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Society and Religion

Explore Gallup's research.

Social & Policy Issues

The pope is viewed in a largely favorable light by Americans -- though less so among conservatives.

Americans' lessened confidence in society's institutions and norms may affect society's ability to deal with crucial external and internal threats.

Despite declining fertility and marriage rates, Americans want to have children and to be married.

Social & Policy Issues

Although the U.S. birth rate remains relatively low, Americans increasingly believe having three or more children is ideal.

Slightly less than half of U.S. adults describe themselves as religious, while 33% say they are spiritual but not religious and 18% are neither.

Recent Gallup data confirm a significant and growing relationship between religiosity and partisan identity in the U.S.

Americans' belief in five religious entities -- God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil -- have all edged down since 2016, continuing a longer-term trend.

Americans' church attendance levels dipped at the beginning of the pandemic and have remained lower since then.

Survey researchers face the difficult challenge of meaningfully defining and measuring evangelicals in the U.S. today.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has been identified as an evangelical for most of his public career, but defining exactly what that means today faces a number of challenges.

Whether reflecting the remnants of the pandemic or the difficulty of inflation, Americans remain sour about the state of the union.

Although 67% of U.S. adults say they attended religious services regularly while they were growing up, 31% attend regularly today.

One in four Americans have interacted with a chaplain at some point in their lives. Among those who have, most say the interaction was valuable.

The percentage of Americans with no formal religious identity has increased dramatically since the 1950s, but that increase appears to have leveled off in Gallup's recent data.

Gauging Americans' belief in God depends on the threshold for "belief."

Eighty-one percent of U.S. adults say they believe in God, down six percentage points from 2017 and the lowest in Gallup's trend.

New Gallup data add evidence for the long-established connection between individual religiosity and wellbeing in the U.S.

About three in four Americans have a religious preference, but less than half say that religion is "very important" to them, that they belong to a church or that they regularly attend religious services.

After surging last spring to 38%, the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is increasing its influence on society has fallen back to pre-pandemic levels at 16%.