of their work is done with AI. Workers younger than 50 are somewhat more likely to use AI in their job (17% vs. 13% of those ages 50 and older), as are workers with a bachelor’s degree when compared with those who have less education (20% vs. 13%). Among non-AI users – those who say they don’t use AI at work much or at all, or have not heard about this – about a third (31%) say at least some of their work can be done with AI. This includes 4% who say all or most of their work can be done with AI. Still, a sizable share of non-AI users (45%) say that not much or none of their job can be done with AI. And another 21% of non-AI users have not heard of AI use in the workplace. Perceptions about how much work can be done with AI vary by age and education. Non-AI users ages 18 to 49 are more likely than those ages 50 and older to say that at least some of their work can be done with AI (34% vs. 25%). Non-AI users with at least a bachelor’s degree are twice as likely as those with some college or less education to say the same (44% vs. 22%). How are AI users and non-AI users different? A profile of AI users compared with non-AI users reveals key demographic differences between these groups. Compared with non-AI users, AI users are: Younger: 73% are under 50, compared with 65% of non-AI users. More educated: 51% have at least a bachelor’s degree, including 22% who have a postgraduate degree. By comparison, 39% of non-AI users have at least a bachelor’s degree, while the majority (61%) have some college or less education. More likely to reside in urban areas (29% vs. 24% among non-AI users) and less likely to live in rural areas (16% vs. 22%). More likely to work in jobs that involves data processing (63% vs. 42%). More likely to be working in the banking, finance, accounting, real estate or insurance industry (10% vs. 6%) and in the information and technology industry (12% vs. 5%). Have workers received job training related to AI? At the time of our October 2024 survey, about half of workers (51%) said they had taken a class or gotten extra training for work in the prior 12 months. Within this group, about a quarter (24%) say a training they took was related to AI use. To the extent that there are differences by age or education, these are very modest. Most workers across age and education groups say the training they took was not related to AI use. Understanding and knowing how to use AI tools does not rank high among workers when they’re asked about which skills are most important to be successful in today’s economy. About a third of all employed adults (35%) say AI skills are extremely or very important for workers today. AI users are more likely than non-AI users to say this (50% vs 33%). By comparison, interpersonal skills, written and spoken communication, critical thinking, and basic computer skills are considered extremely or very important by about 70% of workers or more, regardless of their AI use. source

Americans who go to religious services tend to worship where most other congregants and senior leaders share their race or ethnicity. Two-thirds of U.S. adults who attend religious services in person at least a few times a year (called “attenders” in this chapter) say they go to a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other house of worship in which all or most other congregants share their race or ethnicity. Two-thirds also go to congregations where the senior religious leaders share their race or ethnicity. The new Religious Landscape Study (RLS) also asked about the religious composition of the congregation that respondents attended as children. Most people who grew up attending religious services at least a few times a year (78%) say they went to religious services in which most other congregants had the same race or ethnicity as they did. One-in-ten say that as children they went to a house of worship where most attendees were of a different race than their own. A similar share (10%) say they attended a congregation where no single racial group made up a majority. Today, half of U.S. adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year report that all or most other people in their house of worship are White, 11% say most of their fellow congregants are Hispanic, 10% say most are Black, and 4% say most are Asian. And when it comes to leadership in their houses of worship, 53% of U.S. adults who attend services at least a few times a year say that all or most of the senior leaders there are White, 11% say most are Black, 10% say most are Hispanic, and 4% say most are Asian. Additionally, 21% of attenders go to congregations where no one racial or ethnic group accounts for a majority of congregants, and 18% go to a congregation where no one racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of senior leaders. Read more about how religious service attenders answer the survey’s questions about the racial and ethnic compositions of congregations and congregational leaders. The racial and ethnic composition of congregations Two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year say that all or most of their fellow worshippers are the same race or ethnicity as themselves. An additional 11% say they go to a congregation where all or most other congregants have a different race or ethnicity than they do, and 21% attend a congregation in which no single racial group makes up a majority. Most Jews (81%) worship where all or most attendees are the same race or ethnicity as themselves, as do 73% of mainline Protestants, 72% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition, and 71% of Hindus. Muslim Americans are an exception. Just 35% of Muslim Americans say they worship in congregations where they share the race or ethnicity of all or most of their fellow worshippers. A majority of Muslims who attend religious services do so either where all or most congregants are a different race than they are (26%), or where no one racial group makes up a majority (39%). We do not discuss results for religious “nones” in this section because the vast majority of them – 88% – seldom or never attend religious services. Most of the rest say they attend religious services a few times a year (9%). Just 3% of religious “nones” say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month. The survey did not include enough interviews with Orthodox Christians or members of other religiously affiliated groups who attend religious services in person at least a few times a year to be able to show their results. The survey finds that 85% of Jewish attenders say they go to a congregation in which all or most other congregants are White, as do 70% of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons), 70% of mainline Protestants and 61% of evangelical Protestants. Two-thirds of attenders who identify with the historically Black Protestant tradition say they go to a congregation in which all or most other people are Black or African American. And about three-quarters of Hindu attenders (77%) report that all or most of their fellow worshippers are Asian or Asian American. Nearly half of Catholic attenders (47%) go to Mass at a church in which all or most other congregants are White, while 27% of Catholic attenders go to a church that is mostly Hispanic or Latino, and 19% say they attend a church where no racial group makes up a majority. The differences across religious groups in the way respondents describe the racial and ethnic makeup of their congregations partly reflects the racial and ethnic composition of the groups themselves. For details on the racial and ethnic composition of people within these religious categories, refer to Chapter 24. The racial and ethnic composition of congregational leaders As with the racial and ethnic composition of congregants, two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services say they go to congregations in which all or most of the senior religious leaders are the same race or ethnicity as they are. Here again, Muslims are a notable exception. Fewer than half of Muslim respondents say they share the same race as most of the religious leaders at their mosque. Roughly nine-in-ten Jewish Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year say all or most of the leaders at their congregation are White. Three-quarters of Latter-day Saints and mainline Protestants say the same, as do two-thirds of evangelical Protestants. About half of Catholics say all or most of the senior religious leaders at their parishes are White. source

Many questions in the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) previously were asked in the 2007 and 2014 landscape studies. Measuring change over time on these questions is one key goal of the new RLS. But the 2023-24 survey was conducted using different methods from the 2007 and 2014 surveys, and this “mode switch” complicates comparisons between the results of the new survey and the findings of the previous surveys. In the new survey, we mailed invitations to a random sample of U.S. households using address-based sampling (ABS). Participants were given the option of completing the survey online, on paper, or on the phone (by calling a toll-free number we gave them). For more details, read this report’s Methodology. Overall, 60% of the respondents in the 2023-24 RLS participated online, 37% completed the survey on paper, and 3% took the survey on the phone. By contrast, both the 2007 and 2014 surveys were conducted entirely by phone. In both of those surveys, we recruited respondents using random-digit dialing, and the survey was administered by live interviewers who asked the questions and recorded the answers. Respondents answer some survey questions differently when they are talking with an interviewer (as in the 2007 and 2014 surveys) than when they participate in surveys online or on paper (as most respondents in the new survey did). This means that for some survey questions, the results we obtained in previous surveys (using an interviewer-administered mode) cannot be directly compared with the results from the new survey that we conducted using mainly self-administered modes, even if the wording of the questions is identical. But not all questions are equally subject to these “mode effects.” While testing indicates that some questions are not comparable across different modes, others can be safely compared, and still others fall somewhere in between – the data can provide basic information about the direction of trends, even if varying modes don’t produce identical results. Using a bridge study and other data to decide how to compare results To help us determine which results from the new survey are comparable with those of past surveys, we conducted a telephone bridge study using a methodological approach similar to the one we used for the 2007 and 2014 landscape studies. In the bridge study, we used a random-digit-dialing method and conducted telephone interviews with 1,519 respondents separately from the main survey. We asked these respondents the same questions that were administered to respondents in the main survey. But the 1,519 respondents in the telephone bridge study are not included in the main RLS survey; the bridge study was conducted only as a test, exclusively for the purpose of helping us determine which questions in the new survey can safely be compared with the 2007 and 2014 results, which questions clearly cannot be compared, and which fall somewhere in between. (Read about the bridge study’s Methodology.) We compared the results of the telephone bridge study with those of the main address-based sample. For each question, we examined whether the balance of opinion was similar across the differing modes (phone for the bridge study, mostly online/paper for the main survey). We also considered whether the different survey modes led to different distributions on particular response options. For example, people who completed the survey by phone in the bridge study sometimes volunteered “I don’t know” as a response, an option that is not available to respondents on the web and mail surveys. This sometimes resulted in fewer phone respondents choosing one of the substantive response options, compared with those who completed the survey via other modes. The bridge study is one important tool we used to help determine how to compare the results from the 2023-24 RLS with the results from the previous landscape studies, but it is not the only tool we used for this purpose. In addition to the bridge study, we also used other Pew Research Center analyses and experiences to help inform our decisions about whether to make comparisons between the new survey and previous RLS results. For example, we conducted an analysis in 2021 assessing whether it is possible to compare phone results with web results on key questions about religious identity, frequency of prayer, religious service attendance, and religion’s importance in people’s lives. Several RLS questions also have been asked on other recent Center surveys, which can provide additional information about comparability. We drew on all this information – the telephone bridge study, previous efforts to understand mode effects, and ongoing Pew Research Center surveys – to categorize RLS questions into three buckets, color coded as green (“go”), yellow (“caution”) and red (“stop”). Green questions produce results in the new survey that can safely be compared with the 2007 and 2014 RLS findings. There is no evidence that these questions are subject to significant mode effects. In polling lingo, they are “trendable” even though the new RLS was conducted using different modes than the previous studies. Red questions cannot be compared with the previous studies. The mode effects on these questions are relatively large. Comparing the results of these questions from the new study with previous studies could be misleading. Doing so might suggest that big changes have occurred in public opinion over the last 10 or 15 years when, in reality, the different results could be produced by the mode switch alone. Yellow questions fall between the safely trendable green questions, on the one hand, and the clearly non-trendable red questions, on the other. Yellow questions appear to be subject to modest mode effects, but they nevertheless can be cautiously compared with previous results while bearing in mind the size and direction of the mode effects on the particular question at hand.   Green: Questions we can compare with previous Religious Landscape Studies Many key questions in the new RLS can be safely compared with the 2007 and 2014 landscape studies, including the study’s core questions about religious identity (also sometimes called religious affiliation, preference or adherence). The bridge study finds little

The religious composition of the United States has been fairly stable in half a dozen Pew Research Center surveys conducted since 2020. The Christian share of the adult population has been between 60% and 64% in these surveys, while the religiously unaffiliated share has ranged from 28% to 31%. Adherents of religions other than Christianity have consistently accounted for 6% or 7% of U.S. adults throughout this period. Over the longer term, however, Christians have been declining as a percentage of the U.S. adult population, while the share that is religiously unaffiliated has been rising. (For an extended discussion of what explains the short-term stability in American religion amid a longer-term decline, refer to this report’s Overview.) This chapter draws on the 2007, 2014 and 2023-24 Religious Landscape Studies to summarize the long-term trends in Americans’ religious identities. The data shows that the Christian share of the population has declined across many demographic groups. Compared with 2007, the percentage of people who describe themselves as Christians is lower among men and women; college graduates and those with less education; all racial and ethnic groups large enough to analyze; all age groups; and all geographic sectors of the country. The picture is reversed for the religiously unaffiliated – a group sometimes referred to as religious “nones.” The “nones” are made up of U.S. adults who describe themselves as atheists, agnostics or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion. The ranks of “nones” have grown among men and women, married and unmarried people; college graduates and people with less education; all large racial and ethnic groups; all age groups; and in all regions of the country. This chapter includes sections on: The chapter concludes with a set of detailed tables on the religious composition of key demographic groups. Trends within Christianity In the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS), 62% of respondents identify as Christian, which is lower than the Christian shares measured in the 2007 (78%) and 2014 (71%) studies. The Protestant share of the population declined from 51% in 2007 to 40% in 2023-24. The Catholic share of the population, meanwhile, ticked down from 24% in 2007 to 21% in 2014. Since then, it has ranged between 18% and 21% in Center surveys, and it stands at 19% in the 2023-24 RLS. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) have accounted for 2% of respondents in all three religious landscape surveys. Orthodox Christians account for 1% of the population in the latest RLS. Fewer than 1% of respondents in the new survey identify as Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 1% identify either with more than one Christian group (e.g., people who say they identify as both Protestant and Catholic) or with a variety of other, smaller Christian groups (including Messianic Jews, Christian Scientists, or offshoots of Catholicism that are not in communion with Rome). Christian shares across social and demographic groups In all three of our landscape studies, younger Americans, men, unmarried people and college graduates have identified as Christians at lower rates than, respectively, older adults, women, married people and adults with less than a college degree. But one thing all these demographic groups have in common is a long-term decline in the share who identify as Christians. For example, although women have identified as Christians at higher levels than men in all three landscape surveys, the share of women saying they are Christian has dropped from 82% in the first RLS (2007) to 66% in the most recent one (2023-24). In addition, people of every racial and ethnic background that we measure are less likely to say they are Christian now than they were in 2007, as are people in every major region of the U.S. A detailed look at the size of Protestant denominations One feature of the RLS is that it includes detailed, branching questions to gather information about specific types of Protestants.   The RLS seeks to learn not just whether someone is Protestant, but also what family of denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) they may belong to. In addition, the RLS goes a step further, seeking to learn which specific denomination within a Protestant family the respondent identifies with, if any. We ask Baptists, for instance, whether they identify with the Southern Baptist Convention; the American Baptist Churches USA; the National Baptist Convention, USA; or another Baptist church. We ask Methodists whether they identify with the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Global Methodist Church, or another kind of church. We take this information about which specific denomination respondents identify with and then we categorize Protestants into one of three major Protestant traditions – the evangelical tradition, the mainline tradition or the historically Black Protestant tradition. These divisions within Protestantism are important, because each has a distinctive combination of beliefs, practices and histories. Still, some respondents don’t identify with any specific denomination. For example, some describe themselves as “just Baptist,” “just Lutheran” or “just Christian” without providing additional details. In these cases, we use a question that asks respondents whether they think of themselves as “born-again or evangelical” Christians, along with information about their race and ethnicity, to help classify them into one of the three major Protestant traditions. (Refer to Appendix B for complete details about how Protestants are sorted into the evangelical, mainline and historically Black traditions.) All three of these Protestant traditions have declined, at least a little, as shares of the U.S. adult population since the first RLS was conducted in 2007. The mainline Protestant category has exhibited the sharpest drop, declining from 18% of U.S. adults in 2007 to 11% in 2023-24. Evangelicalism remains the largest tradition within Protestantism, but the evangelical share of the adult population also has ticked down, going from 26% in 2007, to 25% in 2014, to 23% in 2023-24. Respondents in the historically Black Protestant tradition accounted for 7% of respondents in 2007 and 5% in 2023-24 (after rounding to the closest whole number). Because

In the new Religious Landscape Study (RLS), nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults who are currently married (74%) say they have the same religion as their spouse, a similar share as in the 2014 RLS (75%). And 26% of married U.S. adults in the new study say their spouse has a religious identity that is different from their own. They include: 13% of married U.S. adults who are Christians paired with a religiously unaffiliated spouse, or vice versa; 7% of married U.S. adults who are Christians and whose spouse is part of a different Christian tradition, such as a Catholic married to a Protestant; and 6% of married people who are in other types of interfaith pairings, such as between a Jew and a Catholic, or between a Muslim and a religious “none.” The survey also finds that 51% of married U.S. adults say their religious beliefs are very similar to their spouse’s beliefs. And 36% say they talk about religion with their spouse at least once a week. Compared with people in religiously mixed marriages, respondents who are “in-married” (married to a person of the same religion) are more likely to say they share similar beliefs and talk about religion weekly or more often with their spouse. All these findings depend, of course, on how one defines a religious intermarriage. The analysis in this chapter is based on current, intact marriages. It compares the respondent’s current religion with their description of their spouse’s current religion at the time of the survey. (Spouses were not interviewed.) This analysis does not include marriages that have ended – whether through divorce, annulment or death. Nor does it hinge on whether one spouse switched religions to join the other’s religion. For example, a former Christian who converted to Islam before (or after) marrying a Muslim would be counted as in-married – not as religiously intermarried – if they were married and shared a religion at the time of the survey. In addition, this analysis treats Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) as separate religious groups. Marriages between people in any two of these traditions (such as between a Protestant and a Catholic) are counted as intermarriages throughout this chapter. However, all varieties of Protestantism are treated as one religious group – meaning that a Baptist married to a Lutheran, or a Methodist married to a nondenominational Protestant, are not counted as intermarried. Similarly, all religiously unaffiliated Americans are considered as one group. An atheist who is married to an agnostic, for instance, doesn’t count as religiously intermarried for the purposes of this analysis. Jump to sections in this chapter about: Intermarriage across religious traditions Overall, 74% of married respondents in the survey say their spouse has the same religion they do, while 26% say their spouse identifies with a different religion, using the definitions outlined above. Roughly nine-in-ten married Latter-day Saints (87%) have a spouse who is of the same religion, making people in this group more likely than married people in any other U.S. religious group we analyzed to be religiously in-married. Meanwhile, 81% of married Protestants have spouses who also are Protestant, while 10% are married to religiously unaffiliated spouses and 7% have Catholic spouses. Among married Catholics, three-quarters have spouses who are Catholic, 12% are married to Protestants, and 9% have spouses who are religiously unaffiliated. Roughly two-thirds of married religiously unaffiliated people (68%) have a spouse who is religiously unaffiliated. A similar share of married Jewish respondents (65%) say they have a Jewish spouse. The survey did not include enough interviews with married people in other religious traditions – including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others – to be able to analyze their intermarriage patterns. Religiousness and intermarriage People who identify with the same religion as their spouse tend to have higher levels of religiousness than people married to someone of a different religion. For example, among Protestants who are married to other Protestants, 62% are highly religious, compared with 27% of Protestants who are married to non-Protestants. And 46% of Catholics who are married to other Catholics display a high level of religious engagement, compared with 24% of Catholics married to non-Catholics. Among Jewish respondents with Jewish spouses, 29% are highly religious. That is the case for 4% of Jewish respondents whose spouses are not Jewish. Few religiously unaffiliated respondents are highly religious, regardless of whether their spouse identifies with a religion. That said, unaffiliated respondents whose spouses identify with a religion are less likely to exhibit low levels of religious engagement than are unaffiliated respondents whose spouses also are unaffiliated (60% vs. 72%). The survey did not include enough interviews with married people in other religious traditions – including Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and others – to be able to analyze their intermarriage patterns. It also did not include enough married Latter-day Saints to analyze those who are intermarried. These results don’t necessarily show that being in a religiously mixed marriage causes people to become less religious. Indeed, the causal arrow could just as easily point in the opposite direction: People who aren’t particularly religious may be more inclined to enter into a religiously mixed marriage. Similarities in religious views between spouses When asked to compare their own religious beliefs with those of their spouse, 51% of married respondents say their beliefs are very similar. An additional 30% say their beliefs and their spouse’s beliefs are somewhat similar, while 14% say they are not too similar or not at all similar. Among married people whose spouse shares their religious identity, 62% report that their spouse has very similar religious beliefs. By contrast, among married people whose spouse does not share their religious identity, 21% say they and their spouse hold very similar religious beliefs. Similarities in the importance of religion between spouses Among married people who say religion is very important in their own life, 68% say it also is very important in their spouse’s life.

One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once a month, including 25% who report going at least once a week. Far more Americans (67%) say they attend religious services in person a few times a year or less often. This includes about half of U.S. adults who seldom or never attend services. In response to a separate question, the new survey finds that 23% of Americans watch religious services online or on TV at least once a month, while the majority (76%) do so a few times a year or less often. Looking at these two questions together allows us to see, more broadly, how many Americans participate in religious services. The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) finds that 40% of U.S. adults say they do so at least once a month, either in person or online, or both ways: 16% say they participate both ways, 17% attend only in person, and 8% watch only online or on TV. Why we don’t compare these findings with 2014 In 2014, the last time we conducted a Religious Landscape Study, we asked a single question about religious participation – “How often do you attend religious services?” – without asking separately about in-person attendance and virtual participation. We did not begin asking respondents whether they watch religious services online/on TV until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused many congregations to restrict in-person attendance and begin livestreaming their services. Another difference between this survey and the previous RLS is that the 2014 study was conducted entirely by telephone, while the new survey was conducted mainly online and on paper. Research shows that telephone surveys tend to produce higher estimates of religious attendance than web/paper surveys do. Because of these changes, the results of the two surveys on religious service attendance are not directly comparable. What might appear to be a sharp drop from 50% of U.S. adults describing themselves as regular (at least monthly) attenders in 2014 to 33% describing themselves that way in 2023-24 does not necessarily reflect a real change in behavior. The difference between the two surveys is caused, at least in part, by changes in the ways the surveys were conducted. That said, the Center’s telephone surveys were picking up a decline in religious attendance in the years before we switched over to online/paper surveys. The share of Americans who reported attending religious services at least monthly dropped from 54% in 2007 to 50% in the 2014 RLS and had fallen to 45% by the time the Center transitioned away from phone surveys in 2018-19. This chapter covers the new RLS findings about: Attending religious services in person One-third of U.S. adults say they attend religious services in person at least once or twice a month, while 18% report attending services a few times a year, and 49% seldom or never attend religious services in person. Most members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) say they attend religious services in person at least monthly (76%), as do 60% of evangelical Protestants. Fewer Muslim Americans (46%), members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (46%), Catholics (40%), Orthodox Christians (37%), Hindus (35%) and mainline Protestants (34%) say they go to religious services once a month or more often. Jewish adults (23%) and Buddhists (17%) are among the least likely groups of religiously affiliated Americans to say they attend religious services in person at least monthly. Among religiously unaffiliated adults – those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – very few regularly attend religious services in person. Watching religious services online or on TV Overall, 16% of U.S. adults say they watch religious services online or on TV at least once a week. An additional 7% say they participate virtually once or twice a month, and 11% do so a few times a year. Most Americans (65%) say they seldom or never watch religious services online or on television. Members of the historically Black Protestant tradition are among the most likely to say they watch religious services online or on TV at least monthly. Participating in religious services either in person or online/on TV When we combine these two questions about attending religious services in person and watching them online or on television, we find that 40% of U.S. adults say they participate in religious services at least once a month in some way – whether in person, online or both. Latter-day Saints (80%), evangelical Protestants (71%) and members of the historically Black Protestant tradition (66%) report the highest rates of participation in religious services, one way or another, at least monthly. Latter-day Saints are especially likely to say they attend religious services monthly in person but do not watch services online (52%). Members of historically Black Protestant churches are especially likely to do the reverse (20%). Participation varies somewhat across demographic groups: Older Americans are more likely than younger Americans to say they participate in religious services in some way – in person, online or both – at least monthly. A higher percentage of Black Americans than White, Hispanic or Asian Americans report that they participate at least monthly in religious services in person and/or online. Generally, women are more likely than men to say they participate (one way or another) in religious services. The survey did not include enough interviews with people who belong to many other U.S. religious groups – such as Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus – to be able to subdivide them and analyze their attendance patterns by most demographic variables like sex, age, education, or race and ethnicity. Belonging to religious and nonreligious organizations Overall, 37% of U.S. adults say they, personally, are members of a church, synagogue, mosque or other house of worship, including 54% of Christians. A large majority of Latter-day Saints (86%) belong to a congregation, as do 61% of evangelical Protestants and 56% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition. While Jewish Americans