Is Christianity on the decline? Pew research takes a look at the numbers | Commentary
on to their children before about age 13.
Most parents in the U.S. share the same religion. But religious intermarriage is rising, and when the parents have different religions, our data indicates that the children are more likely to inherit the religious identity of the mother than of the father. In addition, roughly a quarter of children under 18 live in single-parent households, which are overwhelmingly headed by mothers.
We estimate that between the ages of 15 and 29, 31% of Americans who are raised as Christians become unaffiliated, a category sometimes called “nones.” The bottom line is that although Christianity is by far the majority faith in the U.S., and although most Christian mothers pass their religious identity to their children, religious switching — beginning in the late teen years — has resulted in a net flow of millions of Americans from Christianity to unaffiliated.
Our projections explore several scenarios, some of which are unrealistic but illuminating. For example, we modeled what would happen if there were a complete halt to immigration.