This is one of the most revealing and insightful articles you have given us. And, of course, it reveals that race is a factor and predictor.
While it seems that us Boomers are the most religious across race, we don’t tend to think that way because we remember the most religious who were the GI generation.
One question I ponder is which group by age and race might be more open to religious faith. For example, are the reports of young white men turning to the Catholic Church statistically significant or anecdotal?
The press keep reporting on this, but I remain skeptical 🧐 I don’t doubt that it is meaningful to those who do, just wondering if it’s statistically significant. I hope it is.
This study (https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2026/06/why-are-so-many-people-becoming.html) says what draws them is "a profound hunger for personal virtue, a desire for truth, and an attraction to sacred liturgy." Which I translate as code for to a desire for a return to the "true" way our highly economically and socially diverse, multigenerational, multiethnic nation should be.
I'm pretty sure that kind of "hunger" is not driving other frustrated and disaffected Americans to get churched.
The age graph is especially interesting. Those born before 1970 personally experienceds 11AM Sunday mornings to be the most segregated hour in America, much as MLK wove into many speeches. The church served not only as a religious center but as a place of advocacy. Once mission accomplished with legislation and principal leader assassinated, the African-American generations which followed seemed to tail off on their attachment to church more quickly than some of the other groups. It might be interesting to do some of the correlations with education and income/wealth which has expanded since that era, though not for everyone.
For the Asians, not all are monotheistic, so no surprise that belief in God would lag. It may not be a great measure of religiosity for Buddhists and Confucians who have no deity or Hindus who have many. Do know what a better surrogate for belief would be, though.
Yes, I was wondering about differences among Asian populations. East Asians differ among themselves (I'd guess that in the US Koreans might be more religious than Japanese or Chinese) and differ from south and west Asians. Asian Muslim populations differ from Buddhist, Confucian, and Hindu populations as you note.
RE: Black 58% attendance. Churches are communities, often communities with long histories.
Maybe it's not the "faith" that draws people to a church, maybe it's the community. I make this observation based on obsertvations at my church in Ohio (large female attendance, not large male attendance), which is also used by a group of Haitians: to me it seems like the comradery (and joy) they have at being in church is more about the connection than faith.... that said, I'm theorizing based on an N (group) of 1.
RE: what one says/thinks and what one does: There's a difference between being a dues (aka pledge)-paying member of a church and saying you "belong" to X, Y, Z (fill in the blank) church.
Again, N of 1 situation: At the church I attend almost all (older, female, able to drive) who show up on Sunday are dues-paying members of the church.
RE: blue: Please don't use two shades of blue in charts...hard for "old" eyes to distinguish between the two blues in the
Thank you, Dr. Burge, for yet another informative, perceptive piece. I take this opportunity to acknowledge my debt to you for all that I have learned from you. About this piece, I have a question that relates not to the major findings but to the margins. Does it take into account that the concept of God takes different forms in different religions? I understand that Buddhism functions without a concept of God, Christianity presents a Trinity, Judaism and Islam see a Unity, and so on. I believe that about 1% of Americans are Buddhist, so that would account for a significant number of non-believers in God, would it not? It might even skew the findings in the sense that an American Buddhist monk whose entire life is dedicated to the practice of the religion would appear as a non-believer. Thanks, Anan Sahadei
A great question that exposes one of the real shortfalls of survey research -- questions about religion cannot really cover the full ranger of beliefs and practices. Surveys in America typically write the questions with a Christian perspective in mind.
I will have a post in a couple of weeks that addresses this somewhat. The current metrics we use don't work that well in track the religious behavior of groups like Hindus and Buddhists.
The last graph does seem to show a possible floor of religiosity for Whites and Asians with the youngest generation. Those racial groups born in the 1990's are not less religious than those born in the 1980's. However, Blacks and Hispanics continue the slide. Interesting.
That's one thing that I keep seeing hinted at in the data -- there's a clear floor on non-religion. Like I've never seen an estimate of the nones go above 45%, even among the youngest adults. It feels like a bottoming out.
But I don't even want to speculate about whether the numbers hit the floor and then bounce back up or just stay there.
Yes, I can see legions of people shouting "revival!" at what may just be statistical noise. I pray for revival almost every day, but not the kind that is only a +/- of 2% on a poll. So, not a revival, but maybe a flattening of a decades-long trend.
This is one of the most revealing and insightful articles you have given us. And, of course, it reveals that race is a factor and predictor.
While it seems that us Boomers are the most religious across race, we don’t tend to think that way because we remember the most religious who were the GI generation.
One question I ponder is which group by age and race might be more open to religious faith. For example, are the reports of young white men turning to the Catholic Church statistically significant or anecdotal?
The press keep reporting on this, but I remain skeptical 🧐 I don’t doubt that it is meaningful to those who do, just wondering if it’s statistically significant. I hope it is.
Deeply skeptical of any real revival narrative out there. I wrote about that for WaPo a couple weeks ago:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/07/31/positive-views-religion-arent-same-religious-commitment/
Thanks for the reference. I’ll check it out.
Missed this article...thanks for posting it here
Social Historian I, too, am skeptical .
This study (https://www.catholicnewsworld.com/2026/06/why-are-so-many-people-becoming.html) says what draws them is "a profound hunger for personal virtue, a desire for truth, and an attraction to sacred liturgy." Which I translate as code for to a desire for a return to the "true" way our highly economically and socially diverse, multigenerational, multiethnic nation should be.
I'm pretty sure that kind of "hunger" is not driving other frustrated and disaffected Americans to get churched.
The age graph is especially interesting. Those born before 1970 personally experienceds 11AM Sunday mornings to be the most segregated hour in America, much as MLK wove into many speeches. The church served not only as a religious center but as a place of advocacy. Once mission accomplished with legislation and principal leader assassinated, the African-American generations which followed seemed to tail off on their attachment to church more quickly than some of the other groups. It might be interesting to do some of the correlations with education and income/wealth which has expanded since that era, though not for everyone.
For the Asians, not all are monotheistic, so no surprise that belief in God would lag. It may not be a great measure of religiosity for Buddhists and Confucians who have no deity or Hindus who have many. Do know what a better surrogate for belief would be, though.
The interesting thing about all of this is that the GSS indicates Black Protestants are now half the size they were 50 years ago: 9% to 4.4%.
I'm not surprised....especially given that Mr. Plotzker noted a decline in attendance in Black/A-A churches after MLK's shocking death.
Yes, I was wondering about differences among Asian populations. East Asians differ among themselves (I'd guess that in the US Koreans might be more religious than Japanese or Chinese) and differ from south and west Asians. Asian Muslim populations differ from Buddhist, Confucian, and Hindu populations as you note.
And informative read.
Three comments:
RE: Black 58% attendance. Churches are communities, often communities with long histories.
Maybe it's not the "faith" that draws people to a church, maybe it's the community. I make this observation based on obsertvations at my church in Ohio (large female attendance, not large male attendance), which is also used by a group of Haitians: to me it seems like the comradery (and joy) they have at being in church is more about the connection than faith.... that said, I'm theorizing based on an N (group) of 1.
RE: what one says/thinks and what one does: There's a difference between being a dues (aka pledge)-paying member of a church and saying you "belong" to X, Y, Z (fill in the blank) church.
Again, N of 1 situation: At the church I attend almost all (older, female, able to drive) who show up on Sunday are dues-paying members of the church.
RE: blue: Please don't use two shades of blue in charts...hard for "old" eyes to distinguish between the two blues in the
Thank you, Dr. Burge, for yet another informative, perceptive piece. I take this opportunity to acknowledge my debt to you for all that I have learned from you. About this piece, I have a question that relates not to the major findings but to the margins. Does it take into account that the concept of God takes different forms in different religions? I understand that Buddhism functions without a concept of God, Christianity presents a Trinity, Judaism and Islam see a Unity, and so on. I believe that about 1% of Americans are Buddhist, so that would account for a significant number of non-believers in God, would it not? It might even skew the findings in the sense that an American Buddhist monk whose entire life is dedicated to the practice of the religion would appear as a non-believer. Thanks, Anan Sahadei
A great question that exposes one of the real shortfalls of survey research -- questions about religion cannot really cover the full ranger of beliefs and practices. Surveys in America typically write the questions with a Christian perspective in mind.
I will have a post in a couple of weeks that addresses this somewhat. The current metrics we use don't work that well in track the religious behavior of groups like Hindus and Buddhists.
The last graph does seem to show a possible floor of religiosity for Whites and Asians with the youngest generation. Those racial groups born in the 1990's are not less religious than those born in the 1980's. However, Blacks and Hispanics continue the slide. Interesting.
That's one thing that I keep seeing hinted at in the data -- there's a clear floor on non-religion. Like I've never seen an estimate of the nones go above 45%, even among the youngest adults. It feels like a bottoming out.
But I don't even want to speculate about whether the numbers hit the floor and then bounce back up or just stay there.
Yes, I can see legions of people shouting "revival!" at what may just be statistical noise. I pray for revival almost every day, but not the kind that is only a +/- of 2% on a poll. So, not a revival, but maybe a flattening of a decades-long trend.