On February 25, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released their study on religion in America. Their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey was conducted between May and August 2007. More than thirty-six thousand people were interviewed, making this one of the largest samplings of any recent religious survey.

The broadest findings of the survey conclude that the American population is religiously diverse and very dynamic, with significant switching between and within the major religious traditions in the U.S. That is hardly news to anyone who is actively involved in a local church's ministry. It is also obvious from church growth studies, especially of larger churches, that large churches can turn over up to 30% of their congregation each year!

However, what this study does show, with convincing figures, is the degree of change taking place in the American religious community and where those changes are taking place. This is the second major religious study in which participants specifically mention the IPHC as the denomination of choice. The study estimates that we make up a little less than .3 percent of the total U.S. population. Our current reports indicate a U.S. membership of about 257,000 members with 319,000 adherents.

Key findings of the survey

• Roughly 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.
• Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
• The number of Americans who report that they are members of Protestant denominations now stands at barely 51%
• Individuals who are not affiliated with any particular religion make up about one-sixth (16.1%) of the adult population. They thus comprise the fourth largest “religious” tradition in the United States, nearly approximating the number of members of mainline Protestant churches.
• The Protestant population is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of different denominations loosely grouped around three fairly distinct religious traditions - evangelical Protestant churches (26.3% of the overall adult population), mainline Protestant churches (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
• Those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation.

Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).

Age-related findings

• The survey findings show that more than six-in-ten Americans age 70 and older (62%) are Protestant but that this number is only about four-in-ten (43%) among Americans ages 18-29
• Young adults ages 18-29 are much more likely than those age 70 and older to say that they are not affiliated with any particular religion (25% vs. 8%).
• If these generational patterns persist, recent declines in the number of Protestants and growth in the size of the unaffiliated population may continue.
• Latinos represent roughly one-in-eight U.S. Catholics age 70 and older (12%), they account for nearly half of all Catholics ages 18-29 (45%).
• People not affiliated with any particular religion stand out for their relative youth compared with other religious traditions. Among the unaffiliated, 31% are under age 30 and 71% are under age 50. Comparable numbers for the overall adult population are 20% and 59%, respectively.
• By contrast, members of mainline Protestant churches and Jews are older, on average, than members of other groups. Roughly half of Jews and members of mainline churches are age 50 and older, compared with approximately four-in-ten American adults overall.
• Members of Baptist churches account for one-third of all Protestants and close to one-fifth of the total U.S. adult population. Baptists also account for nearly two-thirds of members of historically black Protestant churches.

Regional insights

• The Midwest most closely resembles the religious makeup of the overall population.
• The South, by a wide margin, has the heaviest concentration of members of evangelical Protestant churches.
• The Northeast has the greatest concentration of Catholics,
• The West has the largest proportion of unaffiliated people, including the largest proportion of atheists and agnostics.

Family & Gender insights

• Men are significantly more likely than women to claim no religious affiliation. Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13% of women.
• Among people who are married, nearly four-in-ten (37%) are married to a spouse with a different religious affiliation. (This figure includes Protestants who are married to another Protestant from a different denominational family, such as a Baptist who is married to a Methodist.) Hindus and Mormons are the most likely to be married (78% and 71%, respectively) and to be married to someone of the same religion (90% and 83%, respectively).
• Mormons and Muslims are the groups with the largest families; more than one-in-five Mormon adults and 15% of Muslim adults in the U.S. have three or more children living at home.

African-Americans

Of all the major racial and ethnic groups in the United States, black Americans are the most likely to report a formal religious affiliation. Even among those blacks who are unaffiliated, three-in-four belong to the “religious unaffiliated” category (that is, they say that religion is either somewhat or very important in their lives), compared with slightly more than one-third of the unaffiliated population overall.

Non-Christian diversity

• Immigration is adding even more diversity to the American religious quilt. For example, Muslims, roughly two-thirds of whom are immigrants, now account for roughly 0.6% of the U.S. adult population; and Hindus, more than eight-in-ten of whom are foreign born, now account for approximately 0.4% of the population.
• Nearly half of Hindus in the U.S., one-third of Jews and a quarter of Buddhists have obtained post-graduate education, compared with only about one-in-ten of the adult population overall. Hindus and Jews are also much more likely than other groups to report high income levels.
• In sharp contrast to Islam and Hinduism, Buddhism in the U.S. is primarily made up of native-born adherents, whites and converts. Only one-in-three American Buddhists describe their race as Asian, while nearly three-in-four Buddhists say they are converts to Buddhism.
• Jehovah's Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition. Only 37% of all those who say they were raised as Jehovah's Witnesses still identify themselves as Jehovah's Witnesses.

The complete report is available for download free of charge from the Pew Forum website. The full report includes the following sections:

• The Religious Composition of the United States
• Changes in Americans' Religious Affiliation
• Religious Affiliation and Demographic Groups
• Detailed Data Tables
• Classification of Protestant Denominations
• A Brief History of Religion and the U.S. Census

These summary findings are excerpted and adapted from the survey. Pew Forum deserves special recognition and appreciation for publishing this report online, in its entirety and free of charge (download here). Other studies of this magnitude usually charge anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars in order to read the full report. Not only have they made the report available for download, they also have an interactive section on their site that allows you to search for specific results. Thank you, Pew Forum, and may the Lord richly bless all your endeavors.

Logon and share your opinions about this survey.

• What surprises you most about its findings?
• Does this survey reflect the dynamics taking place in your local church?
• How will these results affect our efforts to share the Good News?
• What does this survey portend for our own church in the future, if anything?

Thank you for sharing.
The Editor