If you ever wonder why things seem to be getting much worse by numerous critical metrics, we have an idea:
The vast majority of U.S. adults believe in God, but the 81% who do so is down six percentage points from 2017 and is the lowest in Gallup's trend. Between 1944 and 2011, more than 90% of Americans believed in God.
Gallup's May 2-22 Values and Beliefs poll finds 17% of Americans saying they do not believe in God.
Gallup first asked this question in 1944, repeating it again in 1947 and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. In those latter four surveys, a consistent 98% said they believed in God. When Gallup asked the question nearly five decades later, in 2011, 92% of Americans said they believed in God.
This demonstrates one particularly concerning fact: The problem is actually accelerating. From 1953-1967 the rate of belief in God stayed the same; 44 years later it had fallen by 6%; just 11 years later it's fallen by 11%.
The demographics of this decline are...well, they're not surprising:
Belief in God has fallen the most in recent years among young adults and people on the left of the political spectrum (liberals and Democrats). These groups show drops of 10 or more percentage points comparing the 2022 figures to an average of the 2013-2017 polls.
Most other key subgroups have experienced at least a modest decline, although conservatives and married adults have had essentially no change.
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