In a newly released post by the Pew Research Center a report examines Americans’ views on religion’s role in public life, including questions about religion’s influence in society, conflict between religious beliefs and mainstream culture, the importance of loving one’s country as part of one’s religious identity, and whether multiple religions may be true.
Growing Share of U.S. Adults Say Religion Is Gaining Influence in American Life
More Americans also express a positive view of religion’s role in society
How did they conduct the reasearch?
This report includes findings from a survey of 9,544 U.S. adults who are part of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP). The survey was conducted from Feb. 3 to 9, 2025, and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 1.3 percentage points.
This report also includes findings from a separate ATP survey of 8,937 U.S adults conducted from May 5 to 11, 2025. The May survey has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 1.4 percentage points.
Americans’ views about religion in public life are shifting. From February 2024 to February 2025, there was a sharp rise in the share of U.S. adults who say religion is gaining influence in American life.
The new survey also finds that in recent years, a growing share of the public takes a positive view of religion’s role in society.
In a February 2024 Pew Research Center poll, 18% of U.S. adults said religion was gaining influence in American life. That was the lowest level we had seen in more than two decades.
A year later, in a February 2025 survey, 31% of U.S. adults said religion was gaining influence in American life – the highest figure we’ve seen in 15 years.
Overall, 59% of U.S. adults express a positive view of religion’s influence on American life. Either they say that religion’s influence is growing and this is good, or they say that religion’s influence is declining and this is bad.
20% express a negative view. Either they say that religion’s influence is growing and this is bad, or they say that religion’s influence is declining and this is good.
21% express neutral or unclear views. They say the changing influence of religion “doesn’t make a difference” in American life, or they declined to answer the questions.
The shares of Americans expressing positive views of religion in 2024 and 2025 are up significantly from 2022 and 2019, indicating an overall shift toward more positive views about religion’s role in American life over the past five years or so.
In addition to larger shares of U.S. adults who say religion is gaining influence and who express positive views about religion, growing percentages say they feel at odds with mainstream American culture because of their religious beliefs.
In 2025, 58% of U.S. adults say there is a great deal or some conflict between their religious beliefs and mainstream culture, up 10 percentage points from 2024 and 16 points from 2020. Feeling at least somewhat in conflict with American culture because of personal religious beliefs is now a majority view.
These evolving attitudes on religion in public life appear to be shared widely, rather than confined to specific groups. In recent years, Americans across a variety of religious groups, in both political parties and in all age groups have become more likely to say religion is gaining influence, to express positive views about religion, and to feel that their religious beliefs are at least somewhat in conflict with the mainstream.
These are among the key findings about views of religion in public life from a nationally representative Pew Research Center survey conducted Feb. 3-9, 2025, among 9,544 U.S. adults.
Is religion gaining or losing influence in American life?
Between 2024 and 2025, nearly all large U.S. religious groups have become more likely to say religion is gaining influence. This shift can be seen – to varying degrees – among religiously affiliated and unaffiliated Americans, Republicans and Democrats, and younger and older Americans.
(Religiously unaffiliated adults – sometimes referred to as “nones” – are those who identify, religiously, as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.”)
Is religion’s changing trajectory good or bad?
After asking respondents whether they think religion is gaining or losing influence in American life, we posed a follow-up question: Is this changing influence a good thing or a bad thing?
We combined these sets of questions to estimate the share of Americans who have a positive view of religion’s influence in society and the share who have a negative view.
About six-in-ten U.S. adults express a positive view of religion by saying either that religion’s influence is declining and this is bad (42%) or its influence is growing and this is good (17%).
One-in-five express a negative view of religion by saying either that its influence is declining and this is good (10%) or by saying its influence is growing and this is bad (10%). One-in-five (21%) say that it doesn’t make much difference whether religion’s influence on American life is growing or declining, or did not answer.
Views among religious, demographic groups
Most Americans express a positive view of religion’s influence in public life, there are sizable differences across demographic groups.
By contrast, relatively few agnostics (11%) and atheists (6%) have positive views of religion. Most express negative views of religion’s influence in American society.
Jews and people who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” are almost equally split between those who have a positive view of religion and those who have a negative view. A sizable share in each group have a neutral or unclear view.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are about twice as likely as Democrats and Democratic leaners to have a positive view of religion (78% vs. 40%).
On average, older Americans are more likely than young Americans to express a positive view of religion’s influence in public life. For example, 71% of adults ages 65 and older express a positive view of religion, compared with 46% of 18- to 29-year-olds.
However, compared with 2019, the share of Americans who have a positive view of religion in 2025 is up at least somewhat across all age groups and among people who identify with, or lean toward, both political parties.
Views of Christianity’s influence on American life
A larger share of Americans now say Christianity’s influence on American life is increasing (27%) than said this in 2020 (19%). But it is still a minority view.
Do Americans feel their religious beliefs conflict with mainstream culture?
Pew Research Center has asked Americans several times in recent years how much conflict – if any – they feel between their religious beliefs and mainstream culture.
For the first time since we began asking this question in 2020, a majority of U.S. adults (58%) say they feel at least some conflict.
That’s up 10 percentage points from February 2024 and up 16 points from February 2020.
This view is held by roughly half or more of Americans in both political parties and all age groups – and in every religious group analyzed, with the exception of those who say their religion is “nothing in particular.”
Among religious groups large enough to be analyzed, White evangelicals (80%) are by far the most likely to say there is at least some conflict between their religious beliefs and the mainstream.
Meanwhile, 62% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats say there is at least some conflict between their religious beliefs and the mainstream. Compared with the February 2024 survey, the share who feel at least some conflict between their religious beliefs and the mainstream is up 7 points among Republicans and 11 points among Democrats.
Large majorities of Christians say that being honest (86%), treating people with kindness (85%), believing in God (85%), having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (76%) and helping those in need (66%) are essential to what being Christian means to them.
By contrast, loving your country ranks near the bottom of the list for Christians (29%), alongside attending religious services regularly and continuing family traditions.
The survey included respondents of many other religious backgrounds, including members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons), Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. But there are not enough respondents from these smaller groups to report on their answers separately.
Edited from https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/10/20/growing-share-of-us-adults-say-religion-is-gaining-influence-in-american-life/
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