Religious education participation in the United States is widespread but uneven. In Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 study of U.S. adults, 69% said they received at least some formal religious education as children. Participation differs substantially by childhood religious affiliation, generation and the type of educational setting measured.
Table of contents
- How many adults received religious education
- How much education people received
- Participation by childhood affiliation
- Generational differences
- Religious education among teenagers
- Families and current Catholic formation
How many adults received religious education
The broadest measure in Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 data is childhood exposure. Overall, 69% of U.S. adults said they received at least some formal religious education as children. The measure includes experiences such as Sunday school, CCD or another religious-education program, as well as private religious schooling. The result describes adults remembering their childhood experience; it is not a count of current enrollment.
Among U.S. adults, 62% said they attended Sunday school, CCD or another religious-education program for at least one to three years as children. Pew’s duration categories show how that experience was distributed: 20% reported one to three years, 13% reported four to six years and 28% reported seven or more years in a childhood religious-education program. Separately, 24% said they attended a private religious school for at least one to three years as children.
These percentages describe different forms of childhood education and should not be added together. A person could have attended both a private religious school and an extracurricular program, while the survey’s combined measure classifies the overall amount of formal education across those settings.
The figures come from the Pew Research Center report “Americans’ childhood religious identities, practices, education”, covering the 2023-24 measurement period.
How much education people received
Pew’s Religious Landscape Study uses a combined duration measure to group childhood formal religious education into four levels. The measure combines private religious schooling with extracurricular religious-education programs. It is useful for comparing the amount of exposure, but it is not attendance at one particular program.
| Amount of formal religious education | Share of U.S. adults | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|
| A lot, seven or more years | 35% | 2023-24 |
| A fair amount | 18% | 2023-24 |
| A little | 16% | 2023-24 |
| None | 30% | 2023-24 |
The largest single category is “a lot,” at 35% of U.S. adults. Another 18% received a fair amount, while 16% received a little. Thirty percent reported no formal religious education under the combined measure. Because the categories are defined by Pew’s scale, they should be read as reported classifications rather than as a universal standard for the number of classes or years represented by each label.
The same study provides context for interpreting the 69% who reported at least some education. That broad participation figure includes any reported exposure, whereas the combined scale distinguishes limited exposure from seven or more years. In practical terms, the statistics show both a large overall reach and a sizable range in intensity.
The source is Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study of U.S. adults, 2023-24.
Participation by childhood affiliation
Childhood religious affiliation is associated with different levels of reported formal education. Among adults raised religiously affiliated, 23% reported no formal religious education, 40% received a lot and 16% received a little. Among adults raised Christian, 21% reported none, 41% received a lot and 16% received a little.
The Protestant figures were similar but somewhat more concentrated in the highest category: 21% of adults raised Protestant reported no formal religious education, 44% received a lot and 16% received a little. Among adults raised Catholic, 21% reported none, 39% received a lot and 17% received a little.
Other Christian traditions show a different distribution in the reported measures. Among adults raised Orthodox Christian, 38% reported no formal religious education and 21% received a lot. Among adults raised Latter-day Saint, 19% reported none, 42% received a lot and 15% received a little.
| Childhood affiliation | No formal education | A lot | A little |
|---|---|---|---|
| Religiously affiliated | 23% | 40% | 16% |
| Christian | 21% | 41% | 16% |
| Protestant | 21% | 44% | 16% |
| Catholic | 21% | 39% | 17% |
| Orthodox Christian | 38% | 21% | Not reported here |
| Latter-day Saint | 19% | 42% | 15% |
For adults raised Jewish, 24% reported no formal religious education, 37% received a lot and 13% received a little. Among those raised Muslim, 45% reported none and 12% received a lot. The figures for adults raised in other religions were 49% with no formal religious education and 19% with a lot.
The reported absence of formal education was higher among adults raised Buddhist, Hindu or religiously unaffiliated. Seventy-three percent of adults raised Buddhist reported no formal religious education and 7% received a lot. Among adults raised Hindu, 69% reported none and 14% received a lot. Among adults raised religiously unaffiliated, 72% reported none, 6% received a lot and 14% received a little.
These comparisons describe adults’ reported childhood affiliation and childhood education in the 2023-24 study. They do not establish why participation differed among groups, and they should not be interpreted as measures of the quality or religious importance of any tradition.
Generational differences
The amount of childhood formal religious education also varies by birth cohort in the 2023-24 adult data. The share receiving a lot of formal religious education was 49% among adults born in the 1940s or earlier, 45% among those born in the 1950s and 38% among those born in the 1960s.
The corresponding figure was 35% for adults born in the 1970s, 31% for those born in the 1980s and 29% for those born in the 1990s. Among adults born from 2000 through 2006, 19% received a lot of formal religious education as children.
| Birth cohort | Share receiving a lot of formal religious education |
|---|---|
| 1940s or earlier | 49% |
| 1950s | 45% |
| 1960s | 38% |
| 1970s | 35% |
| 1980s | 31% |
| 1990s | 29% |
| 2000-06 | 19% |
The cohort pattern is descriptive. It compares adults surveyed in 2023-24 who were born in different periods; it does not by itself separate changes in religious education from changes in affiliation, family structure or the age at which people were able to report childhood experiences. The source reports the measurements as cohort comparisons, not as a forecast of future participation.
Religious education among teenagers
Pew Research Center’s teen study measured a different population and a different period. In a survey conducted March 29-April 14, 2019, 60% of U.S. teens ages 13-17 said they had ever participated in a religious-education program such as Sunday school, CCD or Hebrew school. Twenty-nine percent said they attended such a program often or sometimes.
Participation was higher among religiously affiliated teens: 73% reported ever participating and 41% reported attending often or sometimes. Among Christian teens, 74% had ever participated and 42% attended often or sometimes.
Protestant teens reported 77% ever participating and 49% attending often or sometimes. Among evangelical Protestant teens, the corresponding figures were 81% and 57%.
| Teen group | Ever participated | Attended often or sometimes |
|---|---|---|
| All U.S. teens ages 13-17 | 60% | 29% |
| Religiously affiliated teens | 73% | 41% |
| Christian teens | 74% | 42% |
| Protestant teens | 77% | 49% |
| Evangelical Protestant teens | 81% | 57% |
The teen results should not be directly merged with the adult childhood results. The teen survey asks about teenagers’ own lifetime or current participation and was conducted in 2019. The adult study asks adults to report childhood experiences and covers 2023-24. The populations, wording and measurement dates are different.
The teen figures are from Pew Research Center’s “U.S. Teens Take After Their Parents Religiously, Attend Services Together and Enjoy Family Rituals”.
Families and current Catholic formation
The 2023-24 adult study also includes a current family measure. Among U.S. parents raising children under 18, 40% said their children attend a religious-education program or private religious school. In the same population, 51% said they themselves received a fair amount or a lot of religious education as children.
These two percentages refer to different generations within families: children’s current participation and parents’ remembered childhood experience. They therefore provide useful context for family religious education without showing that a parent’s earlier participation caused a child’s current enrollment.
The family figures are reported in Pew Research Center’s “US Christian Decline May Be Stabilizing: 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS)”.
The 2024 U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Profession Class report offers a narrower Catholic formation measure. Among respondents, 64% reported participating in parish-based religious education, CCD or RCIA. The figure was 62% among women respondents and 66% among men respondents.
Among 2024 Profession Class respondents who participated in parish religious education, 73% did not attend a Catholic elementary school and 68% did not attend a Catholic high school. These statistics describe respondents to that report, not all U.S. Catholics, and the Profession Class results should not be treated as a national participation rate.
The source is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Profession Class 2024 report. Together, the family and Catholic figures show why religious education participation statistics need a clear population, date and definition: childhood exposure, current teen attendance, parents’ reports about children and parish formation are related measures, but they are not interchangeable.