“The old model used to be the life cycle effect, which is the idea that people drift away in their 20s and they get married and have kids, and they come back to religion once they have kids,” said Burge. “But now what you’re seeing is those things that used to draw people back to church are not drawing them back to church, and people are just leaving as they age.”
Moreover, Americans are less religious overall these days. Burge said, “One really surprising fact is that every birth cohort is less religious today than it was 15 years ago.”
Burge shared other insights, including findings on the retention rate of various Christian subgroups (evangelicals are doing well), the most common reason why people leave church, and what is most likely to draw people back.
Check out the full interview with him below: