February 26, 2008
The Rise and Fall of Religious Affiliation in the U.S.
The New York Times reports on a recently released report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life on religious affiliation in the United States.
The graphic below tells the whole story:
Read the NY Times article to get the overall look at the report and read the full Pew report to find out more details, but here is the key paragraph that stood out for me:
The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
Broken down this says that a very large chunk of the unaffiliated are the younger demographic in our society. I have heard many pastors and speakers talk about the importance of teaching our youth what we know to be true, and this is the data to prove it.
What are your thoughts?
