Nearly a quarter of Americans have changed their religious affiliation, survey finds

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A new survey shows that nearly 25% of Americans changed their religion or their religious traditions and denominations during the course of their lives, i24News report. Conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) over the last 16 years, the “2022 American Values Atlas” survey was published on Tuesday.

In its report, the PRRI said many Americans had changed the expression of their faith because they believed the teachings of their original religions, i24News said. Among those who changed, 56 percent said they stopped believing their religion’s teachings, including on LGBTQ+ issues and politics.

In particular, the survey found an increase in the number of people who no longer define themselves as Christian and who say they are not affiliated with any official religion, i24News said.

“The religious landscape of the United States has changed dramatically in the past few decades as the country has become more demographically diverse, more Americans than ever have disaffiliated with organized religion, and religious leaders have faced a cultural milieu increasingly polarized along racial and political lines,” PRRI noted in its report.

“There’s essentially kind of a paradox happening. On the one hand, there is more religious churning,” PRRI CEO Melissa Deckman added in a statement to Axios. “There are also more people in America who are becoming less religious.” However, Deckman added: “Among Americans who still go to church on a regular basis, they still seem to be pretty happy with what’s happening in their churches.”

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