A new Pew Research Center survey has found that only 42 per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe the federal government should enforce separation of church and state, while 55 per cent of Catholics overall support such enforcement.

The report, titled “How Americans Feel About Religion’s Influence in Government and Public Life”, released on May 14, reveals shifting attitudes towards religion’s role in public affairs. Pew says 37 per cent of US adults now believe religion is gaining influence in American life, the highest share recorded in its surveys since 2002.

Conducted between April 6 and 12 among more than 3,500 US adults, the survey shows that the share of Americans who say religion is gaining influence in national life has risen by 19 percentage points since 2024. Overall, 55 per cent of US adults hold a positive view of religion’s influence.

Among Catholics, 65 per cent reported a positive view of religion, 12 per cent a negative view, and 22 per cent a neutral or unclear view. A majority of Catholics, 55 per cent, said the Bible should have at least some influence on US law, compared with 43 per cent who said it should not.

The survey highlights a notable partisan divide. While 68 per cent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents favour government enforcement of church-state separation, the figure falls to 42 per cent among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. This means fewer than half of Republican voters support active federal enforcement of separation of church and state, a principle often cited as foundational to the American republic.

Seventeen per cent of all US adults now say the government should declare Christianity the nation’s official religion, up from 13 per cent in 2024. A further 43 per cent believe the government should promote Christian moral values without establishing an official religion.

Familiarity with the term “Christian nationalism” has grown to 59 per cent, with 31 per cent holding an unfavourable view and 10 per cent a favourable one. Pew found that sentiment towards Christian nationalism remains more negative than positive, though many Americans either have not heard of the term or do not know enough to express a view.

The survey also found strong opposition to direct church involvement in electoral politics. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents said churches and houses of worship should not endorse political candidates during elections, and 66 per cent said churches should stay out of political matters.

Catholics’ views reflect both attachment to faith and engagement with contemporary debates. The data comes amid ongoing discussions in the United States about the proper relationship between religious conviction and public policy, particularly on issues such as the protection of life, the definition of marriage and religious liberty.

The Pew findings illustrate a broader trend in which a growing minority of Americans welcome greater religious influence in national life while a clear majority across party lines continue to oppose overt partisan activity by churches. The survey’s margin of error is plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.