The number of Americans who consider themselves members of a church, synagogue or mosque has dropped below 50%, according to a Gallup poll released this week. It is the first time that has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937, when church membership was 73%.

In recent years, polls have shown a U.S. shift away from religious institutions and toward general disaffiliation, a trend that analysts said could have major implications for politics, business and how Americans group themselves.

In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. The polling firm also found that the number of people who said religion was very important to them has fallen to 48%, a new low point in the polling since 2000.

For some Americans, religious membership is seen as a relic of an older generation, said Ryan Burge, an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University and a pastor in the American Baptist Church. Gallup’s data finds that church membership is strongly correlated with age: 66% of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58% of baby boomers, 50% of those in Generation X and 36% of millennials.

Burge said many Christians still attend church but do not consider membership to be important, especially those who attend nondenominational churches. But no matter how researchers measure people’s faith – such as attendance, giving or self-identification – Americans’ attachment to institutional religion is on the decline.

Burge, who recently published a book about disaffiliating Americans called “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going,” predicts that in the next 30 years, America will not have one dominant religion.

“We have to start thinking about what the world looks like in terms of politics, policy, social service,” Burge said. “How do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked when Christians are half of what it was. Who picks up the slack, especially if the government isn’t going to?”

The pandemic, which forced most churches to close in 2020, has caused a major disruption to American religious life, with most people unable to join weekly mass gatherings.