US church membership at all-time low
© The Hill
Church membership in the U.S. is at an all-time low, according to a new Gallup poll.

The survey, released Thursday, shows that 50 percent of Americans last year said they belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, representing an all-time low.

That figure was 70 percent or higher between 1937 and 1976 and averaged 68 percent from the 1970s through the 1990s, according to Gallup. The drop-off has occurred over the past two decades, with a 20-point decline since 1999.

More than half of the decline in the past 20 years has been in the past decade, with more Americans saying they have no religious affiliation.

The percentage of Americans who say they aren't affiliated with a religion has jumped from 8 to 19 percent since 2000.

The poll's results are based on aggregated data from annual Gallup interviews with at least 2,000 U.S. adults. The poll has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.