Why do people stick with the faith of their childhood into adulthood, or switch to another religion? Why do some leave religion entirely?
A new report from the Pew Research Center, released Monday, examines what drives these decisions.
Most Americans today — 86% — were raised in a religious tradition and about 35% have left the religion of their childhood, according to Pew.
“This latest study is important because it’s the first time we’ve asked people why they identify with their current religion,“ Becka Alper, senior researcher at Pew Research Center and one of the report’s authors, said in an email. ”It also digs into why people switch religions, and about when in their life they do so."
Whether people stay or go is shaped by a web of factors, including whether they had positive experiences growing up in the faith, if they agree with its teachings and if they believe religion is necessary in their lives. One reason that repeatedly surfaced in the report is the belief that religion is not required to be spiritual.
The survey questioned nearly 8,900 U.S. adults from major religious groups, as well as the religiously unaffiliated — often called “nones,” a category that includes atheists, agnostics and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular.”
Conducted in May of this year, the survey builds on earlier data from the last 2023–24 Religious Landscape Study by Pew.
Why people stick with childhood faith
For those who remain in their childhood religion‚ 64% stay because they say they believe their faith’s teachings, Pew found. Many also stay because the faith fulfills their spiritual needs (61%) and it gives their lives meaning (56%) — far more than those who cite community, tradition or alignment with the religion’s political positions.
Community plays a lesser role: 44% say a sense of community keeps them connected to their childhood faith. Only 32% say alignment with political or social positions of the religion is a major reason they remain.
In general, people who grow up religious are more likely to remain religious as adults. The same is true for those raised as “nones” — the lack of faith affiliation tends to follow people into adulthood.
Only 3% of people who were raised without a religion later adopt one in adulthood.
Belief in a religion’s core teachings remains the strongest factor in whether people stay or leave.
“One thing that’s striking is that, when we look at the reasons people give for staying in or leaving their childhood religion, a top reason for both of these is belief,” according to Alper.
The factors that encourage retention also vary by faith tradition. Protestants are especially likely to cite belief — 70% say their beliefs are why they remain in the faith. Among Catholics, 54% say their religion fulfills their spiritual needs, and fewer than half say it gives their life meaning. For Jews, tradition and community are especially important, with around 60% saying those factors keep them connected to their childhood faith.
Positive and negative religious experiences in childhood
Although 86% of Americans were raised with a religious tradition, whether they remain religious as adults depends heavily on their childhood experiences.
Among those who describe their religious upbringing as positive, 84% still belong to the religion they were raised in. Only 10% of this group now identify as religiously unaffiliated, and 6% have switched to another religion.
The pattern reverses for those who report negative religious experiences growing up. Nearly 7 in 10 no longer identify with any religion. Just 24% remain in their childhood faith, and 7% have adopted a different religious identity.
The level of religious practice at home also matters. Adults raised in “highly religious” households are the most likely to remain in their childhood religion, compared with those raised in households with “medium-high” (77%), “medium-low” (62%) or “low” (47%) levels of religious commitment. Pew created this scale using measures such as attendance at religious services, how often religion was discussed at home, and practices like prayer and reading religious texts.
Why people leave childhood faith
The report also sheds light on why people leave. Similarly to reasons people stick with faith, the most common reason for leaving is a loss of belief: 46% say they stopped believing in their childhood religion’s teachings. Another 38% say religion simply was not important in their lives or that they gradually drifted away.
Among those who left their childhood faith and became religiously unaffiliated, these same factors dominate — disbelief, lack of importance or gradual disengagement.
Many of the “nones” believe religion is not necessary for morality or spirituality, Pew found. And 78% of “nones” say they can be moral without religion.
Roughly half say they dislike religious organizations or do not trust religious leaders, and 54% say they do not need religion to be spiritual.
Among those who are “nones,” nearly half say they left religion because they stopped believing in its teachings, while 44% say religion was not important in their lives.
Only a small share of “nones” believe religion is actively harmful.
Switching religion before age 30
Not everyone who leaves abandons religion altogether. About a third of those who leave their childhood faith switch to another religion. Their reasons include disagreements with teachings, social or political views, or scandals involving religious leaders.
Among those who switched, nearly half (48%) say they felt “called to a new faith,” and a similar number say their childhood religion did not meet their spiritual needs.
Only 3% of U.S. adults were not raised in a religion but later came to identify with one.
The report offers insight into why the previously nonreligious adults later adopt a faith. For most, the change comes down to belief: They say they believe the new religion’s teachings, that it fulfills their spiritual needs and that it gives their lives meaning.
Religious switching, as well as leaving the childhood faith, tends to happen early in life. Pew found that 85% of people who change religions — or leave the faith entirely — do so before age 30, including nearly half who made the change as children or teenagers.
Parents and religious practice
Most American parents engage in at least one religious activity with their children. Saying prayers at night is the most common practice, with 46% of parents reporting they do this regularly.
About 43% say they take their children to religious services at least once a month, and many also report activities such as saying grace before meals or listening to religious music.
These findings track with another recent study by Communio and The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard that found that frequent informal conversations with children tend to be a significant predictor of whether they maintain faith into adulthood.