Cecily O'Connor
RedwoodAge.com
Giving up something for lent? Millions of young Americans may be giving up religion.
Most adults under 30 have fewer church ties than previous generations did, according to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion and Public Life, which studied the behaviors and values of adults aged 18 to 29, or the so-called millennial generation. Pew also found millennials attend religious services less often than older Americans. And fewer young people said that religion is very important in their lives.
| Generation | Religion Very Important |
| Under 30 | 45 |
| 30 to 49 | 54 |
| 50 to 64 | 59 |
| 65 and up | 69 |
"The large proportion of young adults who are unaffiliated with a religion is a result, in part, of the decision by many young people to leave the religion of their upbringing without becoming involved with a new faith," according to the report.
Unaffiliated
Compared with their elders today, young people said they are much less likely to
affiliate with any religious tradition or to identify themselves as part of a
denomination. About one-in-four adults under age 30 are unaffiliated with prayer
or God - even though many were raised in a particular faith. Less than half of
adults under 30 said that religion is very important in their lives, compared
with almost 50 percent of adults aged 30 and older.
For the sake of comparison, about 20 percent of Generation Xers considered themselves affiliated at the same point in their lives, while 13 percent of boomers said they had no religious ties at the same age in the 1970s.
Keeping the Faith?
However, in other ways, millennials can be viewed as traditional in their
religious beliefs and practices. For example, their beliefs about life after
death and the existence of heaven, hell and miracles closely resemble those of
older people.
Though young adults pray less often than their elders, the number of times they bow their heads mirrors patterns seen among young adults in prior decades. A belief in God also is lower among young adults than among older adults.
"This suggests that some of the religious differences between younger and older Americans today are not entirely generational, but result, in part, from people's tendency to place greater emphasis on religion as they age," according to the report.
More than one third of boomers said they attend religious services weekly, or nearly weekly, today, compared with about a quarter in the late 1970s.
