{"id":418,"date":"2020-01-24T14:16:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T14:16:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=418"},"modified":"2021-01-18T17:04:41","modified_gmt":"2021-01-18T17:04:41","slug":"among-u-s-college-students-religious-attendance-is-at-an-all-time-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/24\/among-u-s-college-students-religious-attendance-is-at-an-all-time-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Among U.S. college students, religious attendance is at an all-time low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[UPDATE: The most recent version of this article is here.<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 30 years, college students have become much less religious. The fraction who say they have no religious affiliation tripled, from about 10% to 30%. And the fraction who say they have attended a religious service in the last year fell from more than 85% to less than 70%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been following this trend for a while, using data from the CIRP Freshman Survey<\/a>, which has surveyed a large sample of entering college students since 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recently published data is from “97,753 first-time, full-time students who entered 147 U.S. colleges and universities of varying selectivity and type in the fall of 2018.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, college students are not a representative sample of the U.S. population. And as rates of college attendance have increased, they represent a different slice of the population over time. Nevertheless, surveying young adults over a long interval provides an early view of trends in the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious preference<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Among other questions, the Freshman Survey asks students to select their \u201ccurrent religious preference\u201d from a list of seventeen common religions, \u201cOther religion,\u201d “Atheist”, “Agnostic”, or \u201cNone.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The options “Atheist” and “Agnostic” were added in 2015.  For consistency over time, I compare the “Nones” from previous years with the sum of “None”, “Atheist” and “Agnostic” since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following figure shows the fraction of Nones from 1969, when the question was added, to 2018, the most recent data available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[UPDATE: This figure contained an error. Please see the most recent update of this article for the correct data.]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendance<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The survey also asks students how often they \u201cattended a religious service\u201d in the last year. The choices are \u201cFrequently,\u201d \u201cOccasionally,\u201d and \u201cNot at all.\u201d Respondents are instructed to select \u201cOccasionally\u201d if they attended one or more times, so a wedding or a funeral would do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following figure shows the fraction of students who reported any religious attendance in the last year, starting in 1968. I discarded a data point from 1966 that seems unlikely to be correct (66%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Percentage of students who reported attending a religious service in the previous year.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

About 68% of incoming college students said they attended a religious service in the last year, an all-time low in the history of the survey, and down more 20 percentage points from the peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast with the fraction of Nones, this curve is on trend, with no sign of slowing down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In previous years I have also reported on the gender gap in religious affiliation and attendance, but the data are not available yet. I will update when they are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data Source<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2018<\/em>
Stolzenberg, Eagan, Romo, Tamargo, Aragon, Luedke, and Kang,
Higher Education Research Institute, UCLA, December 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This and all previous reports are available from the HERI publications page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[UPDATE: The most recent version of this article is here.] In the last 30 years, college students have become much less religious. The fraction who say they have no religious affiliation tripled, from about 10% to 30%. And the fraction who say they have attended a religious service in the last year fell from more than 85% to less than 70%. I’ve been following this trend for a while, using data from the CIRP Freshman Survey, which has surveyed a…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,62,21],"class_list":["post-418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-college","tag-freshman-survey","tag-religion"],"yoast_head":"\nAmong U.S. college students, religious attendance is at an all-time low - Probably Overthinking It<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/24\/among-u-s-college-students-religious-attendance-is-at-an-all-time-low\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Among U.S. college students, religious attendance is at an all-time low - Probably Overthinking It\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[UPDATE: The most recent version of this article is here.] In the last 30 years, college students have become much less religious. 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And the fraction who say they have attended a religious service in the last year fell from 85% to 70%. I've been following\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"college\"","block_context":{"text":"college","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/college\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/heri18.1.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1320,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/29\/have-the-nones-leveled-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":2},"title":"Have the Nones Leveled Off?","author":"AllenDowney","date":"June 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Last month Ryan Burge published \"The Nones Have Hit a Ceiling\", using data from the 2023 Cooperative Election Study to show that the increase in the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has hit a plateau. Comparing the number of Atheists, Agnostics, and \"Nothing in Particular\" between 2020 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/heri.5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/heri.5.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/heri.5.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":519,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/24\/the-retreat-from-religion-continues\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":3},"title":"The Retreat From Religion Continues","author":"AllenDowney","date":"January 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years ago I wrote an article for the Scientific American blog where I used data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to describe changes in religious affiliation in the U.S. And in this longer article I described changes in religious belief as well, including belief in God, interpretation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"gss\"","block_context":{"text":"gss","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/gss\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/affiliation_cohort.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":985,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/16\/homophobia-and-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":4},"title":"Homophobia and Religion","author":"AllenDowney","date":"July 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Two weeks ago I published an excerpt from Probably Overthinking It where I presented data from the General Social Survey showing a steep decrease in the percentage of people in the U.S. who think homosexuality is wrong. Last week I followed up to answer a question about data from Pew\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/reliten2.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":373,"url":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/05\/young-christians-are-less-religious-than-the-previous-generation\/","url_meta":{"origin":418,"position":5},"title":"Young Christians are less religious than the previous generation","author":"AllenDowney","date":"January 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the first in a series of articles where I use data from the General Social Survey (GSS) to explore Differences in beliefs and attitudes between Christians and people with no religious affiliation (\"Nones\"),Generational differences between younger and older Christians, andGenerational differences between younger and older Nones. On several\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"age period cohort analysis\"","block_context":{"text":"age period cohort analysis","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/tag\/age-period-cohort-analysis\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/generation_by_year.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/generation_by_year.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/generation_by_year.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/generation_by_year.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":526,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418\/revisions\/526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}