Some Good News! Most Americans Believe the Christmas Story is True

Though American culture seems to be increasingly secularized, here’s some good news: most Americans still believe in the historical accuracy of the traditional Christmas story.

A recent PewForum poll asked people whether they believed the following four aspects of the story were true: that Jesus was born to a virgin, that the baby Jesus was laid in a manger, that wise men followed a star and brought gifs, and that an angel announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds.

Amazing, at least 65% of all Americans said they believed all four of those things to be historically true. 22% believe some elements of the story, while only 14% don’t believe any of the elements of the story.

There is some bad new from the survey: younger generations are less likely to believe the story, and the more education a person has the less likely they are to believe elements of the story.

But the overall fact remains that most Americans still believe the story.

Other interesting results include:

• Women are more likely than men to believe the story
• White evangelicals are the most likely to believe the story
• A third of Americans who seldom or never attend religious services believe the full story

Here’s the results of the study: