Article:
Signs Of The
Last Times
Religion in the United States is in decline, according to new research from University College London (UCL) and Duke University in the US.
America has long been thought to be the exception to the rule that religion is in decline in the Western world because of its relatively high levels of churchgoing. However, the study by David Voas and Mark Chavez published in the American Journal of Sociology shows a drop in the number of Americans who claim religious affiliations, attend church regularly and believe in God. Furthermore, it says younger people are increasingly irreligious: "...this decline has been produced by the generational patterns underlying religious decline elsewhere in the West: each successive cohort is less religious than the preceding one. America is not an exception."
The study examined US data from the General Social Survey, which is conducted every two years, and compared it with similarly broad data from Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The results show that people have slowly become less religious over time.