The gap in religious participation between Republicans and Democrats has reached its widest point on record, according to an analysis of new data from the Cooperative Election Study conducted by political scientist Ryan Burge.
The analysis found that two-thirds of voters who supported former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election reported that they “seldom” or “never” attend religious services. By contrast, a majority of voters who backed President Donald Trump said they attend a religious service at least once a year.
Burge described the growing divide as the “God gap,” referring to the stark difference in worship habits between the two major political parties. According to the data, 43 percent of Republican voters reported attending religious services at least monthly in 2024. Among Harris voters, 44 percent said they never attend church, while an additional 21 percent said they attend only seldom.
“For every Harris voter who attended church weekly in 2024, there were about four Harris voters who attended less than once a year,” Burge wrote. “If that’s not the God gap, I don’t know what is.”
Despite the widening divide between the parties, the study also found that religious participation has declined overall. Since 2008, the share of Republicans who attend a religious service at least once a year has dropped from 71 percent to 57 percent. Burge attributed much of that decline to an increase in Republicans who say they never attend religious services, as well as a decrease in those who attend more than once a week.
“The other thing worth noting is that the share of Republican voters who attend weekly hasn’t really changed much; it’s the more-than-once-a-week people who have started to disappear,” Burge noted, adding that Republicans are now twice as likely to never attend church as they were in 2008.
Among Democrats, the shift away from religious services has been more pronounced. In 2008, 24 percent of Democratic voters reported never attending church. By 2024, that figure had risen to 44 percent, accompanied by declines across all other attendance categories.
Burge also examined changes in the religious composition of each party. Since 2008, Republicans have seen modest declines in support from mainline Protestants, white Catholics, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, while gaining support from white and nonwhite evangelicals, black Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, atheists, agnostics, and voters who identify as “nothing in particular.”
Evangelicals remain the most influential religious voting bloc within the Republican Party. Burge estimated that 42 percent of Trump’s votes came from evangelical Christians, calling their support essential for GOP electoral success. He also noted growth among voters identifying as “nothing in particular,” who now account for about 12 percent of Republican voters, up from 8 percent in 2008.
Overall, approximately 80 percent of Trump voters identified as Christian, with about 70 percent coming from white Christian groups. Atheists and agnostics made up roughly 5 percent of the GOP electorate.
The Democratic Party, by contrast, has continued to lose support from white evangelicals, mainline Christians, and Catholics. While the party has gained modestly among nonwhite evangelicals and Jewish voters, most of its growth has come from religiously unaffiliated voters, often referred to as “nones.”
Burge concluded that Democrats’ reliance on atheists, agnostics, and religiously unaffiliated voters has become central to their electoral viability. According to his analysis, the Republican electorate is now about 80 percent Christian and 17 percent nonreligious, while the Democratic electorate is roughly evenly divided, with 48 percent identifying as Christian and 45 percent as nonreligious.
He suggested that future elections are likely to be decided by which party can assemble a slightly larger and more durable coalition as religious affiliation continues to shift across the electorate.
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Seijah Drake was born in Boston, MA, where she developed a penchant for writing early on and a passion for politics in college. After college she worked briefly for a conservative media in New York before relocating to the Greater D.C. Area to pursue a career in political marketing. She now resides in the free state of Florida.
