NAD Archives, Statistics & Research

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Never before has religion been so diverse, or polarized, as it is now. Thanks to several major surveys, including the Religious Landscape Survey (Pew) and the PRRI Census of American Religion and US Religion Census, we can now better appreciate this complexity. For those engaged in outreach, it is important to understand, the composition of those people who live in your community, to better understand these demographics, and especially, to be able to better share one's faith. Thanks to this data, it is possible to easily search such demographic data county by county in the United States, which is free and a basic tool that every pastor or church leader should know about to learn more about their community. In the United States this means that 62% identify as Christians, 7% with other religions, and 29% identify as religious unaffiliated (with is often referred to as the “Nones”). In Canada the population is less religiously affiliated with 53% identifying in 2021 as Christian (down from 67% in 2011 and 77.1% in 2001). Affiliation with Christianity is much higher in Bermuda (91.7%) and islands covered in the Guam-Micronesia Mission (80%).

In the United States religious affiliation(s) has remained somewhat constant over the past decade, and predictions about increasing numbers of religiously unaffiliated have plateaued and even declined a bit. There is similarly little evidence that Americans are returning to church in higher numbers, and even a slight decline in weekly church attendance (approximately one in four Americans [26%] attends church on a weekly basis). The American Religious Landscape remains incredibly diverse as illustrated by the 2025 PRRI Census of American Religion.

Researchers have noted that there is a basic collapse of institutional trust in American society. Based on those who identify as Christian about 40% are Protestant, 19% Catholic, and 19% are nothing in particular. In a nutshell, people just don’t trust institutions including organized religion (see graphic based on the General Social Survey). We live in an age of skepticism which means that it is important to understand how people from the outside view Seventh-day Adventists, which is largely from a posture of suspicion and in line with how many people view organized religion among other societal institutions.

Adventists are among the religiously active groups with 65% who attend weekly religious services (comparable to the LDS or Orthodox Jews), but looked upon much less favorable or with suspicion. The strongest predictor of trust is educational attainment, something that Adventists have excelled at, and people who are more educated are less suspicious and more willing to embrace religion (Adventist education remains among one of the best investments of the denomination and one of the greatest predictors in retention of young people). This is especially important since Gen Z (those born roughly between 1997 and 2012) are among some of the least certain about their belief in God of any generation.