Religious identity can change across a lifetime, but the scale and direction of switching differ substantially by country and tradition. In the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, 35% of U.S. adults had a religious identity different from the one they were raised with. International surveys conducted in 2024 show especially large switching-related losses for Christianity in several countries, while Islam, Hinduism and Judaism generally show higher retention.
Table of contents
- How common is religious switching in the United States?
- How Christianity gains and loses members
- The unaffiliated as a destination
- What Buddhist switching statistics show
- How Muslims and Hindus compare
- Jewish retention and global comparisons
How common is religious switching in the United States?
The latest U.S. figures indicate that switching is a major part of the religious landscape. About 91 million U.S. adults, or 35%, had switched religions since childhood in the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. The comparable share in the 2014 Religious Landscape Study was 34%, when Protestantism was treated as one combined group. These figures describe whether a person’s current identity differs from their childhood identity; they do not measure how many times someone changed affiliations.
The direction of movement is uneven. For every U.S. adult who became Christian after being raised in another religion or with no religion, six left Christianity for a non-Christian identity, no religion or a nonresponse. About 57 million U.S. adults, or 21.9%, had left Christianity after being raised Christian.
The same study reported the following switching ratios:
| U.S. religious category | Switching pattern, 2023-24 |
|---|---|
| Protestantism | 1.8 people left for every 1 who entered |
| Catholicism | 8.4 people left for every 1 who entered |
| Unaffiliated | 5.9 people left a childhood religion for every 1 raised unaffiliated who joined a religion |
These are ratios of movement, not percentages of the entire adult population. They should therefore be read alongside the broader 35% switching estimate rather than substituted for it. Source: How Americans change, keep their religious identities over their lives (2023-24 Religious Landscape Study).
How Christianity gains and loses members
Christianity’s switching balance varies sharply across the countries included in the 2024 international survey. Spain illustrates a large difference between childhood and current identity: 87% of Spanish adults said they were raised Christian, while 54% currently identified as Christian. In the same survey, 36% had left Christianity after being raised Christian, while 3% had entered Christianity after being raised outside Christianity.
South Korea showed a narrower but still negative pattern. Nineteen percent of South Korean adults had left Christianity, compared with 14% who had entered it. Among South Koreans raised Christian, 51% still identified as Christian and 49% no longer did.
The survey found switching-related net losses of at least 20 percentage points of the adult population in Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Chile, the United States and Italy. “Net loss” here refers to the difference between people leaving Christianity and people entering it in the survey’s childhood-versus-current comparison; it is not a forecast of future population change.
Not every country showed a loss. In Singapore, 12% of adults said they were raised Christian, while 18% currently identified as Christian, producing a 6-percentage-point net gain through switching. Singapore also had substantial inflow: 47% of Singaporean Christians said they were raised outside Christianity. Among Singaporean Christians, 17% said they were raised Buddhist and 12% said they were raised with no religion.
Some switching out of Christianity led to another religion, but unaffiliated identity was also important. In Australia, 41% of adults raised Christian now identified as having no religion, while 2% identified with another religion. In Sri Lanka, 7% of adults raised Christian now identified as Buddhist. Source: Christianity: Switching into and out of the religion in 27 countries (2024 international survey).
The unaffiliated as a destination
The religiously unaffiliated category often gains through switching, although retention among people raised unaffiliated differs by country. In Argentina, 63% of adults raised without a religion still identified as unaffiliated. In Japan, the corresponding figure was 92%.
Sweden shows the scale of movement into the category. Fifty-two percent of Swedish adults currently identified as unaffiliated, compared with 22% who said they were raised without a religion. Thirty-two percent had left their childhood religion and become unaffiliated, while 2% had moved from being raised unaffiliated to identifying with a religion.
South Korea also recorded a large net gain for the unaffiliated. Nine percent of adults raised unaffiliated had entered a religion, but 31% had been raised in a religion and later become unaffiliated. The unaffiliated population consequently had a 22-percentage-point switching-related net gain among South Korean adults.
Current unaffiliated identification was 23% among Italian adults, 23% among Colombian adults and 14% among Greek adults in the 2024 international survey. These current-identification figures are not equivalent to switching rates, because they include people who may or may not have changed identity.
Source: The religiously unaffiliated: Switching into and out of the group in 22 countries (2024 international survey).
What Buddhist switching statistics show
Buddhist switching patterns differ widely across the countries studied. In Japan, 26% of adults said they were raised Buddhist but no longer identified as Buddhist, and 40% of Japanese adults raised Buddhist now identified as unaffiliated. By contrast, 98% of adults raised Buddhist in Thailand still identified as Buddhist, as did 98% in Sri Lanka.
The survey found that 1% or fewer of adults in both Thailand and Sri Lanka had either left or entered Buddhism. In Sri Lanka, the 98% retention figure indicates that switching out was limited among adults raised Buddhist, within the survey’s reported rounding.
South Korea had lower Buddhist retention: 39% of South Korean adults raised Buddhist still identified as Buddhist. The country’s Buddhist accession rate was about one-third, while 17% of South Korean adults currently identified as Buddhist. These measures describe different denominators, so the accession rate should not be read as 33% of the entire adult population.
The U.S. pattern included considerable movement into Buddhism. Forty-eight percent of U.S. Buddhist adults said they were raised outside Buddhism, including 33% raised Christian and 12% raised without religion. This figure comes from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study, while the cross-country figures above come from the 2024 international survey.
Source: Buddhism: Switching into and out of the religion in 6 countries (2024 international survey), with the U.S. figure from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study.
How Muslims and Hindus compare
Islam showed relatively limited switching in the 13 countries with sufficient samples. No more than 3% of adults in any country had left or entered Islam. In Indonesia, 93% of adults said they were raised Muslim and 93% currently identified as Muslim. In most countries studied, more than 90% of people raised Muslim remained Muslim as adults.
The U.S. figures were less uniform than the international pattern. About 75% of U.S. adults raised Muslim still identified as Muslim, while 13% now identified as unaffiliated. At the same time, 20% of Muslim American adults said they were raised outside Islam, including 13% raised Christian.
Hindu identity also showed high retention in India and Bangladesh. In India, 84% of adults said they were raised Hindu and 83% currently identified as Hindu; 1% had left Hinduism after being raised Hindu. Among adults raised Hindu, 99% still identified as Hindu in both Bangladesh and India.
The U.S. Hindu figures showed more inflow and outflow than those country-level retention figures. Eighteen percent of U.S. adults raised Hindu no longer identified as Hindu, including 11% who were unaffiliated and 6% who were Christian. Meanwhile, 8% of Hindu American adults said they were raised outside Hinduism, including 5% raised Christian.
Sources: Islam: Switching into and out of the religion in 13 countries and Hinduism: Switching into and out of the religion in 4 countries. International figures are from 2024 surveys; U.S. figures are from the 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study.
Jewish retention and global comparisons
Judaism showed very little switching at the overall population level in the countries covered. In both Israel and the United States, no more than 1% of the overall adult population had switched into or out of Judaism in the 2024 survey. The retention rate among Israeli adults raised Jewish rounded to 100%.
Among U.S. adults raised Jewish, 76% still identified as Jewish, while 17% identified as unaffiliated. Jewish Americans also included people who entered the tradition: 14% of Jewish American adults said they were raised outside Judaism, including 7% raised Christian and 6% raised unaffiliated.
A global religious-change analysis covering 2010-2020 provides a broader comparison for adults ages 18 to 54 worldwide. For every 100 people raised unaffiliated, 7.5 had left that category and 24.2 had entered it, producing a net gain of 16.7 per 100. For Christianity, 17.1 per 100 raised Christian had left and 5.5 per 100 had joined, a net loss of 11.6 per 100. For Buddhism, 22.1 per 100 raised Buddhist had left and 12.3 per 100 had joined, a net loss of 9.8 per 100.
These global figures are estimates from a 2010-2020 analysis, not forecasts. They also cover a defined age range and should not be directly treated as equivalent to the country-specific 2024 survey percentages. Source: How demographics, religious switching drove global religious change, 2010-2020.