Teens are fleeing religion like never before: Massive new study exposes religion’s decline (Raw Story) noting
PLOS ONE: Generational and Time Period Differences in American Adolescents’ Religious Orientation, 1966–2014
From Raw Story:
Religion is rapidly losing the youngest generation of Americans, according to new research.
America’s rising generation of adults are the least religiously observant of any generation in six decades, determined an expansive study led by Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State.
“Unlike previous studies, ours is able to show that millennials’ lower religious involvement is due to cultural change, not to millennials being young and unsettled,” Twenge says in a San Diego State University news release.
From PLOS ONE:
Figure 1 shows the percentages of various young Americans who never attend religious services. Some of the numbers:
2013: 8th grade: 16.5%, 10th grade: 19.5%, 12th grade: 21%, College: 27%
1970: College: 10%
Figure 2 shows the percentages of various young Americans who claim "none" as religious affiliation. The high-school and college numbers parallel each other until the last few years.
2013: 8th grade: 16%, 10th grade: 20%, 12th grade: 24% (2011), College: 27.5%
The college fraction has a remarkable trend.
1966: 7%, 1971: 15.5%, 1982: 8%, 1988: 12%, 1998: 14%, 2013: 27.5%
There was a spike in 1971-1972, and I'm guessing that it was a result of the Sixties social upheaval.
Table 2 breaks down the numbers by various demographics.
About attending religious services, the entire population did so at roughly similar rates in the 1970's. But they gradually diverged, with the divergences being prominent by the early 2010's.
Women declined more than men did, getting closer to similar amounts of participation. White people noticeably declined, while black people barely did so. Lower socioeconomic status declined more than higher SES, becoming more divergent. By regions, Northeasterners declined the most, followed by Midwesterners and Southerners. By political affiliation, liberals declined the most, with moderates not far behind, and with conservatives not changing at all.
These numbers are somewhat paralleled by numbers on the importance of religion in one's life.
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Breaking down by denomination is rather interesting. Different ones have fared very differently. From ARIS: 1990, 2001, 2008:
Catholics are holding steady: 26.2 - 24.5 - 25.1% largely due to Hispanic immigration.
Mainline Protestants, the likes of Episcopalians and Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans and UCC, have had a sizable decline: 18.7 - 17.2 - 12.9%
Baptists have been declining a little bit: 19.3 - 16.3 - 15.8%
"Christian Generic" has fluctuated: 14.9 - 10.8 - 14.2% Could it be including some of the former mainline Protestants?
Pentecostals aren't much: 3.2 - 3.8 - 3.5%
Not many SDA's, either: 0.4 - 0.3 - 0.4%
Jehovah's Witnesses are in between: 0.8 - 0.6 - 0.8%
As are Mormons: 1.4 - 1.3 - 1.4%
Mormon "growth" is likely counting converts while omitting dropouts -- the numbers do not suggest any dramatic growth.
Jewish means religious ones; they are declining: 1.8 - 1.4 - 1.2%
Muslims are 0.3 - 0.5 - 0.6%
Buddhists are 0.2 - 0.5 - 0.5% which seems rather strange.
New Religious Movements and the like are increasing: 0.8 - 0.9 - 1.2%
Most interesting for us,
Nones is 8.2 - 14.1 - 15%
However, atheists and agnostics together are 0.7 - 0.9 - 1.6%
Only 2000 and 2008 have atheists and agnostic separately.
Agnostics: 0.5 - 0.9%
Atheists: 0.4 - 0.7%
