Earlier this week the Pew Research Center published an update on America’s changing religious landscape titled In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.
Rapid Decline
The following statistics from this new report showcase just how rapidly Christianity has declined in America over the last decade
- 12% fewer Americans identify as Christian (down from 77% to 65%)
- 8% fewer Americans identify as Protestant (down from 51% to 43%)
- 3% fewer Americans identify as Catholic (down from 23% to 20%)
Everyone’s Included
A decline in those self-identifying as Christian and a rise in those who are religiously unaffiliated has occurred across gender, age, race, education level, region of country, a political affiliation.
Among these demographic groupings, only two have significant differences among subgroups: age and political affiliation.
When considering the change by age group, the percent decrease is smallest with the oldest cohort (-2% for Silent Generation) and largest for the youngest cohort (-16% for Millennial Generation).
When considering the change by political affiliation those who are Democratic or lean Democratic have declined more than twice as fast as those who are Republican or lean Republican (-17% compared to -7%).
Attending Worship
In addition to the decline in American adults identifying as Christian, there has been a considerable decline in worship attendance over the last decade. According to the report, “the share of Americans who say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month dropped by 7 percentage points, while the share who say they attend religious services less often (if at all) has risen by the same degree. ”
A similar decline in worship attendance, however, has not occurred among those who self-identify as Christian. Those who attend monthly or more have declined by 1% (63% to 62%) while those who attend less often have increased by 1% (38% to 38%).
So What?
By now, many American Christians are well aware that American Christianity has been in decline for awhile. I hope that my readers will take two things away from reading this post.
First, the decline of American Christianity is more rapid than most people realize.
Second, there is a huge generation gap in American religion, which is depicted in the image below. In simple terms:
- More than 8 in 10 (84%) of the oldest generation of American adults identify as Christian compared to fewer than 5 in 10 (49%) of the youngest generation of American adults.
- More than 6 in 10 (61%) of the oldest generation of American adults attend worship monthly or more often compared to fewer than 4 in 10 (35%) of the youngest generation of American adults
Furthermore, given how significantly the generational gap has widened in the last decade it seems reasonable to assume the gap will continue to grow over the next many years.
In US, Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.
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Take some time to learn more about the makeup of your congregation and your denomination.
- What percentage of your congregation falls into each age cohort today? Your denomination?
- Assume the generational gap in affiliation as well as the generational gap in worship attendance will widen for the foreseeable future. What challenges and opportunities does this offer for your congregation in the next decade? Your denomination?