No single assassination sparked America’s spiritual divide, which has been widening for decades. Biblical worldview adherence fell to just 4% in 2025, down from 6% five years earlier, while religious “nones” reached 29%, up from 16% in 2007. Regional differences are stark: Alabama and Mississippi show over 12% biblical worldview incidence, while Rhode Island measures below 0.25%. Yet Bible sales jumped 42% from 2022 to 2024, suggesting the nation is transforming rather than abandoning faith entirely, with the full story revealing unexpected patterns.
How does a nation measure the distance between its public convictions and its private conscience? In early 2025, researchers documented a biblical worldview incidence of just 4% nationally, down from 6% five years earlier. The decline is accelerating faster than in previous decades, with projections suggesting continued erosion among teenagers. Yet beneath these statistics lies a more complex spiritual landscape, one that defies simple narratives of collapse or renewal. Many believers also turn to Scripture for practices like confession, forgiveness, and cultivating righteous anger to address injustice.
The statistics tell of decline, but beneath them pulses a spiritual complexity that resists easy conclusions.
The Christian share of Americans dropped to 62% in 2023-24, while religious “nones” climbed to 29%, up from 16% in 2007. The shift has been broad-based but particularly pronounced among liberals, where nones now outnumber Christians 51% to 37%. Despite this, the Christian percentage has stabilized between 60% and 64% since 2019, suggesting the freefall may be slowing. Large majorities still believe in a soul, a spiritual domain beyond nature, and an afterlife.
Regional differences remain stark. Alabama and Mississippi lead at over 12% biblical worldview incidence, more than three times the national average, while Rhode Island registers under 0.25%. The East South Central division tops all regions at 8.8%. California, despite its below-average 4.6% rate, contains the most adults with a biblical worldview due to its population size.
Generational patterns reveal unexpected turns. Gen Z, born in the 2000s, stands at 46% Christian, showing no decline from the 1990s cohort. Young men in particular are attending church more than millennials or younger Gen X, narrowing the traditional gender gap. Meanwhile, young women are disaffiliating faster, rising from 33% to 43% unaffiliated between 2014 and 2024.
Bible engagement offers a counterpoint to overall decline. Scripture Engaged adults edged up to 20% in 2025 after prior losses, and Bible sales jumped 42% between 2022 and 2024. Religion and spirituality app downloads increased simultaneously. Four times more adults report becoming more spiritual than less spiritual. The collapse accelerated as worldview crystallizes by age 13, suggesting the battleground for spiritual formation lies far earlier than most interventions attempt to reach.
The data suggests not spiritual death but transformation, a nation searching for meaning beyond institutional spheres. Catholics have held steady at 19%-21% since 2014, resisting the erosion that swept through Protestant denominations during the same period.
