Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population
7 Figures: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population
Jan 30, 2026 2:25 PM

The Christian share of the U.S. population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion is growing, according to an a new survey by the Pew Research Center pares the religious landscape of 2015 to 2007. Here are seven figures you should know from the report.

1. Between 2007 and 2014, the share of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian fell from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent, driven primarily by declines among mainline Protestant and Catholics.

2. The rise in intermarriage appears to be linked with the growth of the religiously unaffiliated population. Nearly one-in-five people surveyed who got married since 2010 are either religiously unaffiliated respondents who married a Christian spouse or Christians who married an unaffiliated spouse. By contrast, just 5 percent of people who got married before 1960 fit this profile.

3. Catholics appear to be declining both as a percentage of the population and in absolute numbers. The new survey indicates there are about 51 million Catholic adults in the U.S. today, roughly 3 million fewer than in 2007. But taking margins of error into account, the decline in the number of Catholic adults could be as modest as 1 million.

4. The new survey indicates that evangelical–including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church in America, and many nondenominational congregations—now have a total of about 62 million adult adherents. That is an increase of roughly 2 million since 2007, though once the margins of error are taken into account, it is possible that the number of evangelicals may have risen by as many as 5 million or remained essentially unchanged. And evangelical Protestants, while declining slightly as a percentage of the U.S. public, probably have grown in absolute numbers as the overall U.S. population has continued to expand.

5. Of the major subgroups within American Christianity, mainline Protestantism—a tradition that includes the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist Churches USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Episcopal Church, among others—appears to have experienced the greatest drop in absolute numbers. In 2007, there were an estimated 41 million mainline Protestant adults in the United States. As of 2014, there are roughly 36 million, a decline of 5 million – although, taking into account the bined margins of error, the number of mainline Protestants may have fallen by as few as 3 million or as many as 7.3 million between 2007 and 2014.

6. The size of the historically black Protestant tradition—which includes the National Baptist Convention, the Church of God in Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Progressive Baptist Convention and others—has remained relatively stable in recent years, at nearly 16 million adults.

7. Christianity – and especially Catholicism – has been losing more adherents through religious switching than it has been gaining. More than 85 percent of American adults were raised Christian, but nearly a quarter of those who were raised Christian no longer identify with Christianity. Former Christians represent 19.2 percent of U.S. adults overall.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Explainer: What you should know about the Republicans’ bill to replace Obamacare
Embed from Getty Images Last night Congressional Republicans released two bills (here and here) which together constitute the current plan to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Here’s what you should know about the legislation known as the “American Health Care Act” (AHCA). Does this legislation “repeal and replace” Obamacare? Yes and no (but overall, not really). No, the AHCA does pletely repeal Obamacare in toto and it merely replaces some aspects of the current law. But...
‘Economic Wisdom for Churches’: Restoring a biblical economic narrative
The faith-work movement has spurred many churches to begin seeing the bigger picture of God’s design and purpose for economic activity. Yet the church’s role and responsibility in economic discipleship doesn’t end with a basic shift in our thinking. Once we receive the basic revelation of God’s plan for our work and the broader economic order, where do we go from there? Such revelationopens the door to a range of new challenges, whether wrestling with practical questions about work and...
The morality of Brexit
Public domain.) As a setback in the House of Lords leaves the UK debating how best to plish its departure from the European Union, perhaps the most neglected question is the moral one. Rev. Dr. Richard Turnbull, the director of the Centre for Enterprise, Markets, and Ethics (CEME) and also an Anglican minister, asked that leaders focus less on arguments based strictly upon metrics than upon Brexit’s deeper impact upon individual persons in a speech before the Oxford Union:...
Chinese Communists intensify religious persecution, according to new report
A disturbing new report from Freedom House shows how widespread religious persecution is in China. Titled “The Battle for China’s Spirit,” this report looks at “religious revival, repression, and resistance under [General Secretary of the Communist Party of China] XI Jinping.” The report reveals that “under Xi Jinping’s leadership, religious persecution in China has increased overall.” Despite this intensificationof persecution, the Chinese religious have remained resilient. “Religion and spirituality have been deeply embedded in Chinese culture and identity for millennia,”...
Radio Free Acton: James Poulos on the art of being free
On this edition of Radio Free Acton, we e back John Wilsey – Assistant Professor of History and Christian Apologetics and Associate Director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – and hand over the reins of the podcast to him as he talks with author and social theorist James Poulos about his new book,The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves. Poulos shows how Alexis de Tocqueville’s insights...
Why does the Syrian refugee debate ignore private charity?
Protesters oppose President Trump’s refugee policy outside 10 Downing Street, London. (Alisdare Hickson. CC BY-SA 2.0) On Monday, President Trump signed a new executive order barring refugees from six majority-Muslim nations that have strong ties to terrorism. This executive order differs from the last one by removing Iraq from the banand eliminating the preferential option for the area’s persecuted Christian minority. Regardless of whether one sees this as a violation of Christian charity or a prudentially wise decision to stem...
Why did people in the 1970s have to wait in line for gas?
Note: This is post #23 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. If you’re over 40 you may remember back in the 1970s having to wait in long lines to buy gasoline. Some days you were only allowed to buy gas on alternate days (based on whether the last digit of your license plate number was an odd or even number). Why did this happen? As economist Alex Tabarrok explains, when price ceilings were imposed on gasoline, people could...
Samuel Gregg on France in the face of decline
In a recent article for The American Spectator, Acton’s Samuel Gregg tackles the tensions in French politics and addresses the uncertainty that the French people have for their ing Presidential election. French politicians have failed to address impending economic issues such as an inefficient government and a growing national debt, but they also seem unable to address a growing concern: Radical Islam. Gregg says: Plenty of Muslims in France are well integrated into French society, and they are just as...
Why we should oppose both Skynet and minimum wage increases
Terminator 2: Judgment Day poster / TriStar Pictures I oppose implementing Skynet and increasing minimum wage laws for the same reason: to forestall the robots. It’s probably inevitable that a T-1000 will return from the future to terminate John Connor. But there is still something we can do to prevent (at least for a time) a TIOS from eliminating the cashier at your local fast food restaurant. For example, Wendy’s is adding customer service machines to at least 1,000 restaurants,...
Samuel Gregg on the unexpected lessons of ‘Populorum Progressio’
In a recent article for Crisis Magazine, Samuel Gregg, Acton’s director of research, reflects on Pope Paul VI’s social encyclical Populorum Progressio. He criticizes it for faulty “time-bound” economic ideas and international approach to charity efforts, but praises the work it for its openness to variety in how to address social and economic problems as well as its affirmation of the differing roles of clergy and the laity. In his criticism, Gregg challenges the protectionist ideals put forth in Populorum...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved