Religious affiliation is declining in America, poll says. Why? Experts weigh in
Over the past decade, every major religious group in America has seen its number of followers flatline or fall, according to new polling.
The largest decline was seen among Catholics, with 10.3% fewer Americans identifying as Catholic in 2023 than in 2013, according to a March 27 poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit.
The share of white mainline Protestants, white Evangelicals and Black Protestants also decreased by 4.5%, 2.2% and 0.6%, respectively, while the share of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus remained about the same.
Meanwhile, the share of Americans identifying as “unaffiliated” — a category that encompasses atheists, agnostics and those who say they are “nothing in particular” — grew by 15.8%.
The poll, which surveyed 5,627 American adults, was conducted online between November and December. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.79 percentage points.
A number of factors contributed to the across the board declines in religious affiliation, ranging from a loss of belief to a loosening of community ties, according to the poll and researchers who study religion.
“It’s a stew; there are lots of reasons,” Andrew Walsh, a professor of religion at Trinity University, told McClatchy News.
Why are Americans discarding their religious affiliations?
Two-thirds of people who switched to “unaffiliated” said they did so because they simply no longer believed in the teachings of their religion, according to the poll.
“Increasingly we live in a highly science and technology-based society in which what is real matters,” Kevin Breault, a sociology professor at Middle Tennessee State University, told McClatchy News. “Many people want a spiritual life free from superstition and unsupportable dogma.”
Additionally, nearly half of those who abandoned their affiliation cited negative teachings or viewpoints of the LGBTQ+ community as an important factor.
This reason ties into a broader aversion to what is seen as the melding of politics and religion in America, experts said.
“The politicization of religious identity, either right or left, and occasionally center, is unattractive to many people,” Walsh said.
Many Americans don’t want their religious organization to weigh in on issues like abortion or gay marriage, John Corrigan, a professor of religion at Florida State University, told McClatchy News, adding that such pronouncements have “pushed people away.”
Sexual abuse scandals have also contributed to the exodus from religious affiliation, with 31% of those who became unaffiliated listing it as a factor. Nearly half of those who switched from Catholic to unaffiliated said it was a factor.
Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse in the U.S. in recent years, with more than a dozen state attorneys general opening investigations, according to The New York Times.
Similar allegations have been made in numerous countries, including in the U.K., Spain and Italy, seemingly revealing a widespread pattern of abuse.
“When the news began to make its way into Catholics’ ears in the early 21st century about the cover-up of all of these cases of molestation and rape and sexual assault having to do with Catholic clergy, a lot of people who had been Catholics for a long time said they had enough,” Corrigan said.
Other factors not cited in the poll are also likely at play when it comes to the waning adherence to religion in America, experts said.
One of them is the broader loosening of community ties and an atomization of people across the country, Corrigan said.
“There’s a decline in the sense of connectedness among people,” Corrigan said. “You find it in the decline of religion, but you find it also in decline of these kinds of community organizations that once were more widespread.”
Additionally, more and more Americans are expressing distrust with institutions in general, a fact that could be playing into the diminishment of religious affiliation, Walsh said.
“All American institutions have suffered a loss of support, or a loss of confidence in the population,” Walsh said. “So politics, religion, education — all sorts of things are greeted much less confidently by a larger number of people.”
Will the trend continue?
“Will it always be this way? My answer is probably not,” Walsh said. “Some of this stuff is likely to recover over time as generations pass.”
After all, the historical trend has not exactly been linear, he said, noting that America of the middle 20th century was more religious than during the early 20th century.
“The grandparents of (today’s) young adults were much much more religiously affiliated than their parents or grandparents,” Walsh said.
However, other experts were more of the mind that religions’ fall from grace in America is only likely to continue.
“There’s a certain kind of momentum that secularization acquires, and once it gets to a certain point, you can pretty much count on the fact that religion will continue to decline,” Corrigan said.
There isn’t a widespread desire to restore religion in America, Corrigan said, though there has been a “desperate” attempt by some groups “trying to grab back and restore what they believe is a Christian America.”
“The long-term trend is for less organized religion and more science, technology and secularism,” Walsh said.
While religious revival is entirely possible, Wash said, “(I’m) not holding my breath.”
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