If recent trends in religious switching continue,Christians could make up less than half of the U.S. population within a few decades. Since the 1990s,large numbers of Americans have left Christianity to join the growing ranks of U.S. adults who describe their religious identity as atheist,agnostic or nothing in particular.This accelerating trend is reshaping the U.S. religious landscape,leading many people to wonder what the future of religion in America might look like. What if Christians keep leaving religion at the same rate observed in recent years? What if the pace of religious switching continues to accelerate? What if switching were to stop,but other demographic trends : such as migration,births and deaths : were to continue at current rates? To help answer such questions,Pew Research Center has modeled several hypothetical scenarios describing how the U.S. religious landscape might change over the next half century.
Back to top