Most U.S. adults say that religion is important in their lives, according to a YouGov / The Economist report published January 16.
Religion is “very important” for 36% of respondents and “somewhat important” for 30%, while 21% say it is “not important at all” and 13% say it is “not too important.”
Despite a majority saying religion is very / somewhat important, a minority (39%) of U.S. adults attend service at least monthly: 11% more than once a week, 20% once a week and 8% once or twice a month. By comparison, 56% attend a few times a year or less: 29% never, 17% seldom and 10% a few times a year.
Prayer is a more common religious practice than service attendance, with 62% of U.S. adults saying that they pray at least once a week: 29% several times a day, 14% once a day, 13% a few times a week, and 6% once a week. By comparison, 33% pray a few times a month or less: 16% never, 12% seldom and 5% a few times a month.
A plurality of respondents identified as Protestant (28%), followed by Catholic (22%), the religiously unaffiliated (23%), something else (8%), atheist (7%), agnostic (4%), Jewish (2%), Mormon (2%), Muslim (2%), Buddhist (1%), Eastern or Greek Orthodox (1%) and Hindu (1%).
The topline results are available here. The overall margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Managing editor for news and opinion at Good Faith Media.
