WHY AMERICANS ARE ABANDONING RELIGION

Overall, the number of unaffiliated Americans rose from 16.1 percent of the population in 2007 to 22.8 percent of the population in 2014. That represents an increase of 19 million Americans. Pew points out that the shift from religion crosses “all regions of the country and many demographic groups.” Young people are becoming more and more irreligious. The average age of mainline Protestants is now 52, 49 for Catholics, but 36 for religiously unaffiliated Americans. And Americans are switching religions like never before. Pew notes:

 

If all Protestants were treated as a single religious group, then fully 34% of American adults currently have a religious identity different from the one in which they were raised. … Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) were raised in a religious faith and now identify with no religion.

 

A full 39 percent of all marriages in the United States since 2010 were religious intermarriage. Meanwhile, the number of self-identified Christians dropped from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent as of last year.

 

There has been religious growth in certain areas: Jewish self-identification has risen from 1.7 percent in 2007 to 1.9 percent in 2014; Muslim self-identification more than doubled, from 0.4 percent to 0.9 percent.

 

Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/13/why-americans-are-abandoning-religion/