Local News

Pew study: 66% of adults in Cincinnati area identify as Christian

91.7 WVXU | By Tana Weingartner

Published February 26, 2025 at 6:30 AM EST

empty church pews in foreground with large stained glass window at back depicting Biblical scenes — The Pew study finds the decline of Christianity in the United States has slowed and may have leveled off.

The Pew Research Center's third Religious Landscape Study finds 62% of U.S. adults describe themselves as Christians; 29% are religiously unaffiliated; and 7% belong to religions other than Christianity. The study was unveiled Wednesday.

Locally, 66% of adults in the Cincinnati metro area identify as Christians; 26% are religiously unaffiliated; and 7% belong to other religions.

While the number of people who say they're Christian is down from Pew's first such study in 2007 and the number of people who say they're religiously unaffiliated is up (this is the third time the study has been conducted) the study finds over the long term, the Christian population has stabilized and the religiously unaffiliated have plateaued.

The data also shows that the share of Americans who identify with religions other than Christianity, 7%, is growing. That includes a little less than 2% of Americans who are Jewish and 1% who are Muslim, 1% who are Buddhist, 1% who are Hindu, and 2% who identify with a wide variety of other faiths.

"The survey finds that a big majority of Americans have a supernatural, spiritual outlook on the world," says Greg Smith, senior associate director at Pew. "Eighty-six percent of U.S. adults say they believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body. Eighty-three percent believe in God or a universal spirit. Seventy-nine percent say they think there's something spiritual beyond the natural world, and 70% believe in an afterlife."

Cincinnati metro area

Cincinnati is considered a largely Catholic city — and of the 66% of adults in the metro area who identify as Christian, 18% say they're Catholic — the largest sect of Christianity is people who say they're Evangelical Protestant (28%). Mainline Protestant follows at 14%, followed by Historically Black Protestant at 4%. Other Christian sects were less than 1% each.

The 7% of adults who identify with non-Christian religions include:

Jewish (<1%)
Muslim (<1%)
Buddhist (1%)
Hindu (<1%)
Other world religions (2%)
"something else," which includes Unitarians and other liberal faiths, New Age, or Native American religions (4%)

Of those who report they are religiously unaffiliated (26%), the breakdown is as follows:

Atheist (4%)
agnostic (4%),
"nothing in particular" (18%)

The study asked respondents about a host of beliefs and practices, and political and social views. You access the full report for the Cincinnati metro area on the Pew Research Center's website. A few findings include:

Outside of attending religious services, how often do you pray? Several times a day; once a day; a few times a week; once a week; a few times a month; seldom; never.

results: 44% at least daily; 25% weekly/monthly; 31% seldom/never

Aside from weddings and funerals, how often do you attend religious services in person? More than once a week; once a week; once or twice a month; a few times a year; seldom; never.

results: 26% at least once a week; 8% once/twice a month; 18% a few times a year; 49% seldom/never

To what extent do you consider yourself a spiritual person? Are you … very spiritual; somewhat spiritual; not too spiritual; not at all spiritual.
Results: very spiritual 28%; somewhat spiritual 50%; not too/not at all spiritual 22%

[FIRST] In politics today, do you consider yourself a … Republican; Democrat; Independent; something else. [THEN] As of today do you lean more to … the Republican Party; the Democratic Party.

Rep/lean Rep 53%; No lean 5%; Dem/lean Dem 42%

Do you think abortion should be … legal in all cases; legal in most cases; illegal in most cases; illegal in all cases.
Results: Legal in all/most cases 65%; Illegal in all/most cases 33%; No answer 2%

Do you favor or oppose allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally? Strongly favor; favor; oppose; strongly oppose.
Results: Strongly favor/Favor 70%; Strongly oppose/Oppose 29%; No answer 1%

Methodology

The Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024. It incorporates a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents.

The Pew Research Center switched modalities for its latest study. The first two were conducted entirely by phone. This time, Pew recruited participants through a random sampling of USPS addresses. They could then respond either online (25,250 respondents), on paper (10,733) or by calling an 800 number (925 people).

The survey's margin of error for results based on the full sample is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points. The response rate is 20%.

Other Pew research has shown people sometimes answer questions differently based on the way the survey is conducted, i.e. phone, online, or paper. Pew researchers conducted a telephone survey using questions from the past two Religious Landscape Studies to create a "bridge study," which it used to inform assessments of long-term trends.

The first Religious Landscape Study was conducted in 2007 and the second in 2014. The third had been planned for 2021 but was delayed until 2023 in order to see how the pandemic may have affected religious participation.

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, non-advocacy group that conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research, and other data-driven research.