Adults who say they are more likely to develop their own religious beliefs
Percent of U.S. adults who say they develop their own beliefs rather than accept a church's set of beliefs, 2008 (in percent)
Key finding
- Adults who say they are more likely to develop their own religious beliefs: 71%. Adults said they are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set taught by a church
Source: Barna Group, Christianity Is No Longer Americans’ Default Faith · Telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,004 U.S. adults, August 2008; margin of error ±3.2 percentage points. Article published 2023-12-13.
Get the chart, CSV, PNG and citation
Free account: full chart, CSV and PNG downloads, ready-to-paste citation, branded share image, and a discussion question for your team.
Questions about this statistic
What does this statistic show?
Adults who say they are more likely to develop their own religious beliefs: 71%. Adults said they are more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set taught by a church.
Who published this data?
Barna Group, 2008. Source: Barna Group, Christianity Is No Longer Americans’ Default Faith (https://www.barna.com/research/christianity-is-no-longer-americans-default-faith/).
Where can I get the full data and a citation?
Create a free Leader Insights account to open the full chart, download CSV or PNG, copy a citation and save the statistic to your own library.
More Theology & Beliefs statistics
- Americans' beliefs about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit Lifeway Research, 2026
- Americans who believe the Bible is accurate in all it teaches Lifeway Research, 2026
- Churchgoers who say God's Word can mean different things to different people Lifeway Research, 2026
- Adults with a personal relationship with Jesus, by generation Barna Group, 2009
- Adults with an active personal relationship with Jesus Barna Group, 2009
- Beliefs about whether Jesus shares in people's pain and suffering Barna Group, 2009
About this data
Leader Insights collects statistics about U.S. churches from published research by organizations such as Lifeway Research, Barna Group, Springtide, the American Bible Society and PRRI. Every number is checked against the wording of the original source before it is published, and each statistic links back to the study it came from. Figures are reproduced from the publishers named above; see the source for full methodology.