In many ways, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are a stable and traditional community. For at least the last four decades, Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons) have made up between 1% and 2% of the U.S. adult population. Members of this group have consistently stood out as highly religious and conservative.
Several of Pew Research Center’s surveys dating back to 2007 have found that Latter-day Saints are, on average, among the most religious adults in America.
For example, about seven-in-ten Latter-day Saints surveyed in the Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS) say that religion is very important in their lives. This is roughly on par with evangelical Protestants and members of historically Black Protestant churches – and far higher than the shares of U.S. Catholics (44%), Jews (27%) and Buddhists (21%) who say religion is very important to them.
Latter-day Saints also have remained overwhelmingly attached to the Republican Party over the past several decades. About three-quarters of the church’s members identify as Republican or lean toward the Republican Party, as of 2023-24.1 Previous Center surveys conducted in 2007, 2011 and 2014 also found that Latter-day Saints were, on the whole, among the country’s most politically conservative groups when asked about their ideology.
Amid these signs of stability, however, are indications of change within the church. Center surveys show that since 2007, Latter-day Saints have become:
- More demographically diverse and much less likely to be raising children under 18 at home
- Slightly less religious by some key measures, including daily prayer rates
- Modestly more liberal on some social and political issues, such as homosexuality
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