US Religion Trends: Claims vs. Data

President Trump claims religion is booming, but surveys show declining religious association despite a perceived increase in faith's influence. Engagement levels vary by demographic.

Perceived vs. Actual Religious Influence

President Donald Trump claimed at a June faith conference that “religion is back in our country, larger and stronger than it has remained in lots of, several years” and “it’s increasing.” The statement is misleading, as multiple surveys show lower religious association and engagement than in previous years– despite a current surge in the viewed impact of religion in America.

A Pew Research Center survey in April inquired about the viewed function of faith in culture, not people’s spiritual identification. It found that 61% of grownups questioned claimed that religious beliefs is losing influence in American life, while 37% said religious beliefs is acquiring influence– up from the 18% that said so in February 2024.

Furthermore, 40% of young men reported attending church or an additional church month-to-month or much more often in 2024-2025. That was the “highest level considering that 2012-2013,” Gallup claimed, and a 7-point boost from 2022-2023.

Demographic Trends in Religious Engagement

Furthermore, in late April, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research published the outcomes of one more 2025 survey that checked leaders representing 7,453 churchgoers in the united state. It located that the reported participation at spiritual solutions– which dropped to its least expensive levels during the COVID-19 pandemic– had actually increased above pre-COVID levels. According to the study, the median dimension of U.S. churchgoers grew to 70 people in 2015– up from a mean of 65 people just prior to the pandemic. (The average is the halfway point, meaning that fifty percent of parishes had more guests and half had fewer.).

Gallup reported in March that 47% of united state grownups in a 2025 survey said religious beliefs was “extremely essential” in their lives. That’s below 48% in 2024 and down from Trump’s first-term high of 51% in 2017. “The analysis has actually been slowly decreasing from 58% in 2012 and was as high as 70% to 75% in the 1950s and 1960s,” Gallup stated.

The researchers also kept in mind that a bulk see the viewed development in the influence of religion as positive. They claimed, “Overall, 55% of U.S. adults express a favorable sight of religious beliefs’s role in American life– stating either that faith’s influence is growing and this is a good thing (21%) or that its influence is decreasing and this is a poor point (34%).”.

The “nonreligious” in Burge’s blog post included the last three categories. Over Trump’s very first term, the percentage of Americans that are nonreligious went up somewhat, by 3 percentage factors.

Church bench Research Center’s 2025 National Public Opinion Reference Study, carried out with 5,022 U.S. adults, discovered that 62% of people recognized as Christians last year, consisting of 41% as Protestant, 19% as Roman Catholic, 1% as Mormon and 1% as Orthodox. That was below 63% that asserted Christianity in 2024 and 64% that did in 2020. The Christian share of the populace was 78% as lately as 2007, according to Pew.

Declining Importance of Religion

At the very same time, Gallup claimed the data show that “females of any age groups and older guys go to or near their historical lows” in regards to the relevance of religious beliefs in their lives. And while young women additionally reported more normal participation at spiritual services in 2024-2025 compared with 2022-2023, Gallup claimed that the participation prices of older males and females stayed “at or near their fad lows.”.

During that period, 42% of males in that age group said faith was “very essential” in their lives, a 14-point boost from 28% in 2022-2023. That placed young men back at almost the same level as 2000-2001, when 43% stated religious beliefs was extremely essential to them. (Gallup says these “findings are based on biennial accumulations of Gallup’s religion information from 2000-2001 via 2024-2025, allowing for secure quotes throughout age and sex teams.”).

After that, at the Belief and Freedom Union Meeting on June 26, he said: “America is back. It’s back. It’s back, I believe, much better than in the past. And I’m particularly pleased to state that furthermore, faith is back in our nation, bigger and stronger than it has actually remained in several, many years. Been reading all of those reports. Religious beliefs’s actually– it’s going up. If that were a stock, we ‘d be very, extremely rich, everybody. It’s been great to watch.”

Public View on Religion’s Role

In April, PRRI reported that “28% of Americans determine as having no spiritual custom, similar to the previous year’s rate.” However it also stated “the portion of consistently unaffiliated Americans has actually gradually enhanced” gradually; 21% claimed they had no religious tradition in 2013.

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In 2014, a consolidated 64% of respondents identified as either Protestant, nondenominational Christian or Catholic, according to Gallup surveys. That was down from 67% who fell into one of those classifications in 2024, and it was likewise much lower than the combined 82% who carried out in the early 2000s.

Shifting Religious Landscape

Church bench Study Facility’s 2025 National Public Viewpoint Referral Survey, performed with 5,022 United state adults, located that 62% of individuals recognized as Christians last year, including 41% as Protestant, 19% as Roman Catholic, 1% as Mormon and 1% as Orthodox. That was down from 63% that asserted Christianity in 2024 and 64% that did in 2020. Throughout that period, 42% of men in that age team stated religion was “extremely vital” in their lives, a 14-point increase from 28% in 2022-2023.

An added 25% claimed last year that they thought about faith to be “rather vital.” Yet that was up just 1 percent factor from 2024, and still below Gallup’s taped high of 32% in the late 1970s and 1980s.

It reported in December that constantly in its surveys going back to 2020, around 70% of U.S. adults have said they understand a religion. “While the numbers have actually changed a bit, there has actually been no clear rise or fall in spiritual association over the last 5 years,” Bench claimed.

That’s down from 48% in 2024 and down from Trump’s first-term high of 51% in 2017. “The analysis has actually been progressively declining from 58% in 2012 and was as high as 70% to 75% in the 1950s and 1960s,” Gallup stated.

Of the people surveyed in 2025, 57% stated that they seldom or never ever attend spiritual solutions, a rise from 55% in 2024. Likewise, 31% claimed they participated in services once a week or virtually regular in 2025, a decrease from 33% the previous year.

“I assume we’re relocating into a new age of what’s happening with American religion,” he stated in a January podcast interview with the New York Times. “It was rapid secularization from 1991 to 2020. Currently we’re in a duration of stasis.”.

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The president made a similar claim during his February State of the Union address, in which he mentioned that, throughout both of his presidential terms, there had actually been “a tremendous revival in faith, faith, Christianity and belief in God,” especially “amongst youngsters.” We wrote at the time that current polling showed the contrary.

If the head of state implied Christianity is “bigger and more powerful” in the U.S. currently– because he pointed out protecting Christians from attacks and bias in his faith seminar statements– the survey information we examined do not support that, either.

The researchers claimed the study results “need to be analyzed with care,” as the 2025 typical of 70 guests remained well listed below the average of 137 attendees in 2000. It’s additionally still lower than the extra current mean of 80 attendees in 2015. “Consequently, this current gain ought to be seen within the much longer historic trajectory of a decrease,” the researchers stated.

Its studies also located that 28% of those surveyed have stated religious beliefs is “not extremely vital” to them every year since 2022, “the greatest percentage in Gallup’s pattern and more than double the rate viewed as lately as the early 2000s.”.

In late March, Ryan Burge, a political scientist and teacher of method at the John C. Danforth Center at the Washington University in St. Louis, uploaded October study data showing that the share of Americans that are “nonreligious” went down 3 percent points from 34% in 2024, Joe Biden’s in 2015 as head of state, to 31% in 2025. That was the lowest percentage since 2016, according to his numbers, which he credited to the Cooperative Election Research, an academic study partially moneyed by the National Scientific research Structure that meetings more than 50,000 united state grownups.

It stated similar patterns were observed when inquiring about the praying practices of Americans, the relevance of religious beliefs in their lives, and the frequency in which they go to spiritual services. “There is some jumping around from year to year, as is to be anticipated in study study. However there is no clear fad of either enhancing or decreasing religiousness considering that 2020,” Pew said.

The long-lasting fad “reveals a constant decrease in regular presence together with a continual rise in nonattendance over the past two-plus years,” Gallup reported. It included, “From the early 1990s to 2008, majorities of U.S. grownups claimed they went to solutions at the very least monthly, yet considering that 2018, majorities have actually claimed they seldom or never ever participate in religious solutions.”.