The Shrinking Gender Gap in Religiousness Among American Adults

Pew Research Center has recently released a report on the findings of their 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study. The RLS survey has been conducted three times over the past 17 years, revealing a narrowing gender gap in the religiousness of American adults.

Overall, there has been a steady decline in the share of all Americans who practice a religion. In 2007, 86 percent of all women in the United States were religiously affiliated – 7 percentage points higher the share of American men (79 percent) who had a religious identity. By 2024, that gap decreased to 5 percentage points, with 72 percent of women and 67 percent of men reporting a religious affiliation. Adults born between 2000 and 2006 are the first birth cohort where men are more religious than women, with 58 percent of men and 57 percent of women aged 18-24 reporting a religious affiliation. However, women of all ages are more likely to pray daily, believe in a God or a universal spirit with absolute certainty, and say religion is very important in their lives.

The gender gap among the country’s religiously unaffiliated adults is also narrowing. In 2007, 41 percent of all adults without a religious affiliation were women. As of 2024, 47 percent of all religiously unaffiliated Americans are women, 50 percent are men, and 3 percent identify in some other way. Women represent a smaller share of all atheists (36 percent) and agnostics (41 percent), but a larger share (51 percent) of adults who say their religion is “nothing in particular.”