Religious conversion sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but it’s an everyday reality: About a third of us have switched our religious affiliation at some point. According to surveys conducted by the City University of New York, well-established faiths like the Methodists have been dwindling. Big gainers include the born-again Evangelicals, the Seventh Day Adventists and the Pentecostals—and the Buddhists, too—as well as nondenominational Christian churches.
Which group is growing the fastest?
The 29.5 million Americans who claim no religion at all.
Biggest church in the U.S.: The Catholic Church, with 63.4 million adherents
Fastest-growing denomination: Evangelical Christianity
Fastest-shrinking: Protestant
Estimated number of Muslims in the United States: Between 3 million and 6 million
Average percent of American mosque-goers who are converts: 30
Percent of these American Muslim converts who are white: 27
Most common age of all conversions: Between 20 and 29
Number one reason people convert: Marriage
Number two reason: Spiritual dissatisfaction
Number three reason: Friends in different church
Religions with highest turnover (people both joining and leaving the church): Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Buddhism
Sources: American Religious Identity Survey, Graduate Center of the City of New York; U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; General Social Survey/National Opinion Research Center; Council on American Islamic Relations; the Pluralism Project, Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University.
