Christianity’s decline in the U.S. slows: What comes next?

For decades, Christianity in the U.S. has been declining. However, new data from the 2023-24 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study suggests that this downward trend has slowed — and may even have stabilized.

After dropping from 78% in 2007 to 62% today, the Christian share of the population has hovered between 60% and 64% since 2019. While this does not signal a resurgence, it raises important questions: Has Christianity’s decline reached a natural plateau, or is this just a pause before further shifts?

The study, based on nearly 37,000 interviews, highlights two key trends: long-term religious decline and recent stabilization. Protestantism remains the largest Christian tradition, with 40% of U.S. adults identifying as Protestant.

Catholics make up 19% of the population, a number that has held steady since 2014. Other Christian groups, including Orthodox Christians and Latter-day Saints, comprise about 3%.

Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated — atheists, agnostics, and those who identify as “nothing in particular” — now account for 29% of the population. Their growth has been one of the most significant religious trends of the past few decades, yet even this group has plateaued since 2020.

The study also notes a slight increase in Americans who identify with non-Christian faiths, including Judaism (1.7%), Islam (1.2%), Buddhism (1.1%), and Hinduism (0.9%). While these numbers remain small, they reflect a slow but steady diversification of religious affiliation in the U.S.

Despite declining religious affiliation, many Americans continue to hold spiritual beliefs and engage in religious practices. The study found that:

83% believe in God or a universal spirit.

86% believe people have a soul beyond their physical body.

79% believe in something spiritual beyond the natural world.

70% believe in an afterlife.

These numbers suggest that while institutional religion is in decline, spiritual curiosity remains strong.

Furthermore, daily prayer and church attendance have remained stable since 2020. Around 44% of Americans say they pray daily, and 33% report attending religious services at least once a month.

Perhaps the most striking find is the deep generational gap in religious identification. The study found that younger Americans are far less likely to identify as Christian than older generations:

80% of Americans over 74 identify as Christian, compared to just 46% of those aged 18-24.

27% of young adults pray daily, compared to 58% of the oldest adults.

25% of young adults attend religious services at least once a month, compared to 49% of older adults.

43% of young adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, compared to just 13% of those over 74.

The shift is not just in personal beliefs — it starts in the home. Younger Americans are also less likely to have been raised in religious households, and even those who were are more likely to disaffiliate as adults.

One major question remains: Will today’s young adults become more religious as they age? Historically, people have often returned to religious practice later in life, especially when raising families. However, Pew’s research finds little evidence of this happening in recent decades. Religious disaffiliation, once a rare occurrence, has become more common, and those who leave religion tend not to return.

That said, the study also finds that spirituality is growing. More Americans report feeling a sense of awe at nature’s beauty, a connection to something beyond the material world, and an overall deepening of their spiritual lives.

This suggests that while traditional religious institutions may struggle, the human search for meaning and transcendence is far from over.

The recent stabilization of Christian affiliation presents an opportunity. Churches and faith communities can engage with younger generations by addressing their search for purpose, justice, and belonging. The challenge will be to connect faith to modern concerns — offering a vision of Christianity that speaks to both tradition and the realities of contemporary life.

Christianity in America is not disappearing, but it is changing. Whether it can find new ways to thrive in this shifting landscape remains an open question.