The poll highlights the overall trend of religious attitudes in the United States, in addition to highlighting differing results according to its demographic breakdown. Accordingly, approximately one-quarter (24%) of US adults say their their faith as grown in the context of the coronavirus outbreak, whereas just 2% of Americans have seen a weakening of their faith. A plurality of Americans (47%) say their faith has been unaffected by the coronavirus, or that the question is not applicable due to a lack of faith (26%).
Opinions of this issue show a variation according to religious affiliation and religiosity, in which Christians are more likely among all other groups to say their faith has grown, with four-in-ten evangelicals (42%), one-quarter of Catholics (27%) and historically African-American church affiliates (56%), reporting this feeling. This is in contrast to less than one-quarter (22%) of mainline Protestants feeling a growth in faith.
Among American Jews, the vast majority (69%) have said that their faith has not changed as a result of the coronavirus, or that the question is not applicable because of a lack of faith (22%), in contrast to 7% of Americans Jews who said their faith has grown. For those American Jews professing a lack of faith (atheism), roughly a quarter say (26%) their faith has not changed, while the majority say they were not religious (65%) prior to the coronavirus outbreak.
The survey was conducted from April 20-26, and included a sample of 10,139 US adults who are part of Pew's American Trends Panel.