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It's a great question. I have lots of thoughts about the data that I use in my work and how I present that information to audiences. Unfortunately, the character limits of this platform and others like it aren't conducive to that type of nuanced discussion.

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It's something I mention in lots and lots of talks. I show this slide and say: The Gallup estimate of nones is 23%. That's probably too low. The CES estimate is 35%. That's probably too high. Pew and GSS have the number around 30%. That's probably the best guess we have.

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In the words of Obama surrounding gay marriage, "my thinking has evolved." The new GSS data coming out a few weeks ago was a big catalyst for that. YouGov is a reputable polling firm. It's not like the Bible Society used Survey Monkey. But they struggle w/young respondents.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

This is something I note in a forthcoming piece. CES is YouGov. Huge gaps in attendance in the Gen Z part of the sample when comparing to GSS. But what's fascinating is that on affiliation measures, there is evidence of stasis. That's true in CES, RLS, and GSS.

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New post today where I make the claim that if you are trying to study how religion impacts vote choice, Then attendance has almost no utility at all. Affiliation tells you a whole lot more. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-politi...

The Political Paradox: Why Never-Attending Christians and Atheists Are Worlds Apart

Religious attendance probably obscures more than it reveals when it comes to voting behavior

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

"If you say you are a Christian who never attends church, you might as well be an atheist." That may be valid from a theological perspective. But politically, those two groups are worlds apart. 63% of never attending Protestants voted for Trump. It was 11% of atheists.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

"Homosexual couples should the right to marry one another." Share agreeing in 2018, 2021, 2022, 2024 Democrats: 77% -> 79% -> 82% -> 78% Independents: 62% -> 58% -> 66% ->68% Republicans: 58% -> 46% -> 51% -> 46%

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Left out the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America! 2.9M.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Always helpful to see how large (or small) a bunch of religious denominations/groups are. This data is compiled by me from a bunch of disparate sources all over the internet. There should be some type of universal reporting system for this. So, someone get on it.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Support for legal access to an abortion if a woman wants one for any reason. 2000: Never Church Attenders: 52% Weekly Attenders: 23% 2024: Never Church Attenders: 74% (+22) Weekly Attenders: 33% (+10)

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

A new post today in my ongoing series about religion and the 2024 election. This one focuses on the Jewish vote. Still solidly Democratic. A pretty standard election for the Jewish portion of the electorate. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/2024-elect...

2024 Election Post-Mortem: Jews

Is the alliance between Jewish voters and the Democrats weakening?

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

What role should the US take in the conflict between Israel and Hamas? 22% of the public says "stay out of it." 26% wants to send arms to Israel. It's 59% of Jews. 23% wants to deploy US troops to the region. It's 40% of Jews. Basically no one wants to arm Hamas.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I look at questions like what % of clergy believe in: Literal Adam and Eve The bodily resurrection of Jesus Hell Miraculous healing Astrology Reincarnation I analyze data about their views of the Bible. And the superiority of their worldview www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/how-certai...

How Certain Are Clergy of their Faith?

This post has been unlocked through a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment for the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA).

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I've got a really fun post on the newsletter today about the religious beliefs of CLERGY. This question asks about religious beliefs. 98% of Black Protestant clergy believe in God without a doubt. Evangelicals: 89% Catholics: 85% Mainline: 70%

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

Lots of analysis today about the LDS vote. I spent some extra time trying to sort out how younger LDS feel about politics. Just 31% of young LDS voted for Trump in 2020. It was 56% in 2024. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/2024-elect...

2024 Election Post-Mortem: Latter-day Saints

Are young Mormons abandoning the GOP?

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 02/06/2025

How would I describe Latter-day Saints politically? Clearly Republicans. They were hesitant to go full MAGA back in 2016. But a whole bunch of them warmed to Trump in 2020 and 2024. It's hard to know the 'default' distribution of LDS votes, though. Maybe ~70% GOP.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

The share of Catholics who attend Mass weekly in 2008 vs 2024, by age. 18-35: +11 36-44: +5 45-54: -5 55-64: -13 65+: -21

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

My annual assessment of the state of the Southern Baptist Convention, right before their annual meeting. You can try and spin it however you want - but the data doesn't lie: The negative trends far, far outweigh the positive ones. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/2024-marks...

2024 Marks Another Chapter in the SBC’s Long Slide

The Slow-Motion Collapse of America’s Largest Protestant Denomination

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Let me help you all contextualize just how bad the Southern Baptist Convention's membership losses are. They have shed ~3.6M members since 2006. The entire Assemblies of God is 2.98M. The ELCA is 2.9M Lutheran Church - MO Synod is 1.7M American Baptists are 1.2M

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

I try to explain Black Americans, religion, and the vote in the 2024 election. I do believe there is some evidence of a slight shift toward the GOP, but it's certainly not overwhelming evidence at this point. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/2024-elect...

2024 Election Post-Mortem: Black Americans, Religion and the Vote

Is there evidence of a racial realignment in the data?

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

Black Christians are much more socially moderate than the the average Democrat. 24 points more likely to want to ban abortion pills in the mail. 20 points more likely to support a ban on gender transition for minors. 30 points more likely to support school vouchers

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

You know that narrative that is out there about a religious revival among Gen Z? I get asked about it a lot. This is brand new data from the General Social Survey (released yesterday). Gen Z are the least likely to be weekly attenders. The most likely to be never attenders.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 25/05/2025

Couple things. That first graph is a measure of religious attendance. That second graph is a measure of religious affiliation. It's different surveys, too. They come to different conclusions. Polling young people is very hard.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

62% of white evangelicals have watched Fox News in the past 24 hours. Just 16% of atheists have watched Fox. Meanwhile, 48% of atheists have watched MSNBC. Just 13% of white evangelicals have watched MSNBC.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

Here's a really interesting oddity in the data. In the United States, education is positively related to religious attendance. More educated people are more religiously active. In Europe, it's the exact opposite. It's a bit of a puzzle, really.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

From what I can see in the data, the idea that there's this huge rise in people who are highly spiritual but not at all religious is just way, way overblown. It was only 4% of the population in 2022.

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The share of Southern Baptists who believe that: "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word" was 58% in the 1980s. In data collected in 2021 and 2022, it was 75%. An all-time high.

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A couple years ago we asked a bunch of evangelicals if they were fine with women serving in various leadership roles in the church. 87% would allow women to teach Sunday School 81% would allow women to preach at a woman's conference. 73% were fine w/them preaching on Sunday.

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The Southern Baptist Convention has about 47,000 member churches. They lost 30 last year. 4 were from disfellowshipping.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

*whistles to self* Look at all that liberal drift inside the Southern Baptist Convention.....

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The majority of United Methodists voted for Trump. So did the majority of Evangelical Lutherans. And Presbyterian Church USA. As far as I can tell, the only majority white "major" Protestant denomination that clearly leans Democratic: The Episcopal Church.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

"It’s just not accurate to conjure an image of a young pastor wearing a rainbow stole and preaching a sermon about the non-binary nature of the Holy Spirit. Instead, it’s probably a retired school teacher living in a small town in the upper Midwest." www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/2024-elect...

2024 Election Post-Mortem: Mainline Protestants

Can we stop calling them liberal, please?

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Rank and file mainline Protestants are not liberal. They've never been liberal. They are moving increasingly towards the Republican party. Please stop saying "liberal mainline."

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

I think we've oversold the whole idea that millennials have left the church in droves. In 2008, 24% of them reported weekly attendance. In 2024, it was 22%. But here's the bigger story: 24% of Gen Z are weekly attenders. Higher than Gen X and Millennials.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

The people with the highest self-reported level of happiness? Those who attend religious services weekly. But look at the top row - that's people who attend services in-person weekly. Their level of online attendance has little bearing on their happiness.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Here's a map of a whole bunch of megachurches throughout the United States. In a new paid post today, I do some initial analysis of denominational breakdown, state by state analysis and explore the relationship between population size and number of megachurches.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

In Europe, there are some countries with a rate of devout Christians that rival many states. For instance, 39% of Poland is weekly attending Christians. That's similar to Utah and N. Dakota. But a big chunk of Europe is in the single digits. Less than Maine at 10%.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

I try to answer a question I get asked a lot in a new post today - Just how much more religious is the United States compared to Europe? It very much depends on what state you are comparing to what country. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-united...

The United States is More Religious Than Europe, But By How Much?

One of the most important questions that one has to ask in doing data work is pretty simple, “Compared to what?” If I make a graph that visualizes the partisanship of white evangelicals and it indicat...

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

It looks like the rise of secularism in Europe has also hit a plateau recently. I compared religious attendance rates in 22 countries between 2018 and 2023. In many, the share who never attend hasn't moved that much. And attendance has increased a bit in a handful.

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Ryan Burge @ryanburge.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

What demographic factors (gender, race, money) have an impact on flourishing? What role does religion and/or spirituality play in generating higher levels of flourishing? I explore those questions in a new post today. www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/flourishin...