Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup

Julia Shapero
·2 min read
11.4k

Story at a glance

  • Americans’ belief in God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil fell to the lowest point in more than two decades.

  • Belief in all five spiritual entities has decreased 3 to 5 points since 2016.

  • Americans who regularly attend religious services, Protestants and Republicans were all more likely to believe in such spiritual entities.

Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.

Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God, while 69 percent said they believe in angels and 67 percent said they believe in heaven, the poll found. Slightly smaller shares — 59 percent and 58 percent — said they believe in hell and the devil.

Belief in all five spiritual entities has fallen between 3-5 points since 2016, the last time that Gallup polled Americans on the topic.

Since the pollster first began collecting survey data on the subject more than two decades ago, belief in God and heaven has dropped 16 points, while belief in hell has fallen 12 points and belief in the devil and angels has decreased by 10 points.

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Belief is highest among those who attend regular religious services, with 98 percent of Americans who attend weekly services and 94 percent of those who attend nearly weekly or monthly services saying they believe in God.

Protestants and other Christians were also slightly more likely than their Catholic counterparts to believe in such spiritual entities, according to the poll. While 94 percent of Protestants said they believe in God, 85 percent of Catholics said the same.

However, this difference is more pronounced on belief in hell and the devil, with Protestants believing in both entities 20 points more than Catholics.

The survey also found that Republicans were more likely than independents or Democrats to believe in God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil. While 87 percent of Republicans said they believe in God, 68 percent of independents and 66 percent of Democrats said the same.

Lower income Americans, older Americans, women and those without college degrees were also more likely to say that they believe in such spiritual entities.

The Gallup poll was conducted May 1-24 with 1,011 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

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