and less Republican.

A new study offers insight into cultural change taking place in our society. We tend to focus on Baby Boomers and on millennials, but change of great significance is occurring among other generational cohorts.

A new study reveals that Gen-Xers (those born between 1965 and 1972) identify themselves as less Christian than they did when they were in college (75% identify as Christian today, 85% did in 1990).

Behind the numbers, 700,000 fewer Catholics among this age group than in 1990, from 33% to 26%, and a growth in those who self-identify as non-religious (up from 11% to 16%).

It’s hard to know what to make of this data, but it does challenge one standard assumption about religious behavior: that there’s a predictable fall-off during college and young adulthood, with a return to the church when older.