U.S. Is Still ‘Exceptionally’ Religious Compared to Other Countries, New Study Shows

The share of Americans who claim any religious affiliation has declined in recent decades, but the United States nevertheless remains one of the most religious countries in the world, according to a new report.

The study by Lyman Stone, an adjunct fellow for the American Enterprise Institute and a research fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, examined the history of religion in the U.S. and the causes behind its recent decline.

For example, the share of adults attending any religious service in a typical week has fallen from 50 percent in 1960 to about 35 percent today, Stone writes, while the share of Americans who self-identify “or report being affiliated with any religion” has plummeted from over 95 percent to around 75 percent today. Further, the share of Americans “claimed as members by any religious body has fallen from over 75 percent to about 62 percent.”

The decline is “striking,” Stone writes in the report, yet he cautions against “making overbold statements about what such a decline might portend.” That’s because, he says, America’s religiosity has risen and fallen in the past.

“At the dawn of the American republic in the 1780s, probably just a third of Americans were members in any religious body, and just a fifth could be found at church on a given Sunday,” he wrote. “This was a historic low ebb in American religiosity. Thus,…