Poll: 42% of Americans Believe God Created Humans 10,000 Years Ago

A new survey shows that 42% of Americans believe God created human beings in their present form within the last 10,000 years, and an additional 31% believe that humans evolved from simpler life forms over millions of years but that God has guided that evolution.

Only 19% of Americans said they believe humans evolved over millions of years without any guidance from God, the Gallup poll reported.

The survey also showed that for Americans who attend church weekly, 69% think God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years, and for those who attend church “nearly weekly/monthly,” 47% believe that God created humans within the last 10,000 years.

Gallup has been asking the human origins question since 1982.  At that time, 44% of Americans believed that God created humans and that number peaked at 47% in the late 1990s.

“The percentage of the U.S. population choosing the creationist perspective as closest to their own view has fluctuated in a narrow range between 40% and 47% since the question’s inception,” said Gallup.