A study released last week by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that young Americans are significantly less religious than their parents and grandparents were when they were young. But the report also suggests that many of the beliefs and faith-based practices of 18- to 29-year-olds mirror those of their elders, CNN says.
One in four American millennials - which it defined as those who were born after 1980 and came of age around the millennium - are not affiliated with any faith tradition, Pew found.
They characterize their religion as "atheist," "agnostic" or "nothing in particular."
That compares to fewer than one in five Generation Xers - Americans born from 1965 to 1980 and just 13 percent of American baby boomers - those born from 1946 to 1964 - who were unaffiliated with any religious tradition when they were young adults, according to Pew.
But when it comes to many beliefs and practices - like views about life after death, the existence of heaven and hell and miracles - millennials resemble previous generations of young Americans.
For instance, 45 percent of young Americans report praying daily, about the same proportion who said they did in the 1980s and '90s.
"While growing numbers of people are unaffiliated, it's not necessarily a sign that they're committed secularists," said Greg Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Forum.
"We're seeing among young people that there are ways of practicing faith and being religious outside of belonging to a religious organization or attending services."
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