June 22, 2025
Over the past five years, the religious makeup of the United States has remained remarkably stable, according to Gallup.
Recent Pew Research confirmed earlier trends of a plateauing of the religiously unaffiliated and a pause, at least, of the decline in Christianity. The latest Gallup study demonstrates this is not a new development.
“Americans’ religious preferences have generally held steady in the past five years, after a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans with no religious affiliation and concurrent declines in Protestant and Catholic identification over the prior two decades,” writes Jeffrey Jones at Gallup.
From 2000 to 2017, the share of Protestants in the U.S. fell from 57% to 46%, and Catholics dropped from 25% to 21%, while religious nones jumped from 8% to 20%. Since that time, however, each group has remained within a few percentage points of its share. Currently, Protestants are at 45%, Catholics are at 21%, and the unaffiliated are at 22%.
Overall, Gallup finds 7 in 10 Americans (69%) identify as Christian, slightly more than the 62% in the most recent Pew Religious Landscape Study.
Beyond Protestant, Catholic, and the religious unaffiliated, 10% of U.S. adults identify with another religious tradition, according to Gallup, including 2.2% Jewish, 1.5% Latter-Day Saints, and less than 1% each of Muslim (0.9%), Buddhist (0.6%), Orthodox Christian (0.5%), and Hindu (0.3%). A total of 4% of Americans say they belong to a non-Christian religion.
Another 6% of Gallup respondents either didn’t provide their religious preference or gave a response that does not mention a specific religion, like saying they are “spiritual.”
While there are some indications of a religious renewal among younger generations, the overall historical trends point to a sizable gap in religious preferences between young adults and older generations, according to Gallup.
Gen Z is the least likely to identify as Christian (54%) and the most likely to say they are religiously unaffiliated (34%). Similarly, 58% of millennials say they’re Christian, while 31% don’t identify with any religion. Those two generations are much more alike than the three older age ranges.
More than 7 in 10 (72%) of Generation X say they are Christian, and 19% have no religion. Among Baby Boomers, 79% are Christian and 13% are religiously unaffiliated. The Silent Generation is the most Christian (85%) and least unaffiliated (9%).
Among each generation, however, the percentage that identifies as Christian, particularly Protestant, has declined since 2000, while the share outside of any religious group has grown. Currently, 58% of the Silent Generation (down from 65% in 2000), 53% of Baby Boomers (down from 58%), 46% of Generation X (down from 51%), and 37% of millennials (down from 44%) identify specifically as Protestant.
The Gallup data paints a similar demographic to Pew Research. The decline of Christianity in the U.S. is currently paused, but the future trajectory will begin trending downward again if nothing changes.
To avoid becoming a demographic minority in the United States, Christians will have to reach more young adults as older, more heavily Christian generations die off.
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This story was published by Lifeway Research.
