Interfaith Relationships: What the Data Shows

Religion often comes up later in dating than it should. It's not a typical first-date topic, but it shapes holidays, family relationships, weddings and how you'd raise kids. If you're dating someone with a different faith, or no faith, you have plenty of company. Here's what the most reliable data shows.

The main source is Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study (RLS), a very large survey of U.S. adults, with its chapter on religious intermarriage published in February 2025. We also use Pew's earlier RLS analyses from 2015 and 2016.

How Common Are Interfaith Marriages?

In the 2023-24 RLS, 74% of married U.S. adults said their spouse shares their religion and 26% said their spouse does not. Pew reports that the in-married share was similar in its 2014 study (75%).

The 26% breaks down as:

How you count matters. Pew treats Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Latter-day Saints as separate groups, so a Catholic married to a Protestant counts as intermarried. All Protestants count as one group, so a Baptist married to a Methodist does not. All religiously unaffiliated people also count as one group, so an atheist married to an agnostic is not intermarried. Pew also compares each respondent's current religion with their description of their spouse's, so someone who converted to their spouse's faith counts as in-married.

Which Religious Groups Marry Within Their Faith Most?

Pew reported in-marriage rates for the larger groups in its sample:

Among married Protestants, 10% had an unaffiliated spouse and 7% a Catholic one. Among married Catholics, 12% were married to Protestants and 9% to unaffiliated spouses. The survey didn't have enough married Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and members of other groups to analyze their patterns.

Are Unmarried Couples More Likely to Be Interfaith?

Yes. Among unmarried adults living with a partner, 62% said their partner shares their religion and 38% said their partner doesn't, compared with 26% of married adults.

Cohabiting and married couples differ in other ways too, so this gap doesn't mean living together makes couples more religiously mixed. Our post on living together before marriage covers some of the research on how those groups compare.

Is Interfaith Marriage Becoming More Common?

Pew's 2014 RLS data suggested it has. In a 2015 analysis, Pew found 39% of Americans who married since 2010 had a spouse in a different religious group, compared with 19% of those who married before 1960. Of those married since 2010, 18% were in a Christian-unaffiliated marriage, versus 5% of those married before 1960.

Two caveats. First, Pew notes the comparison may overstate the rise, because the survey only counts marriages that are still intact. If interfaith marriages from earlier decades were more likely to end, they'd be undercounted. Second, the 2015 analysis reported that 69% of married people had a same-religion spouse, while the 2025 report puts the 2014 figure at 75%, so the two analyses counted religious groups differently and their numbers aren't directly comparable.

How Do Interfaith Couples Handle Religion?

The 2023-24 data shows clear differences between same-faith and mixed marriages:

• Shared beliefs: 62% of people married to someone of the same religion said their beliefs are very similar to their spouse's. In mixed marriages, 21% said so.
• Talking about religion: 43% of people in same-religion marriages talk about religion with their spouse at least weekly, compared with 16% in mixed marriages.
• Religiousness: People in same-faith marriages tend to be more religious. For example, 62% of Protestants married to Protestants scored as highly religious on Pew's index, compared with 27% of Protestants married to non-Protestants. For Catholics, the figures were 46% and 24%.

Do Interfaith Couples Disagree About Religion?

Less than you might expect. Pew's 2016 analysis of RLS data found religious disagreement was most common in mixed marriages. About one-third of people in marriages pairing a religious "none" with an affiliated spouse reported at least some disagreement about religion. But in every type of pairing, majorities said they disagree about religion "not much" or "not at all."

The same report asked what matters for a successful marriage. 44% of U.S. adults said shared religious beliefs are very important, about the same as an adequate income or having children, and fewer than said so of shared interests, a satisfying sexual relationship or sharing household chores. Shared religion ranked above shared political views.

It also asked about actual decisions. Just 27% of married adults said their spouse's religion was a very important factor in deciding to marry them. Among people who weren't married, women were more likely than men to say a future spouse's religion would be very important: nearly four in ten women, compared with 26% of men.

What This Means If You're Dating Across Faiths

You're not an outlier. One in four marriages and nearly four in ten cohabiting couples cross religious lines.

Have the practical conversations early. The data suggests couples in mixed marriages talk about religion much less. That's fine day to day, but the decisions that matter most (holidays, a wedding, kids' upbringing) need a conversation, and they're easier before you're engaged. Our guide to dating when you want kids covers how to raise the big questions without making a first date feel like an interview.

Separate identity from practice. Two people with the same label can practice very differently, and two with different labels can look similar day to day. Ask how faith shows up in their actual week.

Check whether it's a real dealbreaker. Research on whether opposites attract shows religiosity is one of the traits couples match on most strongly. That makes it worth taking seriously, but it doesn't mean a difference is fatal. Our framework for dealbreakers vs. preferences can help, and so can our look at political differences in dating, which raises similar questions.

The Bottom Line

Interfaith relationships are a normal part of American life: 26% of married adults and 38% of cohabiting adults have a partner of a different religious identity, most often a Christian paired with someone unaffiliated. Mixed couples tend to be less religious and talk about religion less, but majorities report little conflict over it. The data can't tell you whether your relationship will work. It does suggest that what matters is less whether your labels match than whether you've talked through what faith will mean in your shared life.

Sources:

• Religious intermarriage — Gregory A. Smith, Alan Cooperman, Becka A. Alper et al., chapter 4 of Pew Research Center's 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study report (February 26, 2025)
• Interfaith marriage is common in U.S., particularly among the recently wed — Caryle Murphy, Pew Research Center (June 2, 2015), based on the 2014 Religious Landscape Study
• Religion in marriages and families — Pew Research Center (October 26, 2016)