US Protestants
losing majority: Chicago survey

NEW YORK -- A long-standing feature of US religious life -- a Protestant majority -- may become a thing of the past, a new survey has concluded.


"Since colonial times the United States has been a Protestant nation. But perhaps as early as this year, the country will, for the first time, no longer have a Protestant majority," the survey by the National Opinion Research Center, based at the University of Chicago, found.


The number of those identifying themselves as Protestant, already declining in recent years, is expected to drop below 50 per cent if present trends continue, said the survey.


Protestant majority may have already vanished in the two years since the survey was conducted.


The church groups covered included Anglican, Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Quaker denominations.


"The recent Protestant decline comes in large part from the loss of younger adherents and a related drop in the retention rate," the survey said.


The survey of more than 2,650 respondents in 2002 found the number of those identifying themselves as Protestant dropped from 63 per cent to 52 per cent between 1993 and 2002.


Other factors cited in the study for the Protestant decline included increased numbers of immigrants from non-Protestant countries and the fact that fewer people in the US are being raised as Protestants.


The "retention rate" for Protestants has also been dropping. From 1973 up to 1993, nine out of 10 Protestants raised in a Protestant home remained Protestant. Now less than 83 per cent remain Protestant as adults. - United Methodist News Service. Ecumenical News International distributed this article.