The Gallup polling organization periodically surveys Americans about their church membership and attendance. Coincidentally, or otherwise, their latest results have been made public during Holy Week.
The headline is that, for the very first time ever, a majority of Americans report no affiliation with any church, synagogue, or mosque. Place-of-worship membership hovered around 70% for decades until 2000. Since then it has been falling: to around 60% in 2010, 55% in 2015, and now 47%.
As early as 2009 we were writing that Europe had become post-Christian, and we wondered whether the U.S. would follow the same path. Put bluntly, it has, and the trend here is likely to continue as the younger respondents to the poll are less religion-involved than the older cohorts.
Again coincidentally, or otherwise, the places where religion is declining in importance in people’s lives are experiencing below-replacement birth rates. This correlation has been observed by others and is added here speculatively, without a claim of causation.
