{"id":13649,"date":"2015-05-18T12:45:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/mainline-protestants-make-up-shrinking-number-of-u-s-adults\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:20:14","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:20:14","slug":"mainline-protestants-make-up-shrinking-number-of-u-s-adults","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/05\/18\/mainline-protestants-make-up-shrinking-number-of-u-s-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Mainline Protestants make up shrinking number of U.S. adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the Founding Fathers of the United States \u2013 not to mention a majority of U.S. presidents<\/a> \u2013 were members of Christian denominations that fall into the mainline Protestant tradition. But in recent years, the share of Americans who identify with mainline Protestantism has been shrinking significantly, a trend driven partly by generational change.<\/p>\n\n

\"5<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Pew Research Center\u2019s 2014 Religious Landscape Study<\/a> finds that 14.7% of U.S. adults are affiliated with the mainline Protestant tradition \u2013 a sharp decline from 18.1% when our last Religious Landscape Study was conducted in 2007. Mainline Protestants have declined at a faster rate than any other major Christian group, including Catholics and evangelical Protestants, and as a result also are shrinking as a share of all Protestants and Christians.<\/p>\n\n

Indeed, despite overall U.S. population growth between 2007 and 2014, the total number of mainline Protestant adults has decreased by roughly 5 million during that time (from about 41 million in 2007 to 36 million in 2014).<\/p>\n\n

Generational replacement appears to be playing a significant role. Older generations have larger shares of mainline Protestants, including 26% of members of the Greatest generation (those born before 1928) and 22% of members of the Silent generation (those born 1928-1945). Mainline Protestant adults in the U.S. have a median age of 52, higher than the group\u2019s median age in 2007 (50) and older than any other major religious tradition.<\/p>\n\n

While older generations die out, the young Americans rising into adulthood are significantly less likely to identify with mainline denominations. Among Millennial adults (born since 1981), 11% are mainline Protestants. By contrast, 16% of Millennials are Catholics, 21% are evangelical Protestants and 35% are religiously unaffiliated.<\/p>\n\n

Additionally, more Americans have been leaving mainline Protestantism than joining the tradition. Nearly one-in-five Americans (19%) were raised in the mainline tradition, but more than half of them (10.4% of all U.S. adults) have left the faith. Meanwhile, 6.1% of Americans have become mainline Protestants after being raised in another tradition. As a result, for every convert to mainline Protestantism, about 1.7 people have left the mainline tradition behind.<\/p>\n\n

\"Shifting<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Mainline Protestants have one of the lowest retention rates<\/a> of any major religious tradition, with only 45% of those raised in the faith continuing to identify with it as adults. Young adults are particularly unlikely to stay with mainline churches \u2013 just 37% of Millennials who were raised in the mainline tradition still identify with mainline Protestantism.<\/p>\n\n

The declines within mainline Protestantism have been seen across a variety of denominational families (including Methodists, Lutherans and Presbyterians) as well as within specific denominations. For example, the share of those who self-identify as part of the United Methodist Church (the largest single mainline denomination) has fallen from 5.1% of U.S. adults in 2007 to 3.6% in 2014.<\/p>\n\n

As the U.S. grows more racially and ethnically diverse, mainline Protestants remain one of the most heavily white Christian traditions. The share of mainline Protestants who are non-Hispanic white has declined in recent years (from 91% in 2007 to 86% in 2014), but it is currently higher than the comparable shares for Catholics (59%) and evangelical Protestants (76%) as well as U.S. adults overall (66%).<\/p>\n\n

Note: A new <\/em>interactive tool<\/em><\/a> allows users to explore more detailed data for specific families and denominations within mainline Protestantism and other traditions. <\/em>Chapter 1 of the full report<\/em><\/a> on America\u2019s Changing Religious Landscape has details about how respondents were categorized into different Protestants traditions, including mainline Protestantism.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In recent years, the share of Americans who identify with mainline Protestantism has been shrinking significantly, a trend driven partly by generational change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"f5aa99a8-79af-41f1-9ad0-3c2bed40cb16","termId":854}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[29,179,204,203,185,405,432],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13649","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-generations-age","category-christianity","category-comparison-of-generations","category-greatest-generation","category-mainline-protestantism","category-size-demographic-characteristics-of-religious-groups","category-us-religious-demographics","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short 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