In the United States, faithful Christians may become a minority within a few decades if current trends continue, according to a survey presented this week by the Pew Research Center.
In the analysis related to the public opinion poll, attention is drawn to the fact that the number of Christians in the country is rapidly decreasing, and they are being replaced by those who consider themselves atheists or non-religious. According to research, the number of young people leaving religion is increasing, and if this trend continues, the historically dominant Christianity in the United States will become a religious minority by 2045.
The authors of the research drew attention to the fact that at the beginning of the 1990s, 90% of Americans claimed to be Christians, but by 2020, their number, including children, had decreased to 64%. Meanwhile, the share of those who said they were not religiously observant jumped from 16 percent in 2007 to 29 percent in 2020. While older Americans typically adhere to their religion, it is typical for those under 30 to reclassify themselves into a non-religious category, the analysis indicates.
The researchers prepared several scenarios for the expected development of the proportion of Christians in society in the next half century.
- According to the most pessimistic scenario for churches, if current trends continue to strengthen infinitely, the proportion of believers will drop to 35 percent by 2070, while the proportion of non-religious will increase to 52 percent.
- In the case of a limited strengthening of existing processes, a majority of 48 percent of non-religious people would oppose 39 percent of Christians in just half a century.
- In the case of “secularization” at the current pace, believers will remain in a narrow majority in the United States until 2070, at 46% versus 41% of non-believers.
- The fourth scenario shows how the ratio would develop if no one left their religion from now on: According to this, and taking demographic factors into account, the researchers came to the conclusion that it will decrease from the currently calculated 64 percent to 54 percent by 2070 • The proportion of believers will increase From 30% to 34%, the proportion of non-religious people will increase.
An analysis by the Pew Institute for Social Research, which researches other religions, calculates that the proportion of non-Christian believers will double and increase from 6 to 12 percent of the US population by 2070.
