Americans are turning away from Christianity at a steady rate, according to a recently published Pew study. The number of people who self-identify as atheists, on the other hand, is increasing.
The United States houses more Christians than any other country in the world, but over the past seven years, the percentage of Americans practicing the religion decreased from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent (172.8 million). In that same amount of time, from 2007 to 2014, the number of non-religious Americans, referred to in studies as "nones," rose from from 16.1 percent to 22.80 percent (56 million people).
The new study, titled "America's Changing Religious Landscape," compares the statistics it found to a similar report Pew conducted in 2007. The results show that age is playing a big part in the changing statistics.
"One of the most important factors in the declining share of Christians and the growth of the 'nones' is generational replacement," the report said, referring to respondents who chose no religious identity. "As the Millennial generation enters adulthood, its members display much lower levels of religious affiliation."
More stats back that statement up, as the study shows 85 percent of U.S. adults were raised Christian but almost one in four no longer identified as part of the religion.
Judaism increased by 0.2 percentage points to account for almost 2 percent of the population, while respondents who identified as Muslim more than doubled to 0.9 percent. Those who identified as Hindus increased to 0.7 percent while the amount of people who responded as Buddhists stayed at 0.7 percent.
Regarding diversity across religious groups, Latinos now make up one-third of U.S. Roman Catholics. The study also shows that nearly one in four evangelicals and 14 percent of standard Protestants are racial minorities. Historically black churches have not gained or lost a substantial amount of members.
About 35,000 adults in the United States responded to the survey, which took place between June and September 2014. The margin of error is plus or minus 0.6 percentage points.
