A new Gallup poll shows that while America remains a highly religious nation with seven in 10 claiming affiliation with some kind of organized religion, for the first time in nearly 80 years, fewer than half of them now say they have formal membership in a specific house of worship, the Christian Post website reports today (March 31, 2021).
In 1937, says Gallup, some 70% of Americans had formal church membership and that measure remained steady for the next 60 years until it began a steady decline in 1998. In 2020, formal membership in houses of worship stood at 49%.
One of the biggest factors Gallup found strongly correlates with church membership is age. Some ^^% of traditionalists -- U.S. adults born before 1946 -- have formal membership in a church, compared with 58% of Baby Boomers, 50% of those in Generation X, and 36% of millenials.