Among U.S. adults overall, six-in-ten now say that whether a person is a man or a woman is determined by their sex assigned at birth. This figure is even higher among White evangelicals (87%) and Black Protestants (70%). Among Catholics, the share who say a person’s gender cannot differ from sex at birth has risen from 52% in 2021 to 62% this year.

By contrast, a majority of religiously unaffiliated Americans (58%) say a person’s gender can be different from their sex assigned at birth, with atheists (76%) and agnostics (67%) especially likely to hold this view. The survey was conducted among Americans of all religious backgrounds, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus. But it did not obtain enough respondents from non-Christian religious groups to report separately on their responses.