{"id":282646,"date":"2025-12-15T13:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?p=282646"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:21:12","slug":"why-some-americans-have-left-protestantism-while-others-stay-or-join","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2025\/12\/15\/why-some-americans-have-left-protestantism-while-others-stay-or-join\/","title":{"rendered":"Why some Americans have left Protestantism, while others stay or join"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
About this research<\/summary>\n

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at reasons why people identify as Protestant or switch into or out of Protestantism. It is part of a broader report<\/a> that focuses on patterns in religious switching in the United States, including the reasons people give for staying in or leaving their childhood religion. The report also looks at how certain social and demographic factors may relate to religious switching. Other analyses in the report look at how parents are raising their children, religiously<\/a>; the reasons people identify with (or leave) Catholicism<\/a>; and the reasons people are religiously unaffiliated<\/a> (or stop being religiously unaffiliated).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did we do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Center conducts high-quality research to inform the public, journalists and leaders. Studying Americans\u2019 religious identities is a key part of the Center\u2019s long-standing research agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about Pew Research Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did we do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis includes findings from a survey of 8,937 U.S. adults who are part of the Center\u2019s American Trends Panel<\/a>. The survey was conducted May 5-11, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the questions<\/a> from that survey that we used for this analysis, as well as the topline<\/a> and the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This analysis also includes findings from the Center\u2019s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study<\/a> (RLS), a survey of 36,908 U.S. adults. It was conducted from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024, and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 percentage points. The RLS was made possible by The Pew Charitable Trusts, which received support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., Templeton Religion Trust, The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the full list of questions<\/a> from the RLS, as well as the topline<\/a> and details about the survey methodology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n

Protestantism, which includes many denominations of different sizes<\/a> as well as nondenominational Protestant churches, is the largest subgroup of Christians in the United States. This analysis looks at the reasons Protestant adults give for being Protestants, the reasons former <\/em>Protestants give for having left, and the reasons some other Americans give for having become Protestants. (This chapter does not<\/em> examine religious switching within Protestantism, such as from Methodist to Presbyterian.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, four-in-ten U.S. adults are Protestants, according to Pew Research Center\u2019s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study<\/a> (RLS). This includes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n