Gallup’s newest World Poll puts numbers on what anyone with eyes has known for a long time: America is no longer a religious nation. The percentage of adults who say religion is important in their daily lives has fallen from 66% in 2015 to 49% in 2025—a 17-point nosedive in a single decade. Gallup notes that this is one of the steepest declines on earth over that timespan.
So much for the comforting myth of a “deeply religious America.” The data is revealing the reality.
The U.S.: Still Christian on Paper, Functionally Secular
The Gallup numbers reveal a country that still likes to check the Christian box but has no intention of letting Christianity interfere with daily life. This is the classic hallmark of a collapsing culture: a population that retains the labels but abandons the substance.
America is sliding into the same secular posture as Europe—but with the added American flair of pretending nothing is happening.
What Conservative Evangelicals Should See Here
The data isn’t complicated, and neither is the interpretation:
- Half the country now says religion doesn’t matter. Not “less important”—not important.
- The shared moral framework is gone. Debates about ethics now take place without a common language.
- “Cultural Christianity” is dead. The people who once went through the motions stopped pretending.
- The country has crossed a threshold. We’re not debating whether the U.S. might secularize. We’re measuring how fast it already did.
This isn’t a drift. It’s a snap.
Why This Collapse Happened
Gallup isn’t analyzing causes, but the cultural fingerprints are obvious:
- The rise of the autonomous self—modern Americans believe feelings outrank Scripture.
- The therapeutic takeover—religion must comfort, not confront, or it gets dismissed as “harmful.”
- Secular institutions discipling the public far more consistently than churches disciple Christians.
- Decades of evangelical shallowness, where churches taught people to treat faith like a lifestyle accessory.
Combine those, and you get a society where “religion is important” becomes a minority opinion.
What This Means Going Forward
The evangelical assumption that America is “basically Christian but confused” needs to be retired. The Gallup data make it official: America isn’t confused. It’s unconvinced. And no amount of nostalgic rhetoric will resurrect the old civil religion.
For conservative evangelicals, this moment likely isn’t surprising—it’s just finally documented. The façade has fallen. The mask is off. The numbers tell the same story Protestia has been telling for years:
You cannot build a Christian society on people who don’t actually believe Christianity.
