The United States is on the verge of becoming a country in which Protestants are no longer the majority - probably for the first time in history, according to an extensive survey whose findings illustrate the ever-shifting landscape of religion in America.
Protestants now account for just over 51 percent of the population, according to the survey of more than 35,000 adult Americans by the Pew Forum on Religion and American Life.
As expected, the survey documented the rise of evangelical Protestant denominations - the largest single religious group in the country - and the decline of mainstream Protestant churches.
But the greatest growth was among those who said they had no religious affiliation - about 16 percent of Americans over the age of 18.
"Religious affiliation in the United States is extraordinarily diverse and dynamic," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew organization, which conducted the survey last year.
"The decline in the size of the Protestant denominations is very important for American culture and for American politics, as so much of the values and institutions in American public life came out of Protestantism, were part of mainline Protestantism," Green said in a telephone news conference.
"That is not necessarily bad, it might be good, but it is certainly very different than in the past," he said.
The survey found that 26 percent of Americans belong to evangelical churches, 18 percent to mainline Protestant denominations and 23 percent to the Roman Catholic Church. About 7 percent of the respondents are affiliated with historically black churches, though a growing number of whites and Hispanics are joining those denominations.
The unaffiliated 16 percent represent the fastest-growing group in the country - based on the number of people who grew up in a religion and now say they belong to none.
Overall the survey found, 28 percent of Americans will eventually make a major change from the religion in which they were raised. If switching from one Protestant denomination to another is included, that figure rises to 44 percent.
And one out of four will move from the ranks of church members to unaffiliated status.
Showing the complexity of the American religious landscape, the unaffiliated group also has trouble holding onto its members: More than half of those raised without religious affiliation reported that they have joined a church.
