Americans ages 18 to 29 are consid-erably less religious than older Americans, with one-in-four reporting they are unaffiliated with any particular faith according to a new report released by the Pew Research Centre’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report is part of a series exploring the behaviours, values and opinions of the teens and 20-somethings that make up the millennial generation.
Religion Among the Millennials explores the degree to which the religious characteristics and social views of young adults differ from those of older people today, as well as how Millennials compare with previous generations when they were about the same age.
According to survey findings, Millennials are significantly more unaffiliated than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their life cycle and twice as unaffiliated as Baby Boomers were as young adults. And compared with their elders today, fewer than half (45 per cent) of adults under age 30 say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 59 per cent of adults.
However, on some other measures of religious belief and practice, members of the Millennial Generation are not so clearly different from previous generations. For example, young adults’ beliefs about life after death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles closely resemble the beliefs of older people today. The percentage of young adults who say they pray every day rivals the portion of young people who said the same in prior decades. Millennials also say they believe in God with absolute certainty at rates similar to those seen among Gen-Xers a decade ago.
Interestingly, nearly three-quarters of affiliated young adults (74 per cent) say there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of their faith.
The report, including a summary of findings, is available at pewforum.org. — The Pew Research Centre
