According to a new Gallup poll released Friday, the percentage of Americans who believe in God has dropped to its lowest level in almost 80 years.

The Values and Beliefs study, which was conducted from May 2 to 22, found that 81 percent of Americans believe in God. This is down six percentage points from the 2017 poll, when 87 percent of respondents indicated they believed in God. Gallup’s trend shows that this year’s percentage is the lowest since the organization began asking the topic in 1944.

According to this year’s study, 17% of Americans do not believe in God.

A steady 98 percent of respondents answered they believed in God when asked the question in 1944, 1947, and twice each in the 1950s and 1960s. Nearly five decades later, when Gallup posed the question in 2011, 92 percent of Americans indicated they believed in God.

In a second study in 2013, belief in God fell below 90% to 87 percent, about where it remained in three updates between 2014 and 2017, before dropping to 81 percent this year.

According to the research, young folks and persons on the left of the political spectrum, such as liberals and Democrats, have lost the greatest faith in God in recent years.

When comparing the 2022 statistics to an average of the 2013-2017 polls, Gallup said those categories indicate decreases of 10 percent or more. According to the polling firm, most other significant groupings have seen at least a little dip, while conservatives and married adults have seen no change.

The research indicated that the groups with the greatest drops are also the ones that are now the least likely to believe in God, such as liberals (62%), young adults (68%), and Democrats (72 percent ). Religious belief is strongest among political conservatives (94%) and Republicans (92%), according to Gallup, indicating that religion is a key factor of political differences in the United States.