{"id":4324,"date":"2022-09-19T15:46:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T19:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=4324"},"modified":"2022-09-19T15:46:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T19:46:07","slug":"christians-could-make-up-less-than-half-of-us-population-in-a-few-decades-according-to-new-models","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2022\/09\/christians-could-make-up-less-than-half-of-us-population-in-a-few-decades-according-to-new-models.html","title":{"rendered":"Christians Could Make Up Less Than Half of US Population in a Few Decades According to New Models"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Pew Research Center has developed several hypothetical models on the potential US religious landscape based on current Christian declines and none of the outlooks paint a bright picture for the fate of Christianity in the US. The rate of self-identified Christians in the US has continuously declined since the 90s, with increases in those who identify as atheist, agnostic, or \u201cnothing.\u201d According to 2020 estimates<\/a>, about 64% of Americans were Christian, while the religiously unaffiliated made up 30% of the population and the adherents of other faiths such has Judaism and Islam made up 6%. The models look at the current rates of \u201creligious switching\u201d in the US and how those rates could affect the faith landscape of the country. The models defined switching as \u201c\u2026in some cases could be described as religious conversion\u2026 defined in this report as a change between the religion in which a person was raised (in childhood) and their present religious identity (in adulthood).\u201d The rates for the models were based on responses from over 15,000 adults in a 2019 Pew Research survey. The respondents answered two questions, the first being \u201cIn what religion, if any, were you raised?\u201d and the second being, \u201cWhat is your present religion, if any?\u201d<\/p>\n

Dependent on current trends in religious switching continuing or speeding up, the models estimated that the rate of people identifying as Christian could go from 64% to 54% or as low as 35% by 2070. The number of \u201cunaffiliated\u201d could go up anywhere from 34% to 52% during that same time.\u00a0 The models were shared on Twitter and researcher Stephanie Kramer<\/a> noted, \u201cOur NEW projections show U.S. Christians are on track to lose their majority status within a few decades if recent trends continue, driven mostly by young people leaving the faith.\u201d Younger people certainly seem to be driving the decline, with survey after survey showing more and more young people identify less with Christianity.<\/p>\n

The reasons for the falling away of young people from the church are numerous and hard to pinpoint. Christian apologist Natasha Crain, author of \u201cFaithfully Different: Regaining Biblical Clarity in a Secular Culture\u201d believes that a lack of a Christian worldview is one of the main culprits. On a Facebook post, Crain noted, \u201cThe fact that so many Americans call themselves Christians (65 percent) while so few hold a biblical worldview (6 percent) has many negative implications for the 6 percent\u2026 That, then, means that nonbelievers are likely to encounter Christians with unbiblical views more often than those with biblical ones\u2026 Culture then pits \u201cChristians\u201d against one another to make it look like there are good Christians (the ones with beliefs they like) and bad Christians (the ones with beliefs they don\u2019t).\u201d The 6 percent comes from a study<\/a> from the Family Research Council (FRC). In response to the data, FRC President Tony Perkins stated, \u201cEvery Christian can and should obtain a biblical worldview which is only achieved when a person believes that the Bible is true, authoritative, and then taught how it is applicable to every area of life, which enables them to live out those beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Pew Research Center has developed several hypothetical models on the potential US religious landscape based on current Christian declines and none of the outlooks paint a bright picture for the fate of Christianity in the US. The rate of self-identified Christians in the US has continuously declined since the 90s, with increases in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":4327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChristians Could Make Up Less Than Half of US Population in a Few Decades According to New Models<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to a new study, Christians could make up less than half the population in the US in a few decades.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christians Could Make Up Less Than Half of US 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