A new survey has revealed a dramatic drop in the number of American adults who say that religion is an important part of their daily life.
Gallup said it found that less than half (49%) of American adults say faith is an important part of their lives, marking a 17-point drop since 2015. The polling firm said the drop in valuing faith is among the largest it has recorded in any country over any 10-year period since 2007. Over the last 18 years, only 14 out of over 160 countries in the World Poll saw drops of more than 15 percentage points over any 10-year period.
There are only a handful of other wealthy countries that have recorded bigger drops in the U.S., including Greece, Italy and Poland. Greece saw a 28-point drop in religious importance from 2013 to 2023, while Poland saw a 22-point drop over the same period. Italy experienced a 23-point drop from 2012 to 2022.
There are other Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations that have seen similar drops in religious importance, such as Chile’s 20-point drop, Turkey’s 18-point drop and Portugal’s 17-point drop.
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On a global scale, religiosity has remained rather stable. Gallup reported that since 2007, the global median for religiosity has averaged 81%. The number reached 83% last year, which the polling firm noted was the most current full-year data available.
Beyond the sharp drop in religiosity, the U.S. has also moved outside the four categories that Gallup previously found most countries fit into. These include “high religiosity with Christian identity; high religiosity with another religious identity (often Muslim majority, although there are several countries in the Middle East where Gallup does not ask religious identity questions); low religiosity with Christian identity; or low religiosity with no religious identity,” according to Gallup.
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The polling firm said the U.S. has a medium-high Christian identity but middling religiosity. While the number of Americans identifying as Christians is similar to those of other Western and Northern European nations, religion plays a larger role in Americans’ lives than in those from other countries, such as the U.K. and Germany, Gallup noted.
Meanwhile, the importance of religion in Americans’ daily lives mirrors those of people in Argentina, Ireland, Poland and Italy, where Catholicism is more influential, according to Gallup. However, far fewer Americans identify as Christians than people in those nations.
While religiosity has declined among American adults, Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, have spoken about the importance of faith.
In his first public appearance after being sworn-in as vice president, Vance attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C. While Vance’s openness about his faith seems to stand in stark contrast with the poll, it could reflect Gallup’s classification of the U.S. as a place with medium-high Christian identity but middling religiosity.
