Majority Still Credits God for Humankind, but Not Creationism

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans continue to express complex views about human origins, with a majority believing God played at least some role but also a majority believing humans evolved from less advanced forms of life.
While these readings have not changed significantly from Gallup’s previous measurement in 2019, the percentage who believe God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years is the lowest in this four-decade trend, by one percentage point, and the share who do not believe God had any role in human evolution is the highest recorded, by two points.
These findings, from a May 1-23 Gallup poll, come at a time when Americans are increasingly likely to say they do not identify with a religion or belong to a house of worship, and that religion is not important in their daily lives.
Gallup began measuring Americans’ views of human origins using this question in 1982 and has intermittently tracked opinions since then. Belief in creationism and God-guided evolution reached their peaks of 47% and 40%, respectively, in 1999 and have since trended downward. Meanwhile, support for evolution without divine intervention has nearly tripled since 1999.
Americans’ views on human origins continue to vary sharply, depending on their religious identification, how often they attend church, their political ideology and their education level.
As Americans have become less religious over the past four decades, their beliefs about the origin of humans have shifted, with fewer now saying God created human beings in their present form and more saying humans evolved without God’s help from less advanced forms of life over millions of years. Combined with the one-third of Americans who believe God guided evolution, a majority of U.S. adults thus believe humans evolved, yet a different majority still believe God played at least somewhat of a role in humankind’s existence.
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