Jonathan Rogers

Various news outlets (Boston.com, NY Times) are reporting that Americans are changing their faiths at a higher rate.

More than a quarter of adult Americans have left the faith of their childhood to join another religion or no religion, according to a new survey of religious affiliation by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. If shifts among Protestant denominations are included, then it appears that 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations.

Also noted is that more Americans are labeling themselves as unaffiliated.

In the Pew survey 7.3 percent of the adult population said they were unaffiliated with a faith as children. That segment increases to 16.1 percent of the population in adulthood, the survey found. The unaffiliated are largely under 50 and male. “Nearly one-in-five men say they have no formal religious affiliation, compared with roughly 13 percent of women,” the survey said.

Just like inter-racial marriage becoming more accepted, inter-faith marriages are on the rise. Many do not feel pressure to convert.

And the survey found that about 37 percent of adults are married to someone with a different religious or denominational affiliation; many conversions do not appear to be driven by marriage, the researchers said.

Other interesting facts:

The largest single faith tradition in the country is evangelical Protestantism, with about 26 percent of the adult population; followed by Catholicism, at 24 percent; mainline Protestantism, at 18 percent; the unaffiliated, at 16 percent; and historically black Protestant churches, at 7 percent.

Jehovah’s Witnesses have the worst record of any faith group at retaining their members. Hindus and Mormons are the least likely to be married to someone of another faith, and the least likely to be single. Mormons and Muslims have the biggest families. Three-quarters of American Buddhists are converts. Jews are the highest-income group in America, but Hindus are now the best educated: Nearly half of all adult Hindus have some post-graduate education.