MARCH 2025

Less than one month ago, Pew Research Center published the results of their decennial Religious Landscape Survey. You can read the full 393-page report here, but I will try to summarize the most salient and actionable points here for you.  

1. Temporary Plateau of the ‘Nones’: The decline of self-identified Christians has temporarily leveled off and the rise of the “Nones” has temporarily plateaued at the same time. However, for every one “None” who becomes a Christian, six Christians become “Nones.”
2. Growing Generational Divide: Generations divide around attendance, religiosity, and religious practices. As time progresses generational replacement will continue religious decline in America.
3. Rise of Non-denominationalism: Only two denominations saw any growth from 2014 to 2024—the PCA and COGIC—and the growth of each was relatively small.
4. Increased Spiritual Migration: High rates of spiritual migration occur between different denominations, traditions, and religions. Some of that migration is into Christianity, but most of it is out of Christianity into the “Nones.”
5. Immigration Has Increased Diversity and Multiethnic Congregations: Immigration is altering the religious landscape significantly in two different ways. First, evangelicals are becoming more ethnically diverse. Second, immigrants are slightly growing religious traditions that are less than 2 percent to 3 percent, such as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. As a result, especially in urban areas, multiethnic churches are increasing, and many now worship in congregations with no single racial/ethnic group larger than 50 percent.
6. Correlation of Conservative Politics and Religious Faith: Broadly speaking, religion is coding more conservative than liberal as political progressives move away from Christianity at faster rates than their conservative counterparts.
7. Surge in ‘Spiritual but not Religious’: Many people are embracing what Tara Isabella Burton calls “remixed religion,” a grab bag of individualized spirituality and increased interest in things like tarot cards, horoscopes, mysticism, and mindfulness. 
8. Interfaith Marriages Hurt Religious Devotion: Rising religious intermarriage has led to lower levels of religious observance, religious practice, and spiritual intensity.
9. Family Faith Is Important, But Becoming Less So: Strong religious tradition in your family correlates to remaining affiliated in the faith of one’s youth. But 40 percent of the younger generation that grew up with strong family religious tradition attend less frequently now than before.
10. More Younger Men Are Turning to Religion: The gender gap is narrowing between men and women. Among younger generations, there are now more men than women in church. 

These takeaways underscore the importance of the work of cultural apologetics today and the church’s ability to respond to our culture’s narratives with the truth, beauty, and goodness of the gospel.