Religious Identity & Affiliation

Though the percentage of religiously "nones" in America has risen, the global share of religiously unaffiliated people is expected to fall in coming decades.

Imagining the U.S. as a town of 100 people can help illuminate the nation's religious diversity.

While roughly one-in-five U.S. adults say they were raised by two parents with different religions, just 6% say they now identify with multiple religions.

They come in several basic styles, with some more favored by particular Jewish subgroups than others.

Nearly all Jews in the United States and Israel say they are proud to be Jewish, and strong majorities in both countries say they feel a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people. But the two Jewish communities do not always agree about what it means to be Jewish.

The two largest organized Jewish denominations in America – Reform and Conservative Judaism – together have about five times as many U.S. members as the historically much older, more strictly observant Orthodox community. But the Reform and Conservative movements have a far smaller footprint in Israel.

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.

A majority of LGB adults are religiously affiliated, but they are much less likely to be Christian than the general public and are more drawn to smaller, non-Christian denominations.

As of 2010, nearly a third of the world's population identified as Christian. But if demographic trends persist, Islam will close the gap by the middle of the 21st century.