In 2023, about 33 percent of Americans were Protestants, down from 69 percent in 1948. In that same year, about 22 percent of Americans were Catholic, while 22 percent said that they had no religion at all.

In 2024, about 32 percent of respondents in the United States had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the church and organized religion. This is a significant decrease from 1975, when confidence in religion was at its highest, with 68 percent of Americans having a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in organized religion.

In the United States, the share of Americans affiliated with one of the three main white Christian religious denominations has been declining since 2006. While 23 percent of Americans identified as White evangelical Protestants in 2006, the number was 13.4 percent in 2023.

Belief in God has historically been a persistent aspect of American society, with 96 percent of surveyed Americans saying that they believed in God in 1944. However, the share of Americans who believed in God has decreased steadily over time after reaching a peak of 98 percent in the 1950s and 60s. As of 2022, the share of Americans who believed in God had fallen to 81 percent. Religious participation and practice There has been a significant reduction in participation within religious organizations in the United States, with Americans found less likely to attend church or become members of a church. While 70 percent of Americans belonged to a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple in 1999, this number dropped to 47 percent by 2021. This decline in church membership may have contributed to Americans’ waning belief in God, as continuous religious practice has been attributed to greater faith and religious conviction. 74 percent of Americans who attended religious services weekly believed that God hears prayers and intervenes, in comparison to 28 percent of Americans who seldom or never attended religious services. Younger Americans less likely to believe While most U.S. adults still believe in God, younger Americans are less likely to share this belief. Older generations of Americans were more likely to participate in religious services while growing up, with 68 percent of the Silent Generation reporting that they attended Sunday school or another religious education program, while Generation Z were more likely to have lacked any sort of religious upbringing in the United States. In 2021, 15 percent of Gen Z said that they had never been religious.

This dataset contains the Arab-West Report special reports that were published in 2006.This dataset mainly contains the writings of Cornelis Hulsman, Drs., among other authors on topics related to Muslim-Christian relations and interfaith dialogue. The writings in this dataset are mostly reports concerning Coptic Christian culture, Muslim-Christian dialogue, and the state of the Christian faith in Egypt.Some of the articles address the controversial book "The Da Vinci Code" and the debates that ensued after its publication surrounding its historicity and freedom of expression.Additionally this dataset contains recommendation for the work of Arab-West Report by other social figures and the development of its affiliated NGO, the Center for Arab West Understanding. Furthermore, this dataset contains commentary and critique on published material from other sources (media critique).Some of the themes that characterize this dataset:Development of the Center for Arab West Understanding (CAWU) and recommendations of the work of Arab West Report:- Recommendation for Arab-West Report and the Center for Arab-West Understanding from Dutch musician and entertainer, Herman van Veen, Pastor Dave Petrescue ( Maadi Community Church in Cairo, Egypt) and Lord Carey of Clifton, former archbishop of Canterbury. Additionally, this dataset contains special recommendations of the work of Corneliss 'Kees' Hulsman and Sawsan Gabra by Dr. Jan Slomp, member of the Advisory Editorial Board of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs in Jeddah. Dr. Slomp acknowledges that Arab West Report’s use of reliable information is working towards strengthening Muslim-Christian relations by providing source material for cultural, educational and religious dialogue and cooperation.-Another report mentioned that the Former Dutch Prime Minister Andreas van Agt visited Egypt to support the foundation of the Center for Arab-West Understanding.-A report about NGO Status of CAWU, “After Three Years of Struggle”. This report came as a result of the February 18 ruling of the Egyptian Council of State that granted the Center recognition as an NGO under Egyptian law.-Annual report: Arab-West Report presents the annual report for 2005.-Arab West Report’s American intern writes about 220 years of religious freedom in the U.S., arguing that one standard must be applied to all.-A discussion of homosexuality and Egyptian law taken from a bachelor’s thesis on Egyptian law.-Book review of Jamal Al-Banna’s "My Coptic Brethren".-“Christian Minorities in the Islamic World, an Egyptian Perspective”: A paper presented at the annual interfaith dialogue meeting of the Anglican Communion and the Permanent Committee of the Azhar al-Sharif for Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions. This paper prompted criticism from Metropolitan Seraphim for the portrayal of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt.Media Critique:-An author criticizes an article by the German magazine Der Spiegel about Christians in the Middle East. She claims that the article distorts the reality of the situation in the declining Christian communities in the region.- Interview with Egyptian artist Farid Fadil, , including discussion of his views on Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt, ’Christian art’, Leonardo da Vinci and the controversial book, The Da Vinci Code.-Excerpts from the speeches of Mr. Ahmad Māhir, former foreign minister of Egypt, Sir Derek Plumbly, British ambassador to Egypt , Mr. Tjeerd de Zwaan, Dutch ambassador to Egypt, Mr. Lasse Seim, Norwegian ambassador to Egypt, and Cornelis Hulsman, Drs., director of the Center for Arab-West Understanding, on ’Freedom of expression and respect for the other. How to respond if one is offended.’- Highlights of the meeting held at El-Sawy Culture Wheel on May 7, 2006, to launch the CAWU website. Highlights include a welcome address by Mr. Muhammad al-Sāwī, comments from former ministers Dr. Mamdouh al-Biltājī, Mr. Ahmed Māhir, Dr. Ahmad Juwaylī, head of the Protestant Community Council, Dr. Safwat al Bayādī, and former prime minister of the Netherlands, Prof. Van Agt.- Aran West Report asked our former intern Maria Roeder, a student of media science at the University of Jena in Germany, to summarize a study commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Interior. This study is a comparative study concerning Austrian media reporting on Muslims and media from countries with Muslim majorities reporting about the integration of Muslims in Europe.-A review of the media coverage following the Alexandria church stabbings concludes that both Muslims and Christians condemned the attacks and spoke of the need for change in the citizenship rights of Christians.-Apostolic Nuncio to Egypt, Archbishop Fitzgerald, responds to polarization following the Regensburg lecture of H.H. Pope Benedict XVI.-Cornelis Hulsman, Drs., presented a text at the recent roundtable discussions of the European Institute of the Mediterranean, concerning “Journalism and freedom of expression in the Mediterranean; responsibilities and limits.”-Coptic Orthodox Church member and businessman Kamāl Zākhir Mūsā speaks out about internal problems in the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church.-“Disappearing Christianity in the Middle East”; transcripts of a lecture at the American University in Cairo.-Hulsman, Drs., provides a detailed description of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt, and a history of Coptic problems, stemming from their own actions and outside influences.The authors featured in the dataset are:Cornelis Hulsman, Drs., Nikolas Grosfield , Serena Tolino , Herman van Veen,ʿAyyād Musʿad, Munir Hanna Anis Armanius, Dave Petrescue , Elizabeth Yell, Fawzī Fādil al-Zifzāf , Ahmad Māhir , Tjeerd de Zwaan, Lasse Seim, Khalīl Ibrāhīm al-Thawārdī, Hasan Muhammad Wajīh, Dr., Lord George Carey of Clifton, Maria Roeder, Naji Bihman, Jan Slomp, Rev. Dr., Rāʿid al-Sharqāwī, Sebastian Kohn, Richard Donk, Ben van de Venn, Mia Ulvgraven, Farshād Muḥammad-ʿAwalā, William Dalrymple, Amīn Makram ‘Ubayd, Muhammad Hasan, Sjoerd Haagsma, Melanie Erlebach, Wisām Muhammad al-Duwīnī, and Mary Picard.

no abstract provided

According to a survey conducted in 2023, 85 percent of Americans said that they believed school shootings would decrease if religious instruction was included in public schools in the United States. A further 73 percent said that they believed school violence would decrease with religious instruction in public schools.

The share of Americans who were not a member of a church or synagogue has been increasing since 1992. In 2023, about 55 percent of Americans were not members of a church or synagogue. In that same year, 45 percent of Americans were members of a church or synagogue.

In 2022, religious books generated 757.7 million U.S. dollars in sales revenue. Religious book sales grew consecutively in each year since 2017 (with the exception of a small dip in 2019), and the majority of revenue is generated via hardback sales.

Is the U.S. book market still healthy?

U.S. book store sales on the whole have been in decline in recent years. The sales revenue peaked at over 17 billion U.S. dollars in 2007 but has since shrunk to less than 11 billion. However, net revenue of the book publishing industry as a whole has remained comparatively stable – the 25.82 billion U.S. dollars recorded in 2018 was not dissimilar to the 2008 figure of 26.5 billion. Some categories are more successful than others, with higher education book materials seeing a decline in revenue whilst adult fiction and non-fiction books have shown improvement.

Whilst it is true that digital media has had a profound and ongoing impact on print, books have fallen less foul to this trend than other formats, namely newspapers, which have been struggling for years. News consumers and magazine readers have moved online, whereas print books are still popular among U.S. readers. The vast majority of respondents to a 2019 survey confirmed that they had read a print book in the last year, and U.S. adults cite multiple benefits to reading physical books. As the music industry has seen a resurgence in popularity of vinyl records, print books remain valuable to U.S. consumers.

The 119th U.S. Congress, sworn in January 2025. There are 535 total members of Congress. This session of Congress consisted of 295 Protestant members, as well as 150 Catholic members. The number of Protestant members has declined since the 87th Congress, when 398 members were Protestant.

This statistic shows U.S. prison chaplains estimations of the percentage of inmates belonging to different organized faiths and religions as of 2011. Chaplains surveyed reported that on average 50.6 percent of inmates were of protestant faiths.

Additional information on religion in United States prisons

The religious affiliation of inmates in the United States, the country with most prisoners per head globally, is reasonably similar to the religious affiliations of the society overall. That said, the proportion of non-religious inmates and those declining to express their religious affiliation is smaller than the overall proportion. In contrast the number of Muslim inmates is disproportionately large in comparison with wider society. As a result a sizable share of prison chaplains identity as Muslim, catering to the preferences of the Muslim prison population.

Following the September 11, 2001 World Trade Centre attacks and the subsequent War on Terror launched by George W. Bush, religious extremism has been a target of public debate and policy. The debate has stretched into prisons particularly with the United States prison on Guantanamo Bay holding a number of suspected terrorists related to religious extremism. In turn, fears have been raised that prisons have become a hotbed for religious extremism.

Critics have argued that religious extremism has provided an unwarranted justification for the conviction of Muslims. Regardless of the supposed reason for their imprisonment, this disproportionate number presents a problem for United States policy makers.