In 2023, 27.5 percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further 13.4 percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional 13.3 percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.
During a survey conducted in 2023, approximately 54 percent of respondents in 17 Latin American countries claimed to be catholic. Meanwhile, 14.9 percent of the people participating in the survey said they did not profess any religion.In Mexico, more than 69 percent of respondents said they professed Catholicism. Particularly in Honduras, Colombia and Ecuador, most Christians think religion is very important in their lives.
Roman Catholic was the most common religion affiliation in Mexico in 2023. In a survey carried out that year, roughly 69.4 percent of Mexican respondents claimed to be of catholic faith. Mexico ranks among the Latin American countries with the highest share of Catholics. More than nine percent of respondents answered they didn't profess any religion.
Roman Catholic is the most common religious affiliation in Colombia. In a survey carried out in 2023, nearly 64 percent of Colombian respondents claimed to be of Catholic faith, whereas the second most chosen religion was Evangelism, with 15.7 percent of the people interviewed. More than 14 percent of respondents answered they had no religious affiliation.
The advent of evangelicalism in Colombia and LAC
The share of Catholics in Colombia is above the average in Latin America and the Caribbean, where about 53 percent of adults identify as followers of Catholicism. Nevertheless, even if Colombia stood out historically as one of the countries with the largest share of Catholics in the region, their numbers have been dwindling considerably in the past few decades: in the year 2000, 85.5 of Colombians identified as Catholics, over 15 percent points more than two decades later. Meanwhile, Evangelism keeps gaining ground in both the country and the region. While merely 3.4 percent of Colombians were evangelical in 1996, this share had grown almost five-fold by 2020, while atheists and agnostics passed from 4.5 to 10.3 in the same lapse of time. The whole of Latin America is experiencing a similar trend, with evangelists accounting for more than one fifth of the population in countries such as Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Brazil. The success of Evangelical Churches in Latin America is related, among other things, to the creation of social safety nets in poor communities, the rise of conservative political parties and movements, and more flexible standards for ordination.
Religiosity among young Colombians
Interestingly, eastern religions such as Buddhism enjoy the same popularity as Evangelism and Protestantism among young Colombians. Religion seems to have a considerable impact on youngsters’ life. More than half of surveyed Colombians aged between 15 and 29 claimed that religious beliefs provided them with inner peace, while another 12.5 and 10 percent said that it helped them to quit drugs and gangs, respectively. Only 5.5 percent of the respondents affirmed that religious beliefs had no influence on their lives. As for the religiosity of young Catholic Colombians, very few claimed to be very observant. Around 45 percent considered themselves not very observant, while around a third classified as somewhat observant.
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In 2023, 27.5 percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further 13.4 percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional 13.3 percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.