Religion and spirituality in the United States in the 2000s

Religion is a set of philosophical and cultural principles concerned with an individual’s belief in, and worship of, a higher power, often consisting of one or more gods. Religion also refers to an individual’s allegiance to, or membership in, a social group united by shared spiritual beliefs. The term spirituality refers to beliefs regarding the existence of nonphysical forces, entities, or realities, within or beyond the observable universe.

In many cases, religious background influences an individual’s political views, and religious organizations can exert influence over the political culture of a geographic region or nation state. For example, religious institutions play a role in the ongoing public debate over the legality and morality of abortion in the United States. Throughout history, the evolution of law in the United States, and in other countries around the world, has been informed by religious morals and ethics. In addition, religion and spirituality are major global industries, accounting for billions in annual public and private spending and donations.

Changing Demographics

According to data from polling and population research organizations, like the US Census Bureau, the Pew Center, and the Gallup Organization, religious demographics in the United States are changing. The United States has been a majority Christian nation since the founding of the country, and remains primarily Christian in terms of organized religious affiliation. Protestants have traditionally represented the largest denomination of American Christians. However, population estimates indicate that an increasing number of Americans are changing their religious affiliations. In 2010, the Pew Center estimated that more than 44 percent of American adults change religions or religious denominations at some point in their lives.

Shifts in religious affiliation relate to an overall increase in the number of religious options available to Americans. Increases in the number of Evangelical Christians, for example, have reduced the number of adherents in other sects of Christianity, including Catholicism and mainline Protestantism. In addition, the United States has seen an increase in the number of Americans practicing “private spirituality,” and an increase in the number that identifies as belonging to a religious group, but do not actively participate in religious activities, or raise their children to follow a particular religious tradition.

Christians

In 2012, the Pew Forum for Religious and Public Life estimated that more than 78 percent of the US adult population identify themselves as Christian. The US Census Bureau’s estimates indicate that the nation’s adult population increased by 21 million from 2001 to 2009, 66 percent of which identified themselves as Christian, indicating a steady decrease in the number of Christian adherents.

The Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life estimated among Christian faiths, Catholicism saw the largest decrease in membership from the 1990 to 2010. Nearly 31 percent of Americans polled were raised in the Catholic faith, and approximately 46 percent of foreign-born Americans identified as Catholic. However, the number of Americans self-identifying as Catholic fell to 24 percent of the population by 2010. These statistics show an increasing trend in individuals leaving Catholicism for other religions, or becoming nonaffiliated.

More than 51 percent of the US population identified themselves as Protestant, making Protestantism the most populous religion in the country. Nonetheless, the number of Protestants fell significantly during the 2000s, from approximately 54 percent of the adult population in 2000 to 51 percent in 2010. This decrease in Protestant affiliation was a continuation of a trend reflected in population studies since the 1950s, at which time Protestants accounted for more than 68 percent of the population.

An increasing number of Christians joined the Evangelical or Born Again denomination of Christianity. The Evangelical population of the United States represented approximately 22 percent of the population as a whole, and a significant number of individuals in the faith migrated to Evangelism from other religions. The percentage of American adults identifying as Evangelical increased by approximately 2 percent between 1990 and 2000. According to the US Census Bureau, this increase continued in the 2000s, with a more than 3 percent increase between 2001 and 2008.

Muslims

During the 2000s, Islam grew in the United States, and around the world. The Pew Center estimated that there were approximately 2.6 million Muslims living in the United States in 2010. In a detailed study of Islam in America conducted in 2007, researchers found that 35 percent of American Muslims were foreign born, and 21 percent had converted to Islam from another religion. Immigration accounted for more than 65 percent of the American Islamic population as a whole. Bangladesh and Pakistan were the leading countries for Islamic immigration to the United States in 2010, a trend that was expected to continue in coming decades.

In the decade following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Muslims in America faced an increase in prejudice and discrimination throughout the United States. A 2007 Pew Center study found that more than 25 percent of Muslims reported discrimination of one form or another, while more than 50 percent reported that it was difficult to be Muslim in the country after the September 11 attacks.

Pew research also indicates that the Islamic population is growing at a faster rate than most other religious groups in the United States. By the year 2030, there are expected to be more than 6.2 million Muslims in the United States, at which time the Muslim population will be similar in number to the US Jewish population. High growth rates among Muslim Americans are due to higher than average fertility and birth rates.

Jews

According to US Census Bureau statistics, Jewish Americans constituted 1.7 percent of the US population in 2010. However, some organizations have indicated that Census Bureau data on the Jewish population might be flawed, due to insufficient sampling efforts. The North American Jewish Data Bank released a study in 2010 indicating that there were 6.5 million American Jews, constituting more than 2.1 percent of the population.

A number of separate population estimates showed that the American Jewish population was in a state of decline compared to number of Christians and Muslims in America. The National Jewish Population Survey of 2003 indicated that the Jewish population of the United States had been in decline since 1990, due in part to reduced immigration, lower than average birth rates, and a declining level of conversion. Studies also indicated that a declining number of Jewish Americans were raising their children to follow the Jewish faith, leading to increased numbers of Jewish persons leaving the faith in each successive generation.

Unaffiliated Americans

One of the most significant religious trends of the period between 1990 and 2010 was the increase in the number of Americans who claimed no religious affiliation. Between 1990 and 2001, the number of adults with no affiliation increased from 8 percent to more than 14 percent. In 2012, the Pew Center estimated that 16.1 percent of the US adult population was not affiliated with any religion, including those who identified themselves as atheists and agnostics. The Pew Center also estimated that more than 25 percent of American adults between 18 and 29 were not affiliated to any religion, indicating that the trend is likely to increase markedly in the future.

Among the religiously unaffiliated population in the United States, approximately 25 percent described themselves as nonreligious, atheist, or agnostic. Approximately 6.3 percent of the unaffiliated population said that religion was not important in their lives, and 5.8 percent described themselves as “religious,” but not affiliated with any particular religious school or group. The Gallup Organization found that American affiliation with organized religion has been decreasing since 1958, when it was estimated that only 5 percent of American adults were not members of an organized religion.

The Gallup Organization also found that an increasing number of Americans no longer believed that religion had relevance in the modern world. For instance, the percentage of Americans who believe that religion can “solve major problems,” decreased from 80 percent in 1958 to 58 percent in 2010. In 2010, more than 28 percent of the population reported that religion is “old fashioned” and “out of date,” whereas only 7 percent of the population held similar beliefs in 1958.

Spirituality in America

Approximately 92 percent of Americans reported that they believe in a god or gods of some kind. The majority (60 percent) claimed belief in a “personal, knowable god,” while 25 percent of Americans believed that god is best represented as an “impersonal force.” In 2010, polls measured the highest number of Americans in history reporting this shift in belief, towards a belief in god as a nonpersonal entity or force.

The designation “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) is sometimes used to describe the percentage of the population that holds spiritual views, but does not describe themselves as religious. During the 2000s, many Americans ascribed to non-organized “new age” spiritual systems, and a variety of other spiritualities not classified as organized religion. In 2010, estimates of the SBNR population varied widely between sources, and not all surveys provided SBNR as a choice when judging religious participation. Estimates indicated that SBNR Americans constituted between 5 and 12 percent of the population as a whole.

Even among Americans affiliated with the major religions, there was a net shift toward a more open interpretation of religious dogma. According to Pew Center research, more than 58 percent of Americans relied on “common sense” to define their sense of right and wrong, rather than a religious authority. More than 70 percent of Americans also reported feeling that more than one religion or ideology could lead to eternal life.

Impact

During the decade, religious affiliation played a role in debates surrounding political and social issues. More than 30 percent of social conservatives in the United States described themselves as religious, whereas only 20 percent of social liberals described themselves similarly. On social/political issues like same-sex marriage and abortion rights, religious distinctions played a major role in determining American attitudes.

Increases in the number of SBNR, atheist, and generally unaffiliated Americans may play an increasing role in determining American attitudes about key social issues in coming years. Pew Center data indicated that more than 70 percent of the unaffiliated population supported same-sex marriage in 2011, as compared to 34 percent of the Protestant and 52 percent of the Catholic populations.

Even as religious membership declined slightly in the United States, spirituality as an industry grew, largely through the development of the spiritual/self-help market. According to a 2009 report in Forbes, Americans spent more than $11 billion annually on self-help programs. While most of this spending was for body-improvement programs, a significant number of self-help books and other material focused on spiritual development.

According to statistics compiled by the World Bank, Americans spent more than $200 billion each year on religious and social welfare activities, which remains one of the largest facets of the overall American annual budget. University of Tampa sociology professor Ryan Cragun theorizes that spending on religion may have been far greater than known estimates, because the United States allows religious organizations to secure “tax exempt status.” According to Cragun’s estimates, tax-exemption for religious organizations accounted for a net spending of more than $71 billion annually.

Bibliography

Ecklund, Elaine Howard. Science Vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think, New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print. Introduction to the conflicts and confluence between science and religion both historically and in the twenty-first century written for the general audience. Includes discussions about the relationship between education, scientific literacy and religious affiliation.

Kosmin, Barry A. and Ariela Keysar. Religion in a Free Market, Ithaca: Paramount. Print. Detailed introduction to religious trends in the United States, as measured in 2005. Contains discussions about the significance of religious affiliation trends in the United States.

Newport, Frank, “In U.S., Increasing Number Have No Religious Identity,” Gallup Politics. Gallup Inc., 2010. Web. 23 July 2012. Results of statistic analysis indicating percentage of Americans with regard to religious identity and affiliation with major religions.

“Population: Religion.” The 2012 Statistical Abstract: PDF Version. Washington, DC: US Census Bureau, 2012.PDF file. Statistics regarding religious affiliation and related attitudes about religion and spirituality among the US adult population. Contains information about shifts in religious affiliation between 2001 and 2008.

“U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.” Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2010. Web. July 23, 2012. Detailed series of reports focusing on religious affiliation, attitudes and trends in the US adult population. Contains statistics regarding changes in religious affiliation in the twenty-first century.

Saad, Lydia, “U.S. Confidence in Religion at a Low Point.” Gallup Politics. Gallup Inc., 2012. Web. 23 July 2012. Discussion of statistics regarding American faith in religion and belief that religion is helpful to modern culture.