Is U.S. Belief in the Afterlife Dying?

Belief in God, heaven, hell, angels and the devil is slowly decreasing in the United States, according to Gallup data. While most U.S. Americans still believe in each of the religious entities, faith in them has seen a downward trend of between three to five percentage points in the past seven years. When looking back to the turn of the millennium, a more pronounced trend can be seen, with belief in God having fallen from 90 percent of respondents in 2001 to 74 percent in 2023, while belief in heaven slid from 83 percent to 67 percent in that time.

A closer look at the data shows that frequent churchgoers, Protestants and Republicans were the most likely groups to say they believe in the polled entities. Women were also slightly more likely than men to believe in God, angels, heaven and hell, while both sexes were tied over their belief in the devil.

Gallup has polled respondents on their belief in God using slightly different wording over the years, which produces slightly different results each time.