Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
7 Figures: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population
7 Figures: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population
Jan 7, 2026 4:55 AM

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
Macron’s speech offers thin gruel on Western ‘values’
For one fleeting moment in Emmanuel Macron’s speech to Congress, it seemed as though he would connect the transatlantic alliance on the firm basis of mon values. “The strength of our bonds is the source of our shared ideals,” he told lawmakers. Since 1776, the United States and France “have worked together for the universal ideals of liberty, tolerance, and equal rights.” The use of the phrase “universal values,” an ersatz substitute for Western values, preceded his assessment of the...
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on the size of government?
What is the Catholic Church’s teaching on the size of government? And what is the principle of subsidiarity? Our friends atCatholicVote.orghave put together a brief video to help answer these questions. ...
‘Avengers: Infinity War’ and the danger of idolatrous ideology
Warning: This article contains a major spoiler about the plot of‘Avengers: Infinity War.’ If you haven’t seen the movie yetand don’t want it to know what happens then PLEASE STOP READING NOW. Since I was a boy I’ve loved Marvel Comics, and over the past decade I’ve loved almost everything about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But I don’t love the latest the edition of the MCU,Avengers: Infinity War. I should love the film because it’s packed with everything I...
Loving cities well: Chris Brooks on the church’s role in economic restoration
What would happen if local churches came together to love and serve our cities? Upon hearing such a question, our minds are prone to imagine an assortment of “outreach ministries,” from food pantries to homeless shelters munity events to street evangelism.But while each of these can be a powerful channel for love and service in munities, what about the basic vision that precedes them? Before and beyond our tactical solutions to immediate needs, how can the church truly work together...
Growth miracles and growth disasters
Note: This is post #76 in a weekly video series on basic economics. Because of differences in national growth rates there can be large disparities in economic wealth among different countries. A poor country can not only grow, but it can do so quickly. It can catch up with developed countries at an astonishing rate. That’s the good news, says Alex Tabarrok in this video by Marginal Revolution University. The bad news is, while growth can skyrocket in some countries,...
Emmanuel Macron and the problem with ‘European values’
Last weekFrench President Emmanuel Macron came to the United States for a two-day summit with President Trump and an address before Congress. As Acton senior editor Rev. Ben Johnson notes at The American Spectator, Macron’s speech before Congress reveals a deep fissure within the West about its most fundamental values—a fracture es as the West faces powerful challenges from outside its borders: Macron’s speech to Congress represents one set of values: the statist orientation of the bureaucratic EU elite. Leaving...
Beyond vocational hierarchies: Evangelism, social justice, and Christian mission
Throughout my conservative evangelical upbringing, I was routinely encouraged to follow the call of the “five-fold ministry,” whether from the pulpit in weekly church services or the prayer altars of summer youth camps. The implications were clear: entering so-called “vocational ministry” was a higher calling than, well, everything else. Later, in my college years at a leftist Christian university, I witnessed a lopsidedness of a different sort. Instead of being prodded into global missions, I was now encouraged to “make...
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom releases 2018 report
Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released itsInternational Religious Freedom Reportfor 2018.A wide range of U.S. government agencies and offices use the reports for such efforts as shaping policy and conducting diplomacy. The Secretary of State also uses the reports to help determine which countries have engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations” of religious freedom in order to designate “countries of particular concern.” “Sadly, religious freedom conditions deteriorated in many countries in 2017, often due to...
Radio Free Acton: RFA Reports on Direct Primary Care part II; Upstream on ‘Avengers: Infinity War’
On this episode of Radio Free Acton, we feature the second installment of RFA Reports. Guest Anne Marie Schieber-Dykstra, an award-winning reporter and former anchor with WOODTV Grand Rapids, talks with experts and patients on ways in which Direct Primary Care centers are providing better medical care for affordable prices. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks about the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: “Avengers: Infinity War” with Micah Watson, professor of political science at Calvin...
James Cone and the Marxist roots of black liberation theology
Rev. Dr. James Hal Cone died last week at the age of 79. Cone was a professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary and the father of black liberation theology. In a 2008 Acton Commentary, Anthony Bradley provided a brief explanation of Cone’s system of black liberation theology and its roots in Marxism: Black liberation theologians James Cone and Cornel West have worked diligently to embed Marxist thought into the black church since the 1970s. For Cone, Marxism best...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved