"No religion" Sticks Better than Christianity
I reported the other day on the recent YouGov survey that showed that "nones" are becoming more prevalent and proportionally widespread in UK society than Christians, especially in the younger echelons. However, from the Daily Mail (gah!) article, there was a particular quote from Professor Linda Woodhead that is worth considering further:
'In terms of upbringing, no religion is particularly stick. We can see that 95 per cent of people with a "no religion" upbringing retain that identity, whilst 40 per cent of those with a Christian upbringing lose a Christian identity.'
This is an interesting fact, that Christianity has a much higher drop out rate than "no religion". However, I am struggling to find commentary on this or any other empirical data relevant to the claim. Although Charisma News states this (concerning the US):
Within two years of graduation, seven out of 10 college students stop attending church; less than 30 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds says their religious beliefs are important; and 20 percent of Americans claims no religious affiliation. Across the nation, young people are leaving the faith, and churches are at a loss regarding how to stop it.
USA Today made these comments based on a 2015 Pew Research Center survey:
Christian faiths are troubled by generational change — each successive group is less connected than their parents — and by "switching" at all ages, the report shows. While nearly 86% of Americans say they grew up as Christians, nearly one in five (19%) say they aren't so anymore.
"Overall, there are more than four former Christians for every convert to Christianity," said Cooperman.
Although evangelicals are part of the decline, their slide has been less steep. They benefit from more people joining evangelical traditions, but they're hurt by generational change and by America's increased diversity.
According to the survey, white "born-again or evangelical" Protestants — closely watched for their political clout within the GOP — now account for 19% of American adults, down slightly from 21% in 2007.
Politicians should take note, said Mike Hout, a sociologist and demographer at New York University who is also a co-director of the General Social Survey.
"Traditionally, we thought religion was the mover and politics were the consequence," he said. Today, it's the opposite.
Many of today's formerly faithful left conservative evangelical or Catholic denominations because "they saw them align with a conservative political agenda and they don't want to be identified with that," Hout said.
Catholics dropped both in market share and in real numbers. Despite their high retention rate for people reared in the faith, they have a low conversion rate. Today, Cooperman said, 13% of U.S. adults are former Catholics, up from 10% in 2007.
Generational shifts are also hurting Catholic numbers. Greg Smith, Pew's associate director of research, said "just 16% of the 18-to-24-year-olds today are Catholic, and that is not enough to offset the numbers lost to the aging and switching."
Where are they going? To religious nowhere.
If anyone has anything out there that is useful to this point (the stickability of "no religion"), please post a link.