Among those surveyed, only 24 percent considered themselves to be an evangelical Christian, while 12 percent were unsure and 64 percent said they were not evangelical. Meanwhile, 29 percent considered themselves to be a “born-again” Christian. Although 24 percent of respondents claimed to be evangelical Christians and 29 percent claimed to be born again, the survey found that only 15 percent of respondents actually agreed with evangelical beliefs defined by LifeWay.

A new survey has found that less than half of Americans who identify as evangelicals actually “strongly agree” with core evangelical beliefs, while nearly one-third of Americans who hold evangelical beliefs don’t identify as “evangelical.”

LifeWay Research released a representative survey on “evangelical beliefs and identity” on Wednesday that featured responses from over 1,000 U.S. adults 18 or older that were collected between Nov. 10–12 with a +/- 3.1 percentage-point margin of error.

Among those surveyed, only 24 percent considered themselves to be an evangelical Christian, while 12 percent were unsure and 64 percent said they were not evangelical. Meanwhile, 29 percent considered themselves to be a “born-again” Christian.

Although 24 percent of respondents claimed to be evangelical Christians and 29 percent claimed to be born again, the survey found that only 15 percent of respondents actually agreed with evangelical beliefs defined by LifeWay.

As previously reported, LifeWay, with the help of the National Association of Evangelicals, defines true evangelicals as those who believe in four basic thoughts:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.
• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.
• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.
• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

Each respondent was asked to which degree they agree with the four thoughts highlighted above. Only respondents who said they “strongly agree” with all four ideas were categorized as having “evangelical beliefs.”

The survey found that among respondents who self-identify as evangelical and born again, only 45 percent of them were categorized as having evangelical beliefs.

Among respondents who said that they would identify as evangelical if it were not for the current political connotation of the word, only 43 percent of them were categorized as having evangelical beliefs.

The survey also found that only about 69 percent of respondents who actually hold core evangelical beliefs actually identify as evangelical, meaning that about three in 10 people who hold evangelical beliefs don’t identify as “evangelical.”

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