Gen Z Prefers a Generic ‘Christian’ Label over ‘Protestant’

Do people know what it means to be Protestant? It’s a question that has long flummoxed researchers who study American religion through surveys.

In a poll conducted between 2019 and 2021, 25-year-old respondents were about three times more likely to identify their faith tradition as “just Christian” than to say they were Protestant. Among older Americans, the pattern reversed sharply—70-year-olds were three times more likely to choose “Protestant” over “just Christian.”