One in Three Americans Do Not Believe in Evolution

One in three Americans do not believe in evolution and are adamant that all living things have existed in their current form since the beginning of time.

A report by the Pew Research Centre found that 60% of Americans believe humans and other living things evolved over time, while 33% say we have been the same since life began.

Of those who believe in evolution, half say it is due to processes such as natural selection, while a quarter believe it is because "a supreme being guided the evolution of living things for the purpose of creating humans and other life in the form it exists today".

Findings of the report show that race and religion play a major role in people's views on how life came to be.

White evangelical Protestants are least likely to believe in evolution, with just 36% adhering to Darwinian theory. This figure increases to 50% among black evangelical Protestants.

Just 15% of mainline Protestants rejected evolution, compared to 32% of white Catholics and 47% of Hispanic Catholics.

In comparison, three-quarters of people who hold no religious affiliation believe in evolution.

Republicans are more likely to reject evolution, with just 43% saying humans evolved over time. This also represented an 11% decrease from the 2009 survey.

In terms of gender, men were very slightly more likely to say humans and animals evolved over time. Younger people and those who had had more years of formal education were also more likely to believe in evolution.

Earlier this year, a YouGov poll showed that almost 40% of Americans believe God created human beings within the last 10,000 years.

Just 21% said humans evolved from less advanced lifeforms over millions of years, and that it had nothing to do with God, while 25% believe humans evolved over millions of years but that God guided the process.