The Wisconsin population is becoming less Christian, according to the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey released Monday.
According to the report, 76 percent of the state’s population identifies themselves as Christian, a drop from the 91 percent of the population that identified as Christians in 1990. Similarly, the number of Wisconsin citizens claiming no religious affiliation increased from 6 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008.
The trends in the state reflect similar trends throughout the country. Between 1990 and 2008, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Christian dropped from 86.2 percent in 1990 to 76 percent in 2008, while the number of citizens who did not identify with a religion increased from 8.2 percent to 15 percent.
However, the number of Americans identifying as “born again” or “Evangelical” Christians increased between 1990 and 2008.
Although the overall number of Christians decreased over the last 18 years, America is still a very religious country when compared to similar countries in northern Europe, such as Germany and England, according to University of Wisconsin professor of sociology Joe Elder.
“People could argue that we are getting more religious, and people could argue that we’re getting less religious,” Elder said. “We come out looking pretty religious … when you look at some other countries.”
Despite the decrease in overall Christianity throughout America, the number of Catholics has remained stable at around 25 percent between 1990 and 2008. In Wisconsin, however, the number of Catholics has decreased from 39 percent to 29 percent over the last 18 years.
According to father Eric Nielsen of St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Madison, the decrease in the number of Catholics has been a noticeable trend over the last few years.
“I think we’re probably seeing a decrease in numbers but an increase in faith of those attending church,” Nielsen said.
St. Paul’s has made attempts to reach out to the UW community by encouraging their church attendees, most of whom are students, to invite their friends to join them at mass and church programs, Nielsen said.
The Bethel Lutheran Church in downtown Madison is undergoing similar outreach programs, both throughout America and globally, according to pastor John Swanson. Unlike St. Paul’s, Bethel has not undergone the same drop in attendance.
“I think our attendance is probably about the same it’s been over the last few years. We haven’t noticed a significant drop-off, if any at all,” Swanson said.
However, Swanson acknowledged a decrease in church attendance overall in the past few decades.
“Church is not as relevant to some people as it was a generation or two ago. There’s more distractions, more options for Sunday mornings than there were 20 or 30 years ago,” Swanson said.
Similarly to trends with Christianity, the number of people considering themselves religious Jews has also decreased, but not for those who consider themselves ethnically Jewish. The number of Muslim Americans has doubled, increasing from 0.3 percent of the population to 0.6 percent. The Mormon population has remained consistent over the past 18 years, remaining at about 1.4 percent nationally.
