A new study from the American Bible Society (ABS) and Christian Broadcasting Network News reveals that nearly half of Americans, or 48 percent, believe their prayers have been answered with a miracle, and 35 percent say they have seen, or personally benefited from, healing they attribute to prayer.
The late faith-healing minister Kathryn Kuhlman opened her TV shows in the 1960s and 1970s with the declaration: “I believe in miracles.”
Americans have always been a religious people and they still are.
She was far from alone then, and believers are far from alone now. Today, nearly half of all Americans echo Kuhlman’s belief in miraculous intervention.
The findings are featured in the documentary Investigating the Supernatural: Angels and Demons, where host Billy Hallowell said, “Americans aren’t just curious about the supernatural—they’re experiencing it. These numbers should spark a national conversation about what so many of our neighbors are witnessing firsthand.”
And among active, practicing Christians, the numbers rise significantly, with 90 percent saying they have prayed and received what they consider a miraculous answer, and 69 percent reporting that they have seen or personally experienced what they describe as divine healing.
This pattern shows up consistently across decades of research.
A landmark study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2008 found that over half of Americans say religion is important to them, with many attending services regularly and praying daily.
In that same survey of more than 35,000 Americans, 79 percent of adults said they believe in miracles, reinforcing how widespread these beliefs have been for years. Many also affirmed the existence of angels active in human life.
That belief spans traditions, including 80 percent of Latter-day Saints, 61 percent of evangelicals and 58 percent of the members of historically Black Protestant churches.
Overall, 68 percent of Americans said angels and demons were active in the world.
More recent research reaches similar conclusions.
In a 2025 online survey of 2,656 adults in all 50 states and DC by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, more than half of all Americans, or 58 percent, say the Bible has transformed their lives.
Statistically, that translates to 148 million American adults who say scripture has changed their lives, according to ABS.
So there you have it. While you’ll still hear claims that religion is fading, that Americans are turning their backs on faith and church life, and that we’ve become a fully secular culture, the evidence tells a very different story.
Americans have always been a religious people and they still are.
A firm belief in God, in miracles, was held by our countrymen from America’s very beginning. The Declaration of Independence itself contains four references to God, including “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the world,” and “divine Providence.”
In fact, it states that the rights of all men are “endowed by their Creator.”
“In God We Trust” is even the official motto of the United States and engraved on our money—and ever deeper in our history and in our hearts.
Faith in God, in meaning and in something beyond ourselves, is not disappearing. By every measure, it remains deeply rooted in American life. And it speaks to something more fundamental: the enduring role of faith in how people make sense of their lives.
“Men without faith are a pretty sorry lot,” L. Ron Hubbard wrote. “They can even be given something to have faith in. But when they have religious beliefs, respect them.”
