A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The share of Americans who identify as Christian is dropping, and those who say they're religiously unaffiliated now make up a major portion of the U.S. population. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose has more from a new Pew Research study.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults now say they're Christian. That's down from the 78% Pew found in a similar survey back in 2007. However, that number has stabilized more recently. Greg Smith with Pew Research says the change is related to what he calls generational shifts.
GREG SMITH: You have more and more people who have no religion having children. And so you have more and more people who, as children, were raised with no religion. And many of them grow up to be not particularly religious themselves.
DEROSE: And Smith says fewer people are switching to Christianity from another religion.
SMITH: There are about six people who were raised as Christians and no longer identify as such for every one convert to Christianity.
DEROSE: Twenty-nine percent of Americans now identify as religiously unaffiliated, which can mean agnostic, atheist or just nothing in particular. That's an all-time high. And the percentage of people in the U.S. who identify as a specific religion other than Christian is on the rise. They now make up just over 7% of the total U.S. population. Pew's Greg Smith says one of the especially interesting findings in this study is how major shifts have happened among political lines.
SMITH: The decline of Christianity is much more pronounced among political liberals than conservatives. And in fact, among liberals, there are now more people who say they have no religion than there are who identify with Christianity.
DEROSE: While organized religion may be on the decline, Pew says spiritual beliefs are widespread. Eighty-six percent of Americans believe in a soul, and 83% believe in a God.
Jason DeRose, NPR News.
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