Read the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's new survey (http://religions.pewforum.org/) which quantifies the religious affiliation of the American public with a focus on the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape. This survey was based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older.
Some highlights of the survey include:
- More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all.
- The number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today is (16.1%), with one-quarter of this group describing themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4%, respectively).
- While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic. These losses, however, have been partly offset by the number of people who have changed their affiliation to Catholicism (2.6% of the adult population) but more importantly by the disproportionately high number of Catholics among immigrants to the U.S.
This online report includes dynamic tools to prepare breakdowns of key demographic characteristics, such as age, ethnicity, educational level and income level, of religious groups as well as maps and charts.