A new survey from the Pew Research Center suggests Americans are becoming slightly less religious in some ways, including the prevalence of people who believe in God, pray daily and attend religious services.
The extensive survey was conducted from June to September 2014 and includes responses from more than 35,000 adults. Last year was the first year Pew conducted a survey on the country's religious landscape since 2007.
Highlighted below are five takeaways from the survey.
1. The share of U.S. adults who say they believe in God declined from 92 percent in 2007 to 89 percent in 2014, which is still remarkably high compared to other advanced industrial countries.
2. Roughly 63 percent of the respondents in 2014 reported being "absolutely certain" God exists, a sharp drop from 71 percent in 2007.
3. The percentage of Americans who report they pray every day, attend religious services regularly and consider religion to be very important in their lives also decreased slightly.
4. Despite the drop in religious prevalence, most measures of religious commitment have remained the same. In fact, Americans who are affiliated with a religion are even more devout than they were a few years ago.
5. Religiously affiliated adults who report they regularly read scripture, share their faith with others and participate in small prayer groups or scripture study groups have increased modestly since 2007. Additionally, the share of religiously affiliated adults who say they rely mainly on their religious beliefs for guidance on questions about right and wrong increased by 7 percentage points between 2007 and 2014, to 41 percent.
For more findings from the 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study, click here.
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