PRRI 2022 Census of American Religion

[Jeffret]

The PRRI has released their 2022 update to their Census of American Religion and it has a few interesting tidbits relevant to Mormonism. Mostly, though, it just shows that Mormonism is pretty irrelevant to most of the country.

The PRRI graphs show that the percentage of Mormons in the country has gone up since 2020. In 2020, 1% of the country was Mormon, but in 2021 and 2022 the number of respondents claiming Mormonism climbed 50% to 1.5%. What this really means is the number of Mormons in most of the country is so small that it collides with the degree of error within a survey like this. I doubt the number of Mormons has actually changed in any meaningful way over these years.

I do find interesting, though, how low this number is. The variations suggest that the actual number is somewhere around 1.0 to 1.5%. I've reviewed various surveys like this for many years. The numbers for Mormons have long held steady about 1.8 to 2%, while the numbers for all of the other White American religions have been dropping dramatically. The PRRI results are the first times I've seen these percentages drop lower. While there are still a lot of questions about margin of error in Mormon percentages, this suggests the Mormon church is losing ground in the country.

On the other hand, the numbers for Unaffiliated (aka, Nones, or None of the Above), have continued rising dramatically. It was 23% in 2020, 25.1% in 2021, and 26.8% in 2022. That's big growth in 3 years. Of more long-term significance, the number of the younger generation, 18-29 years old, has risen to 38%. That a two percentage point rise in just two years. But, while the other generations lag, they're also heading the same direction. The next age bracket, 30 - 49 years old, has risen to 32%, from 25% in 2020. Even the older category, ages 65+, have climbed to 17, up 3 points since 2020.

[Jeffret]

Younger generations seem to be abandoning church in ever increasing amounts. But then, the churches seem to also be abandoning the younger generation in significant ways. One of the assistant scoutmasters in my troop, in his upper twenties, was talking with me a couple of months ago about how many churches have dropped their youth programs. And he still is involved in a church.

When he was a scout in this same troop, the Catholic parish that has long hosted us had us meeting in a comfortable space set up for multi-use by youth groups. Some years back they moved us to a more austere classroom and converted that space into ... something. No one is really quite sure what. The parish used to host American Heritage Girls and some other knock-off of Boy Scouts. We haven't seen them come back after the pandemic. And now they've decided they're no longer interested in hosting us. Support for youth activity groups has dwindled to nothing in this church as far as I can see.

The church that this younger man attended when he was a teen is right across the street from the major university in our town. He related to me that this Presbyterian church hasn't had a youth program in years and also gave up on their college outreach program.

We see many other examples of how youth or young adult outreach programs are dwindling, where they even remain at all.

And then if we look at doctrine and preaching, the churches are paying no attention to the interests and preferences of the younger generation. Instead they're actively fighting against them. The churches are skewing continually older and even losing many of them. Very few of them show any real interest in investing in their future.

[deacon blues]

The PRRI has released their 2022 update to their Census of American Religion and it has a few interesting tidbits relevant to Mormonism. Mostly, though, it just shows that Mormonism is pretty irrelevant to most of the country.

The PRRI graphs show that the percentage of Mormons in the country has gone up since 2020. In 2020, 1% of the country was Mormon, but in 2021 and 2022 the number of respondents claiming Mormonism climbed 50% to 1.5%. What this really means is the number of Mormons in most of the country is so small that it collides with the degree of error within a survey like this. I doubt the number of Mormons has actually changed in any meaningful way over these years.

I do find interesting, though, how low this number is. The variations suggest that the actual number is somewhere around 1.0 to 1.5%. I've reviewed various surveys like this for many years. The numbers for Mormons have long held steady about 1.8 to 2%, while the numbers for all of the other White American religions have been dropping dramatically. The PRRI results are the first times I've seen these percentages drop lower. While there are still a lot of questions about margin of error in Mormon percentages, this suggests the Mormon church is losing ground in the country.

On the other hand, the numbers for Unaffiliated (aka, Nones, or None of the Above), have continued rising dramatically. It was 23% in 2020, 25.1% in 2021, and 26.8% in 2022. That's big growth in 3 years. Of more long-term significance, the number of the younger generation, 18-29 years old, has risen to 38%. That a two percentage point rise in just two years. But, while the other generations lag, they're also heading the same direction. The next age bracket, 30 - 49 years old, has risen to 32%, from 25% in 2020. Even the older category, ages 65+, have climbed to 17, up 3 points since 2020.

The slight Mormon bounce from 1% to 1.5% could be explained by other religions losing members faster, or Mormons living longer.

[Angel]

In other polls:

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/20 ... catholics/

No one likes Mormons