Results of a new Gallup poll show that more than 9 out of 10 Americans answered “yes” when asked, “Do you believe in God?” This result is only slightly lower than when the question was first asked in the 1940s. A few more women said “yes” to the question than men (94 percent vs. 90 percent), and the results dropped to below 90 percent for young adults (84 percent), those with postgraduate educations (87 percent), those living in the eastern U.S. (86 percent), liberals (85 percent), and the politically independent (89 percent).
In the history of this survey, the format of the question varied somewhat between 1944 and 2011—it was reworded to “Do you, personally, believe in a God?” in 1944, then changed to “Do you, personally, believe in God?” in 1947, and in 1976 the question changed to “Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?” The results varied somewhat when respondents were given the opportunity to choose a more generalized universal spirit or higher power; however, Gallup analysts concluded after this 2011 study that “when given the choice between believing and not believing in God, more than 9 in 10 Americans say they do believe.”
