Sometimes a graph is worth a thousand words.
Public Religion Research last week released a massive trove of data gleaned from its latest national survey that examined the religious behaviors of Americans today.
The graphs from these data tell most of the story with no interpretation required.
A few highlights to look for, as described by PRRI researchers:
- “Religion is less important for Americans today than it was a decade ago. Today, 16% of Americans say that religion is the most important thing in their life, 36% say religion is one among many important things, 18% say religion is not as important as other things, and 29% say religion is not important to them.”
- “Most Americans say they seldom (28%) or never (29%) attended religious services.”
- “In 2022, about one in four Americans (24%) say they were previously a follower or practitioner of a different religious tradition or denomination than the one they belong to now, up from 16% in 2021.”
- “The vast majority of people who report changing religious tradition or denomination were young when they made the switch: 27% say they were younger than 18, 44% were between 18 and 29, 21% were between 30 and 49, and just 7% were age 50 or older.”
- “Reasons for switching religious tradition or denomination vary, but a majority of those who changed (56%) say they stopped believing in the religion’s teachings. Another 30% indicate they were turned off by the religion’s negative teachings about or treatment of LGBTQ people, 29% say their family was never that religious growing up, 27% say they were disillusioned by scandals involving leaders in their former religion, 18% point to a traumatic event in their lives, and 17% say their church became too focused on politics. These reasons for leaving are largely consistent with the last time PRRI asked this question, in 2016.”
