Religion & Politics

Religion has long been entangled in America's politics and its political campaigns.

Pew Research Center estimates that there were about 3.3 million Muslims of all ages living in the United States in 2015. This means that Muslims made up about 1% of the total U.S. population.

Since 2010, Millennials' rating of churches and other religious organizations has dipped 18 percentage points. Their views of the national news media also have grown more negative.

Americans place less importance on religion in their lives than do people in a number of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia -- but more than residents of many other Western and European countries.

Religious institutions are starting to formally address the participation of transgender people in their congregations, much as they have with the issue of accepting homosexuals.

A large majority of Americans (78%) feel a strong sense of gratitude or thankfulness on a weekly basis, while only 6% of Americans say they seldom or never experience these feelings.

Religious "nones" make up 23% of U.S. adults, up from 16% in 2007. And only 27% of those “nones” are absolutely certain about God’s existence, down from 36% in 2007.

Highlights from the Pew Research report “U.S. Public Becoming Less Religious.” There has been a modest drop in overall rates of belief in God and participation in religious practices. But religiously affiliated Americans are as observant as before.

Our new report finds that whether U.S. adults are becoming more or less religious depends, in part, on how religious observance is measured.