A recent study suggests that white Christians no longer comprise the majority of the U. S. population.
A recent study suggests that white Christians no longer comprise the majority of the U. S. population.
The researchers, who referenced a 2016 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey involving 101,000 Americans, found that the long-time majority group now only constitutes 43 percent of the nation.
About 40 years ago, those identifying as both white and Christian accounted for roughly 80 percent of respondents.
Over the years, the Christians in question, be they Catholics, evangelical Protestants, or mainline Protestants have declined as the number of those practicing other faiths has increased.
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The ethnic and racial landscape of some Christian sects has also changed, and most notably among Catholics.
A release about the research notes, “Twenty-five years ago, nearly nine in ten (87 percent) Catholics were white, non-Hispanic, compared to 55 percent today. Fewer than four in ten (36 percent) Catholics under the age of 30 are white, non-Hispanic; 52 percent are Hispanic.”
It appears there are also increasing numbers of Americans who don’ t affiliate with any specific religion. Over the past three decades, that population segment has jumped from 7 percent to 24 percent.
Notably, when Christians of all races and ethnicities are combined, the faith remains by far the most practiced in the nation.
