'Unaffiliated' - The New American Religion

An extensive public survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in the US reveals striking changes in the religious landscape on the American scene.  Based on interviews with more than 35,000 people, the survey found that at least 1 in 4 individuals have switched religion or became unaffiliated at some point during adulthood, and that America's varied Protestant denominations are on the verge of becoming a minority in the country.  Of the overall adult population, over 26 percent identify with the evangelical wing of Christianity, compared with 18 percent in the Protestant mainstream, and 16 percent of American adults who register as 'religiously unaffiliated'.  The 'unaffiliated', as a group, comprise a significant diversity in outlook made up of those who describe themselves as atheists- (1.6 percent), Agnostic- (2.4 percent), and the vast majority, the other 12 percent, who refer to their religion as "nothing in particular".  More than one third of the unaffiliated consider religion to be at least somewhat important in their lives, and more than half of those not associated with organized religion in childhood have since come to affiliate with a religious group of one sort or another during their adult lives.

The Jewish population in America stands at roughly 1.7 percent of the American adult population, as compared with 1.9 percent who report being raised Jewish as children.  While Judaism actually gained 0.3 percent in new adult adherents, it lost 0.5 percent of American adults who had been raised Jewish, and left.  

Of the various American Jewish 'streams'.  43 percent of Jews surveyed identified with the Reform movement, 31 percent with the Conservative, and 10 percent called themselves Orthodox Jews.  

76 percent of those raised as Jews retained their Jewish identity into adulthood, 9 percent report converting to another religion, and 14 percent became unaffiliated.  

Almost 70 percent of Jews married a partner identifying as Jewish. One in five married outside of the faith, and 8 percent have spouses who identify as unaffiliated.

In comparison, another highly educated and wealthy though tiny American minority, the Hindus, have an intermarriage rate of only 10 percent, and retain in adulthood eight of ten raised in their religion.