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Religion in the United States

February 15, 2024

Religion in the United States is widespread, diverse, and vibrant, with the country being far more religious than other wealthy Western nations.[2] An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power,[3] engage in spiritual practices,[4] and consider themselves religious or spiritual.[5][6] Christianity is the most widely professed religion, with most Americans being Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, or Catholics.[7][8]

Religious affiliation in the United States, per Gallup, Inc. (2022)[1]

  Protestantism (34%)
  Catholicism (23%)
  Non-specific Christian (11%)
  Mormonism (2%)
  Judaism (2%)
  Other religions (6%)
  Unaffiliated with organized forms of religion (21%)
  No answer (1%)

Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Many scholars of religion credit this and the country's separation of church and state for its high level of religiousness;[9] lacking a state church, it completely avoided the experiences of religious warfare and conflict that characterized European modernization.[10] Its history of religion has always been marked by religious pluralism and diversity.[11][12] In colonial times, Anglicans, Quakers, and other mainline Protestants, as well as Mennonites, arrived from Northwestern Europe. Various dissenting Protestants who had left the Church of England greatly diversified the religious landscape.

The religiosity of the country has grown greatly over time.[13] Religious involvement among American citizens has gradually grown from 17% in 1776 to 62% in 2000.[14] The Thirteen Colonies were initially marked by low levels of religiosity.[13][15] The two Great Awakenings — the first in the 1730s and 1740s, the second between the 1790s and 1840s — led to an immense rise in observance and gave birth to many evangelical Protestant denominations. When they began, one in ten Americans were members of congregations; by the time they ended, eight in ten were.[13] The aftermath led to what historian Martin Marty calls the "Evangelical Empire", a period in which evangelicals dominated U.S. cultural institutions. They supported measures to abolish slavery, further women's rights, enact prohibition, and reform education and criminal justice.[16] The Episcopal Church, splitting from the Church of England, came into being in the American Revolution. New Protestant branches like Adventism emerged; Restorationists like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Latter Day Saint movement, Churches of Christ and Church of Christ, Scientist, as well as Unitarian and Universalist communities all spread in the 19th century. Deism also found support among American upper classes and intellectual thinkers. During the immigrant waves of the mid to late 19th and 20th century, an unprecedented number of Catholic and Jewish immigrants arrived in the United States. Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century as a result of the Azusa Street Revival. Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merge of Unitarian and Universalist churches in the 20th century.

The U.S. has the largest Christian and Protestant population in the world.[17] 75% of Americans report praying often or sometimes and religion plays a very (46%) or fairly (26%) important role in their lives.[18] Judaism is the second-largest religion in the U.S., practiced by 2% of the population, followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, each with 1% of the population.[19] Mississippi is the most religious state in the country, with 63% of its adult population described as very religious, saying that religion is important to them and attending religious services almost every week, while New Hampshire, with only 20% of its adult population described as very religious, is the least religious state.[20] Congress overwhelmingly identifies as religious and Christian; both the Republican and Democratic parties generally nominate those who are.[21][22] The Christian left, as seen through figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter, and William Jennings Bryan; along with many figures within the Christian right have played a profound role in the country's politics.

History

Main article: History of religion in the United States
 
Pilgrims Going to Church by George Henry Boughton (1867)

Ever since its early colonial days, when some Protestant dissenter English and German settlers moved in search of religious freedom, America has been profoundly influenced by religion.[23] Throughout its history, religious involvement among American citizens has grown since 1776 from 17% of the US population to 62% in 2000.[14] Approximately 35-40 percent of Americans regularly attended religious services from eighteenth-century colonial America up to 1940.[9] That influence continues in American culture, social life, and politics.[24] Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion within a community of like-minded people: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans (Congregationalists), Pennsylvania by British Quakers, Maryland by English Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Despite these, and as a result of intervening religious strife and preference in England[25] the Plantation Act 1740 would set official policy for new immigrants coming to British America until the American Revolution. While most settlers and colonists during this time were Protestant, a few early Catholic and Jewish settlers also arrived from Northwestern Europe into the colonies; however, their numbers were very slight compared to the Protestant majority. Even in the "Catholic Proprietary" or colony of Maryland, the vast majority of Maryland colonists were Protestant by 1670.[26]

The text of the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."[27] It guarantees the free exercise of religion while also preventing the government from establishing a state religion. However, the states were not bound by the provision, and as late as the 1830s Massachusetts provided tax money to local Congregational churches.[28] Since the 1940s, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as applying the First Amendment to state and local governments.[citation needed]

President John Adams and a unanimous Senate endorsed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 that stated: "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."[29]

Expert researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a "Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles",[30][31][32][33] specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage.[34][35]

The modern official motto of the United States of America, as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is "In God We Trust".[36][37][38] The phrase first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864.[37]

According to a 2002 survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly 6 in 10 Americans said that religion plays an important role in their lives, compared to 33% in Great Britain, 27% in Italy, 21% in Germany, 12% in Japan, and 11% in France. The survey report stated that the results showed America having a greater similarity to developing nations (where higher percentages say that religion plays an important role) than to other wealthy nations, where religion plays a minor role.[2]

In 1963, 90% of U.S. adults claimed to be Christians while only 2% professed no religious identity.[citation needed] In 2016, 73.7% identified as Christians while 18.2% claimed no religious affiliation.[39]

Pew Research Center surveys conclude that "the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or 'nothing in particular,' now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009" and that "both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share."[40][41] Many of the unaffiliated retain religious beliefs or practices without affiliating.[42][43][44] There have been variant explanations for secularization, including lack of trust in the labor market, with government, in marriage and in other aspects of life,[45] backlash against the religious right in the 1980s,[46] and sexual abuse scandals, particularly those within the Southern Baptist Convention[47] and Catholic Church.[48]

However, according to some sociologists, perceptions of religious decline are a popular misconception.[49] They state that surveys showing so suffer from methodological deficiencies, that Americans are becoming more religious, and that Atheists and Agnostics make up a small and stable percentage of the population.[50][51] "Religious belief and interest" has remained relatively stable in recent years; "organizational participation", in contrast, has decreased.[52]

Freedom of religion

 
The Maryland Toleration Act secured religious liberty in the English colony of Maryland. Similar laws were passed in the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. These laws stood in direct contrast with the Puritan theocratic rule in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies.[53]

According to Noah Feldman, the United States federal government was the first government to be designed with no established religion at all.[dubious – discuss][54] However, some states established religions until the 1830s.

Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them.[55]

Measuring religion

Census and independent polling

Since the first American census in 1790, census forms have never asked the religion of participants, with Vincent P. Barabba, former head of the United States Census Bureau, stating in April 1976 that "asking such a question in the decennial census, in which replies are mandatory, would appear to infringe upon the traditional separation of church and state" and "could affect public cooperation in the census". Data on religious affiliation comes from independent pollsters[56] by the Pew Research Center and other agencies or, on membership, from religious associations, such the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches of the National Council of Churches.

Inaccuracies of independent polling

Independent polling results on religion are generally questionable due to numerous factors:[57]

  • polls consistently fail to predict political election outcomes, signifying consistent failure to capture the actual views of the population
  • very low response rates for all polls since the 1990s
  • biases in wording or topic affect how people respond to polls
  • polls categorize people based on limited choices
  • polls often generalize broadly
  • polls have shallow or superficial choices, which complicate capturing complexity of religious beliefs and practices
  • poll interviewer and respondent fatigue is very common

Researchers note that an estimated 20-40% of the population changes their self-reported religious affiliation/identity over time due to numerous factors and that usually it is their answers on surveys that change, not necessarily their religious practices or beliefs.[49]

Researchers advise caution when looking at the "Nones" demographics on surveys because different surveys systematically have discrepancies that amount to 8% and growing of estimates, part of it being that the respondents on surveys are not consistent and also the questions asked are worded differently, generating consistent discrepancies in responses.[58]

According to Gallup there are variations on the responses based on how they ask questions. They routinely ask on complex things like belief in God since the early 2000s in 3 different wordings and they constantly receive 3 different percentages in responses.[59]

Christianity

Main article: Christianity in the United States

The most popular religion in the U.S. is Christianity, comprising the majority of the population (73.7% of adults in 2016), with the majority of American Christians belonging to a Protestant denomination or a Protestant offshoot (such as Mormonism or the Jehovah's Witnesses).[60] According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017, based on data from 2010, Christians were the largest religious population in all 3,143 counties in the country.[61] Roughly 48.9% of Americans are Protestants, 23.0% are Catholics, 1.8% are Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).[60] Christianity was introduced during the period of European colonization. The United States has the world's largest Christian population.[17][62]

According to membership statistics from current reports and official web sites, the five largest Christian denominations are:

The Southern Baptist Convention, with over 13 million adherents, is the largest of more than 200[68] distinctly named Protestant denominations.[69] In 2007, members of evangelical churches comprised 26% of the American population, while another 18% belonged to mainline Protestant churches, and 7% belonged to historically black churches.[70]

A 2015 study estimates some 450,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country, most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism.[71] In 2010 there were approximately 180,000 Arab Americans and about 130,000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity. Dudley Woodbury, a Fulbright scholar of Islam, estimates that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States.[72]

Protestant denominations

Main article: Protestantism in the United States
 
A Congregational church in Cheshire, Connecticut

Beginning around 1600, Northwestern European settlers introduced the Anglican and Puritan religion, as well as Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Quaker, and Moravian denominations.[73] Historians agree that members of mainline Protestant denominations have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life, including politics, business, science, the arts, and education. They founded most of the country's leading institutes of higher education.[74] According to Harriet Zuckerman, 72% of American Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 1972, have identified from Protestant background.[75]

Episcopalians[76] and Presbyterians[77] tend to be considerably wealthier and better educated than most other religious groups, and numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families as the Vanderbilts[76] and Astors,[76] Rockefeller,[78][79] Du Pont,[79] Roosevelt, Forbes, Fords,[79] Whitneys,[76] Morgans[76] and Harrimans are Mainline Protestant families,[76] though those affiliated with Judaism are the wealthiest religious group in the United States[80][81] and those affiliated with Catholicism, owing to sheer size, have one of the largest number of adherents of all groups in the top income bracket if each Protestant denomination is divided into separate groups (though the overall percentage of Catholics in high income brackets is far lower than the percentage of any Mainline Protestant group in high income brackets, and the percentage of Catholics in high income brackets is comparable to the percentage of general Americans in high income brackets.)[82]

Some of the first colleges and universities in America, including Harvard,[83] Yale,[84] Princeton,[85] Columbia,[86] Dartmouth,[87] Pennsylvania,[88][89] Duke,[90] Boston,[91] Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury,[92] and Amherst, all were founded by mainline Protestant denominations. By the 1920s most had weakened or dropped their formal connection with a denomination. James Hunter argues:

The private schools and colleges established by the mainline Protestant denominations, as a rule, still want to be known as places that foster values, but few will go so far as to identify those values as Christian.... Overall, the distinctiveness of mainline Protestant identity has largely dissolved since the 1960s.[93]

Great Awakenings and other Protestant descendants

Several Christian groups were founded in America during the Great Awakenings. Interdenominational evangelicalism and Pentecostalism emerged; new Protestant denominations such as Adventism; non-denominational movements such as the Restoration Movement (which over time separated into the Churches of Christ, the Christian churches and churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)); Jehovah's Witnesses (called "Bible Students" in the latter part of the 19th century); and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism).

Catholicism

Main article: Roman Catholicism in the United States
 
The Founding of Maryland (1634) depicts Father Andrew White, a Jesuit missionary in the left and colonists meeting the people of the Yaocomico branch of the Piscatawy Indian Nation in St. Mary's City, Maryland, the site of Maryland's first colonial settlement.[94]

While the Puritans were securing their Commonwealth, members of the Catholic church in England were also planning a refuge, "for they too were being persecuted on account of their religion."[95] Among those interested in providing a refuge for Catholics was the second Lord of Baltimore, George Calvert, who established Maryland, a "Catholic Proprietary", in 1634,[95] more than sixty years after the founding of the Spanish Florida mission of St. Augustine.[96] The first US Catholic university, Georgetown University, was founded in 1789. Though small in number in the beginning, Catholicism grew over the centuries to become the largest single denomination in the US, primarily through immigration, but also through the acquisition of continental territories under the jurisdiction of French and Spanish Catholic powers.[97] Though the European Catholic and indigenous population of these former territories were small,[98] the material cultures there, the original mission foundations with their canonical Catholic names, are still recognized today (as they were formerly known) in any number of cities in California, New Mexico and Louisiana. (The most recognizable cities of California, for example, are named after Catholic saints.)

 
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is the largest Catholic church in the US.

While Catholic Americans were present in small numbers early in United States history, both in Maryland and in the former French and Spanish colonies that were eventually absorbed into the United States, the vast majority of Catholics in the United States today derive from unprecedented waves of immigration from primarily Catholic countries and regions (Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom until 1921 and German unification didn't officially occur until 1871)[99] during the mid-to-late 19th and 20th century. Irish, Hispanic, Italian, Portuguese, French Canadian, Polish, German,[100] and Lebanese (Maronite) immigrants largely contributed to the growth in the number of Catholics in the United States. Irish and German Catholics, by far, provided the greatest number of Catholic immigrants before 1900. From 1815 until the close of the Civil War in 1865, 1,683,791 Irish Catholics immigrated to the US. The German states followed, providing "the second largest immigration of Catholics, clergy and lay, some 606,791 in the period 1815-1865, and another 680,000 between 1865 and 1900, while the Irish immigration in the latter period amounted to only 520,000."[101] Of the four major national groups of clergy (early and mid-19th century)—Irish, German, Anglo-American, and French—"the French emigre priests may be said to have been the outstanding men, intellectually."[102] As the number of Catholics increased in the late 19th and 20th century, they built up a vast system of schools (from primary schools to universities) and hospitals. Since then, the Catholic Church has founded hundreds of other colleges and universities, along with thousands of primary and secondary schools. Schools like the University of Notre Dame is ranked best in its state (Indiana), as Georgetown University is ranked best in the District of Columbia. 12[which?] Catholic universities are also ranked among the top 100 universities in the US.[103]

Orthodox Christianity

Eastern Orthodox Christianity was present in North America since the Russian colonization of Alaska; however, Alaska would not become a United States territory until 1867, and most Eastern Orthodox Russian settlers in Alaska returned to Russia after the American acquisition of the Alaskan territory. However the native converts and a few priests remained behind, and Alaska still is represented[clarification needed]. Most Eastern Orthodox Christians arrived in the contiguous United States as immigrants beginning in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century. During the 19th century, two main branches of Eastern Christianity also arrived to America. Eastern Orthodoxy was brought to America by Greek, Ukrainian, Serbian, and other immigrant groups, mainly from Eastern Europe. In the same time, several immigrant groups from the Middle East, mainly Armenians, Copts and Syriacs, brought Oriental Orthodoxy to America.[104][105]

Demographics of various Christian groups

The strength of various sects varies greatly in different regions of the country, with rural parts of the South having many evangelicals but very few Catholics (except Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, and from among the Hispanic community, both of which consist mainly of Catholics), while urbanized areas of the north Atlantic states and Great Lakes, as well as many industrial and mining towns, are heavily Catholic, though still quite mixed, especially due to the heavily Protestant African-American communities. In 1990, nearly 72% of the population of Utah was Mormon, as well as 26% of neighboring Idaho.[106] Lutheranism is most prominent in the Upper Midwest, with North Dakota having the highest percentage of Lutherans (35% according to a 2001 survey).[107]

The largest religion, Christianity, has proportionately diminished since 1990. While the absolute number of Christians rose from 1990 to 2008, the percentage of Christians dropped from 86% to 76%.[108] A nationwide telephone interview of 1,002 adults conducted by The Barna Group found that 70% of American adults believe that God is "the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today", and that 9% of all American adults and 0.5% young adults hold to what the survey defined as a "biblical worldview".[109]

Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Eastern Orthodox and United Church of Christ members[110] have the highest number of graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita of all Christian denominations in the United States,[111][112] as well as the most high-income earners.[113][114] However, owing to the sheer size or demographic head count of Catholics, more individual Catholics have graduate degrees and are in the highest income brackets than have or are individuals of any other religious community.[115]

Other Abrahamic religions

Judaism

Main articles: American Jews and History of the Jews in the United States

After Christianity, Judaism is the next largest religious affiliation in the US, though this identification is not necessarily indicative of religious beliefs or practices.[108] The Jewish population in the United States is approximately 6 million.[116][117] A significant number of people identify themselves as American Jews on ethnic and cultural grounds, rather than religious ones. For example, 19% of self-identified American Jews do not believe God exists.[118] The 2001 ARIS study projected from its sample that there are about 5.3 million adults in the American Jewish population: 2.83 million adults (1.4% of the U.S. adult population) are estimated to be adherents of Judaism; 1.08 million are estimated to be adherents of no religion; and 1.36 million are estimated to be adherents of a religion other than Judaism.[119] ARIS 2008 estimated about 2.68 million adults (1.2%) in the country identify Judaism as their faith.[108] According to a 2017 study, Judaism is the religion of approximately 2% of the American population.[39] According to a 2020 study by the Pew Research Center, the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.5 million people, this includes 5.8 million Jewish adults.[120] According to study by Steinhardt Social Research Institute, as of 2020, the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.6 million people, this includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children.[121]

 
Touro Synagogue, (built 1759) in Newport, Rhode Island has the oldest still existing synagogue building in the United States.

Jews have been present in what is now the US since the 17th century, and specifically allowed since the British colonial Plantation Act 1740. Although small Western European communities initially developed and grew, large-scale immigration did not take place until the late 19th century, largely as a result of persecutions in parts of Eastern Europe. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe. There are, however, small numbers of older (and some recently arrived) communities of Sephardi Jews with roots tracing back to 15th century Iberia (Spain, Portugal, and North Africa). There are also Mizrahi Jews (from the Middle East, Caucasia and Central Asia), as well as much smaller numbers of Ethiopian Jews, Indian Jews, and others from various smaller Jewish ethnic divisions. Approximately 25% of the Jewish American population lives in New York City.[122]

According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017, based on data from 2010, Jews were the largest minority religion in 231 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country.[61] According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life, 1.7% of adults in the U.S. identify Judaism as their religion. Among those surveyed, 44% said they were Reform Jews, 22% said they were Conservative Jews, and 14% said they were Orthodox Jews.[123][124] According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey, 38% of Jews were affiliated with the Reform tradition, 35% were Conservative, 6% were Orthodox, 1% were Reconstructionists, 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish".[125]

This way, the American Jews' majority continue to identify themselves with Jewish main traditions, such as Conservative, Orthodox and Reform Judaism.[126][127] But, already in the 1980s, 20–30 percent of members of largest Jewish communities, such as of New York City, Chicago, Miami, and others, rejected a denominational label.[126]

According to the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey, 4.3 million American Jewish adults have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community, whether religious or cultural.[128] Jewishness is generally considered an ethnic identity as well as a religious one. Among the 4.3 million American Jews described as "strongly connected" to Judaism, over 80% have some sort of active engagement with Judaism, ranging from attendance at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum to attending Passover Seders or lighting Hanukkah candles on the other. The survey also discovered that Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West.

The Jewish American community has higher household incomes than average, and is one of the best educated religious communities in the United States.[110]

Islam

Main article: Islam in the United States
 
The Islamic Center of Washington in the nation's capital is a leading American Islamic Center.

Islam is probably the third largest religion in numbers in the United States, after Christianity and Judaism, followed, according to Gallup, by 0.8% of the population in 2016.[60] Hinduism and Buddhism follow it closely in numbers (in 2014 the large scale Religious Life Survey found Islam with 0.9% and the other two with 0.7% each[110]). According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published in March 2017, based on data from 2010, Muslims were the largest minority religion in 392 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country.[61] According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) in 2018, there are approximately 3.45 million Muslims living in the United States, with 2.05 million adults, and the rest being children.[129] Across faith groups, ISPU found in 2017 that Muslims were most likely to be born outside of the US (50%), with 36% having undergone naturalization. American Muslims are also America's most diverse religious community with 25% identifying as black or African American, 24% identifying as white, 18% identifying as Asian/Chinese/Japanese, 18% identifying as Arab, and 5% identifying as Hispanic.[130] In addition to diversity, Americans Muslims are most likely to report being low income, and among those who identify as middle class, the majority are Muslim women, not men. Although American Muslim education levels are similar to other religious communities, namely Christians, within the Muslim American population, Muslim women surpass Muslim men in education, with 31% of Muslim women having graduated from a four-year university. 90% of Muslim Americans identify as straight.[130]

Islam in America effectively began with the arrival of African slaves. It is estimated that about 10% of African slaves transported to the United States were Muslim.[131] Most, however, became Christians, and the United States did not have a significant Muslim population until the arrival of immigrants from Arab and East Asian Muslim areas.[132] According to some experts,[133] Islam later gained a higher profile through the Nation of Islam, a religious group that appealed to black Americans after the 1940s; its prominent converts included Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.[134][135] The first Muslim elected to Congress was Keith Ellison in 2006,[136] followed by André Carson in 2008.[137]

Out of all religious groups surveyed by ISPU, Muslims were found to be the most likely to report experiences of religious discrimination (61%). That can also be broken down when looking at gender (with Muslim women more likely than Muslim men to experience racial discrimination), age (with young people more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination than older people), and race, (with Arab Muslims the most likely to report experiencing religious discrimination). Muslims born in the United States are more likely to experience all three forms of discrimination, gender, religious, and racial.[130]

Research indicates that Muslims in the United States are generally more assimilated and prosperous than their counterparts in Europe.[138][139][140] Like other subcultural and religious communities, the Islamic community has generated its own political organizations and charity organizations.

ISPU also conducted a series of impact reports on Muslim Americans in both Michigan and New York City.[129] 22.3% of Muslims live in New York City, the home of more mosques (285 total) than any other American city. Though just shy of 9% of the NYC population, Muslims make up over 12% of the city's pharmacists, lab technicians, and over 9% of all doctors. They make up 11.3% of all engineers, and are engaged at every level of civic life in the city, from senior adviser to the city government to directing outreach at the city council level. Nearly 10,000 NYC teachers are Muslim.

Bahá'í Faith

Main article: Bahá'í Faith in the United States
 
Bahá'í House of Worship (built 1953) in Wilmette, Illinois, is the oldest still existing Bahá'í house of worship in the world and the only one in the United States.

The Baháʼí Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.[141] Soon after, early American converts began embracing the new religion. Thornton Chase was the first American Baháʼí, dating from 1894.[142] One of the first Baháʼí institutions in the U.S. was established in Chicago to facilitate the establishment of the first Baháʼí House of Worship in the West, which was eventually built in Wilmette, Illinois and dedicated in 1953.[143]

Worldwide, the religion has grown faster than the rate of population growth over the 20th century,[144] and has been recognized since the 1980s as the most widespread minority religion in the countries of the world.[145] Similarly, by 2020, the religion was the largest minority religion in about half of the counties.[146] Since about 1970 the state with the single largest Baháʼí population was South Carolina.[147] From 2010 data the largest populations of Baháʼís at the county-by-county level are in Los Angeles, CA, Palm Beach, FL, Harris County, TX, and Cook County, IL.[148] However, estimates of the total number of Baháʼís varies widely from around 175,000[149] to 500,000.[150]

Rastafari

Main article: Rastafari movement in the United States

Rastafarians began migrating to the United States in the 1950s, '60s and '70s from the religion's 1930s birthplace, Jamaica.[151][152]

Marcus Garvey, who is considered a prophet by many Rastafarians, rose to prominence and cultivated many of his ideas in the United States.[153][154]

Druze faith

Druze began migrating to the United States in the late 1800s from the Levant (Syria and Lebanon).[155] Druze emigration to the Americas increased at the outset of the 20th century due to the famine during World War I that killed an estimated one third to one half of the population, the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, and the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990.[155] The United States is the second largest home of Druze communities outside the Middle East after Venezuela (60,000).[156] According to some estimates there are about 30,000[157] to 50,000[156] Druzes in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern California.[157] American Druze are mostly of Lebanese and Syrian descent.[157]

Members of the Druze faith face the difficulty of finding a Druze partner and practicing endogamy; marriage outside the Druze faith is strongly discouraged according to the Druze doctrine. They also face the pressure of keeping the religion alive because many Druze immigrants to the United States converted to Protestantism, becoming communicants of the Presbyterian or Methodist churches.[158][159]

Asian religions

Hinduism

Main article: Hinduism in the United States
 
Saiva Siddhanta Temple in Kauai Island in Hawaii is the only Hindu monastery in the North American continent.

Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the United States, representing approximately 1% of the population in 2010s.[39][160] In 2001, there were an estimated 766,000 Hindus in the US, about 0.2% of the total population.[161][162]

The first time Hinduism entered the United States is not clearly identifiable. However, large groups of Hindus have immigrated from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, other parts of the Caribbean, southern Africa, eastern Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Mauritius, Fiji, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other regions and countries since the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. During the 1960s and 1970s Hinduism exercised fascination contributing to the development of New Age thought. During the same decades the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Vaishnavite Hindu reform organization, was founded in the US by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In 2003, the Hindu American Foundation—a national institution protecting rights of the Hindu community of U.S.—was founded.

According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017, based on data from 2010, Hindus were the largest minority religion in 92 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country.[61]

American Hindus have one of the highest rates of educational attainment and household income among all religious communities, and tend to have lower divorce rates.[110] Hindus also have higher acceptance towards homosexuality (71%), which is higher than the general public (62%).[163]

Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism in the United States
 
Services at the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, Los Angeles, around 1925

Buddhism entered the US during the 19th century with the arrival of the first immigrants from East Asia. The first Buddhist temple was established in San Francisco in 1853 by Chinese Americans. The first prominent US citizen to publicly convert to Buddhism was Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1880 who is still honored in Sri Lanka for his Buddhist revival efforts. An event that contributed to the strengthening of Buddhism in the United States was the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893, which was attended by many Buddhist delegates sent from India, China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

During the late 19th century Buddhist missionaries from Japan traveled to the US. During the same time period, US intellectuals started to take interest in Buddhism.

The early 20th century was characterized by a continuation of tendencies that had their roots in the 19th century. The second half, by contrast, saw the emergence of new approaches, and the move of Buddhism into the mainstream and making itself a mass and social religious phenomenon.[164][165]

According to a 2016 study, Buddhists are approximately 1% of the American population.[39] According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017, based on data from 2010, Buddhists were the largest minority religion in 186 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country.[61]

Jainism

Main article: Jainism in the United States

Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s. The United States has since become a center of the Jain Diaspora. The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations to preserve, practice, and promote Jainism and the Jain way of life.[166]

Sikhism

Main article: Sikhism in the United States
 
Front of the Stockton Sikh Temple, circa 1915. This wooden structure was replaced with a new building in 1929.

Sikhism is a religion originating from the Indian subcontinent which was introduced into the United States when, around the turn of the 20th century, Sikhs started emigrating to the United States in significant numbers to work on farms in California. They were the first community to come from India to the US in large numbers.[167] The first Sikh Gurdwara in America was built in Stockton, California, in 1912.[168] In 2007, there were estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the United States, with the largest populations living on the East and West Coasts, with additional populations in Detroit, Chicago, and Austin.[169][170]

The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism.[171]

Taoism

Taoism was popularized throughout the world by the writings and teachings of Laozi and other Taoists as well as the practice of qigong, tai chi, and other Chinese martial arts.[172] The first Taoists in the US were immigrants from China during the mid-nineteenth century. They settled mostly in California where the built the first Taoist temples in the country, including the Tin How Temple in San Francisco's Chinatown and the Joss House in Weaverville. Currently, the Temple of Original Simplicity is located outside of Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2004, there were an estimated 56,000 Taoists in the US.[173]

Other religions

Many other religions are represented in the United States, including Shinto, Caodaism, Thelema, Santería, Kemetism, Neopaganism, Zoroastrianism, Vodou, Druze and many forms of New Age spirituality as well as satirical religions such as Pastafarianism.

Native American religions

Main article: Native American religions
 
Bear Butte, in South Dakota, is a sacred site for over 30 Plains tribes.

Native American religions historically exhibited much diversity, and are often characterized by animism or panentheism.[174][175][176][177] The membership of Native American religions in the 21st century comprises about 9,000 people.[178]

The Native American Church is a religious tradition involving the ceremonial and sacred use of Lophophora williamsii (peyote).[179][180]

Neopaganism

Main article: Contemporary Paganism

Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca, followed by Neo-Druidism.[181][182] Other neopagan movements include Germanic Neopaganism, Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism, Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, and Semitic neopaganism.

Druidry

According to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), there are approximately 30,000 druids in the United States.[183] Modern Druidism arrived in North America first in the form of fraternal Druidic organizations in the nineteenth century, and orders such as the Ancient Order of Druids in America were founded as distinct American groups as early as 1912. In 1963, the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) was founded by students at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. They adopted elements of Neopaganism into their practices, for instance celebrating the festivals of the Wheel of the Year.[184]

Wicca

Wicca advanced in North America in the 1960s by Raymond Buckland, an expatriate Briton who visited Gardner's Isle of Man coven to gain initiation.[185] Universal Eclectic Wicca was popularized in 1969 for a diverse membership drawing from both Dianic and British Traditional Wiccan backgrounds.[186]

New Thought Movement

Main article: New Thought

A group of churches which started in the 1830s in the United States is known under the banner of "New Thought". These churches share a spiritual, metaphysical and mystical predisposition and understanding of the Bible and were strongly influenced by the Transcendentalist movement, particularly the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Another antecedent of this movement was Swedenborgianism, founded on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in 1787.[187] The New Thought concept was named by Emma Curtis Hopkins ("teacher of teachers") after Hopkins broke off from Mary Baker Eddy's Church of Christ, Scientist. The movement had been previously known as the Mental Sciences or the Christian Sciences. The three major branches are Religious Science, Unity Church and Divine Science.

Unitarian Universalism

Main article: Unitarian Universalism

Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are among the most liberal of all religious denominations in America.[188] The shared creed includes beliefs in inherent dignity, a common search for truth, respect for beliefs of others, compassion, and social action.[189] They are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a result of that search and not obedience to an authoritarian requirement.[190] UUs have historical ties to anti-war, civil rights, and LGBT rights movements,[191] as well as providing inclusive church services for the broad spectrum of liberal Christians, liberal Jews, secular humanists, LGBT, Jewish-Christian parents and partners, Earth-centered/Wicca, and Buddhist meditation adherents.[192] In fact, many UUs also identify as belonging to another religious group, including atheism and agnosticism.[193]

No religion

Main article: Irreligion in the United States

In 2020, approximately 28% of Americans declared themselves to be not religiously affiliated.[194]

Agnosticism, atheism, and humanism

See also: Discrimination against atheists in the United States
 
Atheism promoted on an electronic billboard in Times Square

A 2001 survey directed by Dr. Ariela Keysar for the City University of New York indicated that, amongst the more than 100 categories of response, "no religious identification" had the greatest increase in population in both absolute and percentage terms. This category included atheists, agnostics, humanists, and others with no stated religious preferences. Figures are up from 14.3 million in 1990 to 34.2 million in 2008, representing an increase from 8% of the total population in 1990 to 15% in 2008.[108] A nationwide Pew Research study published in 2008 put the figure of unaffiliated persons at 16.1%,[162] while another Pew study published in 2012 was described as placing the proportion at about 20% overall and roughly 33% for the 18–29-year-old demographic.[195] It is unknown why the number of self-identified "nones" are rising, although it may relate to a general decline of trust in institutions,[45] the September 11 attacks,[196] rise of the religious right,[197] and sexual abuse scandals, particularly those within the Southern Baptist Convention[198] and Catholic Church.[199] The majority of "nones" have religion-like beliefs and believe in some conception of a higher power.[42]

In a 2006 nationwide poll, University of Minnesota researchers found that despite an increasing acceptance of religious diversity, atheists were generally distrusted by other Americans, who trusted them less than Muslims, recent immigrants and other minority groups in "sharing their vision of American society". They also associated atheists with undesirable attributes such as amorality, criminal behavior, rampant materialism and cultural elitism.[200][201] However, the same study also reported that "The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity, but also to one's exposure to diversity, education and political orientation – with more educated, East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts."[202] Some surveys have indicated that doubts about the existence of the divine were growing quickly among Americans under 30.[203]

On March 24, 2012, American atheists sponsored the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C., followed by the American Atheist Convention in Bethesda, Maryland. Organizers called the estimated crowd of 8,000–10,000 the largest-ever US gathering of atheists in one place.[204]

Secular people in the United States, such as atheist and agnostics, have a distinctive secular tradition that can be traced for at least hundreds of years. They sometimes create religion-like institutions and communities, create rituals, and debate aspects of their shared beliefs.[205]

Belief in the existence of a god

Various polls have been conducted to determine Americans' actual beliefs regarding a god:

  • A 2021 Pew Research Center Survey found that 91% of American believe in a higher power.[206]
  • A 2018 Pew Research Center Survey found that 90% of American believe in a higher power.[207]
  • In 2014 the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Study showed 63% of Americans believed in God and were "absolutely certain" in their view, while the figure rose to 89% including those who were agnostic.[208]
  • A 2012 WIN-Gallup International poll showed that 5% of Americans considered themselves "convinced" atheists, which was a fivefold increase from the last time the survey was taken in 2005, and 5% said they did not know or else did not respond.[209]
  • A 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that doubts about the existence of a god had grown among younger Americans, with 68% telling Pew they never doubt God's existence, a 15-point drop in five years. In 2007, 83% of American millennials said they never doubted God's existence.[203][210]
  • A 2011 Gallup poll found 92% of Americans said yes to the basic question "Do you believe in God?", while 7% said no and 1% had no opinion.[211]
  • A 2010 Gallup poll found 80% of Americans believe in a god, 12% believe in a universal spirit, 6% don't believe in either, 1% chose "other", and 1% had no opinion. 80% is a decrease from the 1940s, when Gallup first asked this question.
  • A late 2009 online Harris poll of 2,303 U.S. adults (18 and older)[212] found that "82% of adult Americans believe in God", the same number as in two earlier polls in 2005 and 2007. Another 9% said they did not believe in God, and 9% said that they were not sure. It further concluded, "Large majorities also believe in miracles (76%), heaven (75%), that Jesus is God or the Son of God (73%), in angels (72%), the survival of the soul after death (71%), and in the resurrection of Jesus (70%). Less than half (45%) of adults believe in Darwin's theory of evolution but this is more than the 40% who believe in creationism..... Many people consider themselves Christians without necessarily believing in some of the key beliefs of Christianity. However, this is not true of born-again Christians. In addition to their religious beliefs, large minorities of adults, including many Christians, have "pagan" or pre-Christian beliefs such as a belief in ghosts, astrology, witches and reincarnation.... Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated."
  • A 2008 survey of 1,000 people concluded that, based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification, 69.5% of Americans believe in a personal God, roughly 12.3% of Americans are atheist or agnostic, and another 12.1% are deistic (believing in a higher power/non-personal God, but no personal God).[108]
  • Mark Chaves, a Duke University professor of sociology, religion and divinity, found that 92% of Americans believed in God in 2008, but that significantly fewer Americans have great confidence in their religious leaders than a generation ago.[213]
  • According to a 2008 ARIS survey, belief in God varies considerably by region. The lowest rate is in the West with 59% reporting a belief in God, and the highest rate is in the South at 86%.[214]

Spiritual but not religious

Main article: Spiritual but not religious

"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) is self-identified stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Spirituality places an emphasis upon the wellbeing of the "mind-body-spirit",[215] so holistic activities such as tai chi, reiki, and yoga are common within the SBNR movement.[216] In contrast to religion, spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the individual.[217]

One fifth of the US public and a third of adults under the age of 30 are reportedly unaffiliated with any religion, however they identify as being spiritual in some way. Of these religiously unaffiliated Americans, 37% classify themselves as spiritual but not religious.[218]

Major U.S.-origin movements

See also: List of religious movements that began in the United States

Christian

 
The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts

Other

Statistics

See also: List of U.S. states and territories by religiosity

The U.S. Census does not ask about religion. Various groups have conducted surveys to determine approximate percentages of those affiliated with each religious group.

Historical trends

  • Sources: Based on Pew Center Research, especially editions 2007-2014[123] and 2019,[19] CID-Gallup Center since 1948,[237] Public Religion Research Institute,[238] Christianity Today 1900-1950:Religious Trends in the United States,[239] The Database of Religious History,[240] and Historical information sources.[241][242]

Change in religious identification, 1950–2020

Percentage of Americans by religious identification (1950 – 2020)[237]

  Protestantism
  Christian (nonspecified)
  Catholicism
  Mormonism
  Jewish
  Other
  Unaffiliated
  No Answer

The Association of Religion Data Archives (1900-2050)

Major Religions[243]
Year All Christians Non-Religious Jewish Muslim Buddhists
1900 97.0 1.3 1.4
1950 93.1 3.3 3.1 0.1
1970 91.3 5.2 2.6 0.4 0.1
2000 82.0 12.0 1.9 1.2 1.2
2020 74.2 19.7 1.7 1.4 1.3
2050(P) 66.3 25.8 1.3 2.6 1.8
Major Christian Denominations[243]
Year Protestant Independents Unaffiliated Christian Catholic Orthodox
1900 48.7 8.8 24.8 14.2 0.5
1950 37.0 15.1 20.1 19.2 1.7
1970 28.8 17.8 19.6 23.1 2.1
2000 21.0 20.2 16.4 22.4 2.0
2020 16.3 19.3 14.1 22.3 2.2
2050(P) 15.8 19.1 8.0 21.1 2.3

Public Religion Research Institute data (2020)

The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) has made annual estimates about religious adherence in the United States every year since 2013, and they most recently updated their data in 2020. Their data can be broken down to the state level, and data has also been made available of several large metro areas. Data is collected from roughly 50,000 telephone interviews conducted every year.[238]

Their most recent data shows that approximately 70% of Americans are Christians (down from 71% in 2013), with about 46% of the population professing belief in Protestant Christianity, and another 22% adhering to Catholicism. About 23% of the population adheres to no religion, and 7% more of the population professes a Non-Christian religion (such as Judaism, Islam, or Hinduism).[238][244]

Religion in the United States according to the American Values Atlas published by the PRRI (2020)[238]
Religious Affiliation National % South % West % Midwest % Northeast %
Christian 69.7 69.7
 
 74 65 72 67
Protestant 45.6 45.6
 
 53 36 50 39
White Evangelical 14.5 14.5
 
 18 10 18 9
White Mainline Protestant 16.4 16.4
 
 17 14 21 15
Black Protestant 7.3 7.3
 
 10 3 6 8
Hispanic Protestant 3.9 3.9
 
 4 5 2 4
Other non-white Protestant 3.5 3.5
 
 4 4 3 3
Catholic 21.8 21.8
 
 19 24 21 26
White Catholic 11.7 11.7
 
 9 9 15 16
Hispanic Catholic 8.2 8.2
 
 8 13 4 8
Other non-white Catholic 1.9 1.9
 
 2 2 2 2
Mormon 1.3 1.3
 
 1 4 1 1
Jehovah's Witness 0.5 0.5
 
 1 1 0 0
Orthodox Christian 0.5 0.5
 
 0 0 0 1
Unaffiliated 23.3 23.3
 
 21 27 22 24
Non-Christian 7.0 7
 
 5 8 6 9
Jewish 1.4 1.4
 
 1 1 1 3
Muslim 0.8 0.8
 
 1 1 1 1
Buddhist 0.8 0.8
 
 1 1 1 1
Hindu 0.5 0.5
 
 0 1 0 1
Other non-Christian 3.5 3.5
 
 2 4 3 3
Total 100 100
 
 100 100 100 100

2014 Pew Research Center data

 
The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2014 according to the Pew Research Center.
Protestantism
  70 - 79%
  60 - 69%
  50 - 59%
  40 - 49%
  30 - 39%
Catholicism
  40 - 49%
  30 - 39%
Mormonism
  50 - 59%
Unaffiliated
  30 - 39%
Religion in the United States according to the Pew Research Center (2014)[123]
Affiliation % of U.S. population
Christian 70.6 70.6
 
Protestant 46.5 46.5
 
Evangelical Protestant 25.4 25.4
 
Mainline Protestant 14.7 14.7
 
Black church 6.5 6.5
 
Catholic 20.8 20.8
 
Mormon 1.6 1.6
 
Jehovah's Witnesses 0.8 0.8
 
Eastern Orthodox 0.5 0.5
 
Other Christian 0.4 0.4
 
Unaffiliated 22.8 22.8
 
Nothing in particular 15.8 15.8
 
Agnostic 4.0 4
 
Atheist 3.1 3.1
 
Non-Christian 5.9 5.9
 
Jewish 1.9 1.9
 
Muslim 0.9 0.9
 
Buddhist 0.7 0.7
 
Hindu 0.7 0.7
 
Other non-Christian 1.8 1.8
 
Don't know/refused answer 0.6 0.6
 
Total 100 100
 

2010 ASARB data

 
The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2010 according to a survey of religious denominations. Protestantism
  60%+
  50 - 59%
  40 - 49%
  30 - 49%
Catholicism
  60%+
  50 - 59%
  40 - 49%
  30 - 39%
Mormonism
  60%+
  30 - 39%

The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) surveyed congregations for their memberships. Churches were asked for their membership numbers. Adjustments were made for those congregations that did not respond and for religious groups that reported only adult membership.[245] ASARB estimates that most of the churches not responding were black Protestant congregations. Significant difference in results from other databases include the lower representation of adherents of (1) all kinds (62.7%), (2) Christians (59.9%), (3) Protestants (less than 36%); and the greater number of unaffiliated (37.3%).

 
Percentage of religion against average, 2001
Major >10% >20%
Catholic
Baptist
Lutheran
Methodist
No religion
Mormonism
Protestant
Pentecostal
Christian (unspecified/other)
 
Plurality of religious preference by state in 2014.
<20% <30% <40% <50% >50%
Baptist
Catholic
Mormon
Lutheran
Religious groups
Religious group Number
in year
2010		 % in
year
2010
Total US pop year 2010 308,745,538 100.0%
Evangelical Protestant 50,013,107 16.2%
Mainline Protestant 22,568,258 7.3%
Black Protestant 4,877,067 1.6%
Protestant total 77,458,432 25.1%
Catholic 58,934,906 19.1%
Orthodox 1,056,535 0.3%
adherents (unadjusted) 150,596,792 48.8%
unclaimed 158,148,746 51.2%
other – including Mormon & Christ Scientist 13,146,919 4.3%
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormon, LDS) 6,144,582 2.0%
other – excluding Mormon 7,002,337 2.3%
Jewish estimate 6,141,325 2.0%
Buddhist estimate 2,000,000 0.7%
Muslim estimate 2,600,082 0.8%
Hindu estimate 400,000 0.4%
Source: ASARB[117][246]

Ethnicity

The table below shows the religious affiliations among the ethnicities in the United States, according to the Pew Forum 2014 survey.[123] People of Black ethnicity were most likely to be part of a formal religion, with 80% percent being Christians. Protestant denominations make up the majority of the Christians in the ethnicities.

Religion Non-Hispanic
White (62%) 		Black (13%) Hispanic (17%) Other/mixed (8%)
Christian 70% 79% 77% 49%
Protestant 48% 71% 26% 33%
Catholic 19% 5% 48% 13%
Mormon 2% <0.5% 1% 1%
Jehovah's Witness <0.5% 2% 1% 1%
Orthodox 1% <0.5% <0.5% 1%
Other <0.5% 1% <0.5% 1%
Non-Christian faiths 5% 3% 2% 21%
Jewish 3% <0.5% 1% 1%
Muslim <0.5% 2% <0.5% 3%
Buddhist <0.5% <0.5% 1% 4%
Hindu <0.5% <0.5% <0.5% 8%
Other world religions <0.5% <0.5% <0.5% 2%
Other faiths 2% 1% 1% 2%
Unaffiliated (including atheist and agnostic) 24% 18% 20% 29%

ARIS findings regarding self-identification

The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2008, was a random digit-dialed telephone survey of 54,461 American residential households in the contiguous United States. The 1990 sample size was 113,723; 2001 sample size was 50,281.

Adult respondents were asked the open-ended question, "What is your religion, if any?" Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers. The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked. If the initial answer was "Protestant" or "Christian" further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination. About one third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions.

Religious Self-Identification of the U.S. Adult Population: 1990, 2001, 2008[108]
Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply; investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of "no religion" than any other group.

Source: ARIS 2008[108]
Group
 1990
adults
x 1,000
 2001
adults
x 1,000
 2008
adults
x 1,000
Numerical
Change
1990–
2008
as %
of 1990
 1990
% of
adults
 2001
% of
adults
 2008
% of
adults
 change
in % of
total
adults
1990–
2008
Adult population, total 175,440 207,983 228,182 30.1%
Adult population, responded 171,409 196,683 216,367 26.2% 97.7% 94.6% 94.8% −2.9%
Total Christian 151,225 159,514 173,402 14.7% 86.2% 76.7% 76.0% −10.2%
Catholic 46,004 50,873 57,199 24.3% 26.2% 24.5% 25.1% −1.2%
non-Catholic Christian 105,221 108,641 116,203 10.4% 60.0% 52.2% 50.9% −9.0%
Baptist 33,964 33,820 36,148 6.4% 19.4% 16.3% 15.8% −3.5%
Mainline Christian 32,784 35,788 29,375 −10.4% 18.7% 17.2% 12.9% −5.8%
Methodist 14,174 14,039 11,366 −19.8% 8.1% 6.8% 5.0% −3.1%
Lutheran 9,110 9,580 8,674 −4.8% 5.2% 4.6% 3.8% −1.4%
Presbyterian 4,985 5,596 4,723 −5.3% 2.8% 2.7% 2.1% −0.8%
Episcopal/Anglican 3,043 3,451 2,405 −21.0% 1.7% 1.7% 1.1% −0.7%
United Church of Christ 438 1,378 736 68.0% 0.2% 0.7% 0.3% 0.1%
Christian Generic 25,980 22,546 32,441 24.9% 14.8% 10.8% 14.2% −0.6%
Christian Unspecified 8,073 14,190 16,384 102.9% 4.6% 6.8% 7.2% 2.6%
Non-denominational Christian 194 2,489 8,032 4040.2% 0.1% 1.2% 3.5% 3.4%
Protestant – Unspecified 17,214 4,647 5,187 −69.9% 9.8% 2.2% 2.3% −7.5%
Evangelical/Born Again 546 1,088 2,154 294.5% 0.3% 0.5% 0.9% 0.6%
Pentecostal/Charismatic 5,647 7,831 7,948 40.7% 3.2% 3.8% 3.5% 0.3%
Pentecostal – Unspecified 3,116 4,407 5,416 73.8% 1.8% 2.1% 2.4% 0.6%
Assemblies of God 617 1,105 810 31.3% 0.4% 0.5% 0.4% 0.0%
Church of God 590 943 663 12.4% 0.3% 0.5% 0.3% 0.0%
Other Protestant Denominations 4,630 5,949 7,131 54.0% 2.6% 2.9% 3.1% 0.5%
Churches of Christ 1,769 2,593 1,921 8.6% 1.0% 1.2% 0.8% −0.2%
Jehovah's Witness 1,381 1,331 1,914 38.6% 0.8% 0.6% 0.8% 0.1%
Seventh-Day Adventist 668 724 938 40.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.0%
Mormon/Latter Day Saints 2,487 2,697 3,158 27.0% 1.4% 1.3% 1.4% 0.0%
Total non-Christian religions 5,853 7,740 8,796 50.3% 3.3% 3.7% 3.9% 0.5%
Jewish 3,137 2,837 2,680 −14.6% 1.8% 1.4% 1.2% −0.6%
Eastern Religions 687 2,020 1,961 185.4% 0.4% 1.0% 0.9% 0.5%
Buddhist 404 1,082 1,189 194.3% 0.2% 0.5% 0.5% 0.3%
Muslim 527 1,104 1,349 156.0% 0.3% 0.5% 0.6% 0.3%
New Religious Movements & Others 1,296 1,770 2,804 116.4% 0.7% 0.9% 1.2% 0.5%
None/No religion, total 14,331 29,481 34,169 138.4% 8.2% 14.2% 15.0% 6.8%
Agnostic+Atheist 1,186 1,893 3,606 204.0% 0.7% 0.9% 1.6% 0.9%
Did Not Know/Refused to reply 4,031 11,300 11,815 193.1% 2.3% 5.4% 5.2% 2.9%

Self-identified religiosity (2023 The Wall Street Journal-NORC poll)[247]

  Very religious (17%)
  Moderately religious (31%)
  Slightly religious (23%)
  Not religious at all (29%)

Highlights:[108]

  1. The ARIS 2008 survey was carried out during February–November 2008 and collected answers from 54,461 respondents who were questioned in English or Spanish.
  2. The American population self-identifies as predominantly Christian, but Americans are slowly becoming less Christian.
    • 86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008.
    • The historic mainline churches and denominations have experienced the steepest declines, while the non-denominational Christian identity has been trending upward, particularly since 2001.
    • The challenge to Christianity in the U.S. does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of organized religion.
  3. 34% of American adults considered themselves "Born Again or Evangelical Christians" in 2008.
  4. The U.S. population continues to show signs of becoming less religious, with one out of every seven Americans failing to indicate a religious identity in 2008.
    • The "Nones" (no stated religious preference, atheist, or agnostic) continue to grow, though at a much slower pace than in the 1990s, from 8.2% in 1990, to 14.1% in 2001, to 15.0% in 2008.
    • Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
  5. One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27% do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
  6. Based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification in 2008, 70% of Americans believe in a personal God, roughly 12% of Americans are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unknowable or unsure), and another 12% are deistic (a higher power but no personal God).
  7. America's religious geography has been transformed since 1990. Religious switching along with Hispanic immigration has significantly changed the religious profile of some states and regions. Between 1990 and 2008, the Catholic population proportion of the New England states fell from 50% to 36% and in New York fell from 44% to 37%, while it rose in California from 29% to 37% and in Texas from 23% to 32%.
  8. Overall the 1990–2008 ARIS time series shows that changes in religious self-identification in the first decade of the 21st century have been moderate in comparison to the 1990s, which was a period of significant shifts in the religious composition of the United States.

Attendance

 
Church, synagogue, or mosque attendance by state (2014)
  ≥50% attending weekly
  45-49% attending weekly
  40-44% attending weekly
  35-39% attending weekly
  30-34% attending weekly
  25-29% attending weekly
  20-24% attending weekly
  15-19% attending weekly

Gallup survey data found that 73% of Americans were members of a church, synagogue or mosque in 1937, peaking at 76% shortly after World War II, before trending slightly downward to 70% by 2000. The percentage declined steadily during the first two decades of the 21st century, reaching 47% in 2020. Gallup attributed the decline to increasing numbers of Americans expressing no religious preference.[248][249]

A 2013 Public Religion Research Institute survey reported that 31% of Americans attend religious services at least weekly.[250]

In a 2009 Gallup survey, 41.6%[251] of American residents stated that they attended a church, synagogue, or mosque once a week or almost every week. This percentage is higher than other surveyed Western countries.[252][253] Church attendance varies considerably by state and region. The figures, updated to 2014, ranged from 51% in Utah to 17% in Vermont.

When it comes to mosque attendance specifically, data collected by a 2017 poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) shows that American Muslim women and men attend the mosque at similar rates (45% for men and 35% for women).[130] Additionally, when compared to the general public looking at the attendance of religious services, young Muslim Americans attend the mosque at closer rates to older Muslim Americans. Muslim Americans who regularly attend mosques are more likely to work with their neighbors to solve community problems (49 vs. 30 percent), be registered to vote (74 vs. 49 percent), and plan to vote (92 vs. 81 percent). Overall, "there is no correlation between Muslim attitudes toward violence and their frequency of mosque attendance".[130]

Religion and politics

Main article: Religion and politics in the United States
See also: Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States and Religious affiliation in the United States Senate
 
The U.S. guarantees freedom of religion, and some churches in the U.S. take strong stances on political subjects.

In August 2010, 67% of Americans said religion was losing influence, compared with 59% who said this in 2006. Majorities of white evangelical Protestants (79%), white mainline Protestants (67%), black Protestants (56%), Catholics (71%), and the religiously unaffiliated (62%) all agreed that religion was losing influence on American life; 53% of the total public said this was a bad thing, while just 10% see it as a good thing.[254]

Politicians frequently discuss their religion when campaigning, and fundamentalists and black Protestants are highly politically active. However, to keep their status as tax-exempt organizations they must not officially endorse a candidate. Historically Catholics were heavily Democratic before the 1970s, while mainline Protestants comprised the core of the Republican Party. Those patterns have faded away—Catholics, for example, now split about 50–50. However, white evangelicals since 1980 have made up a solidly Republican group that favors conservative candidates. Secular voters are increasingly Democratic.[255]

Only four presidential candidates for major parties have been Catholics, all for the Democratic party:

  • Alfred E. Smith in presidential election of 1928 was subjected to anti-Catholic rhetoric, which seriously hurt him in the Baptist areas of the South and Lutheran areas of the Midwest, but he did well in the Catholic urban strongholds of the Northeast.
  • John F. Kennedy secured the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960. In the 1960 election, Kennedy faced accusations that as a Catholic president he would do as the Pope would tell him to do, a charge that Kennedy refuted in a famous address to Protestant ministers.
  • John Kerry, a Catholic, won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004. In the 2004 election religion was hardly an issue, and most Catholics voted for his Protestant opponent George W. Bush.[256]
  • Joe Biden, a Catholic, won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, and then won the 2020 presidential election, becoming the second Catholic president, after John F. Kennedy.[257] Biden was also the first Catholic vice president.[258]

Joe Lieberman was the first major presidential candidate that was Jewish, on the Gore–Lieberman campaign of 2000 (although John Kerry and Barry Goldwater both had Jewish ancestry, they were practicing Christians). Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary of 2016. He was the first major Jewish candidate to compete in the presidential primary process. However, Sanders noted during the campaign that he does not actively practice any religion.[259]

In 2006 Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the first Muslim elected to Congress; when re-enacting his swearing-in for photos, he used the copy of the Qur'an once owned by Thomas Jefferson.[260] André Carson is the second Muslim to serve in Congress.

A Gallup poll released in 2007[261] indicated that 53% of Americans would refuse to vote for an atheist as president, up from 48% in 1987 and 1999. But then the number started to drop again and reached record low 43% in 2012 and 40% in 2015.[262][263]

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, is Mormon and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is the former governor of the state of Massachusetts, and his father George Romney was the governor of the state of Michigan.

On January 3, 2013, Tulsi Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress, using a copy of the Bhagavad Gita while swearing-in.[264]

By age

Self-identified religious affiliation among 18-29 year olds (Spring 2023 Harvard Youth Poll)[265]

  Unaffiliated (33%)
  Catholicism (19%)
  Evangelical Christian (14%)
  Mainline Protestant (8%)
  LDS/Mormon (2%)
  Judaism (2%)
  Muslim (2%)
  Other religion (7%)
  Not sure (6%)
  Decline to answer/Refuse (7%)

Theism, religion, morality, and politics

Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center has routinely conducted surveys surrounding theism, religion, and morality since 2002, asking:[266]

Which of the following statements comes closest to your opinion?

And whether they feel like:[266]

[Option #1:] It is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.

Or:

[Option #2:] It is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values.

Online survey trends: Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person?[266]

Polling Date Necessary Not necessary Unsure/Refused/Other
Spring 2022 34 65 1
January 2020 35 65 1
September 2019 36 63 1
December 2017 33 66 >0
July 2014 44 55 1

Telephone trends: Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person?[266]

Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person? Necessary Not necessary Don't Know/Unsure/other
Spring 2019 44 54 2
Spring 2011 53 46 2
Spring 2007 57 41 2
Summer 2002 58 40 2

YouGov America

Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person?[267]

Survey Polling Date Necessary Not Necessary Don't Know/Unsure/Other
November 17–21, 2022 32 53 15

Effect of churches and religious organizations on morality:[267]

Survey Polling Date Strengthen morality in society Don't make much difference to morality in society Don't Know Weaken morality in society
November 17–21, 2022 47 26 14 13

See also

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Bibliography

The following list of selected printed bibliographies on the topic includes both cited works and further reading.

  • Ahlstrom, Sydney E. (2004) [1972]. A Religious History of the American People (2nd ed.). New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-30010-012-4.
  • Alba, Richard; Raboteau, Albert; DeWind, Josh, eds. (2008). Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814705049. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
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February 15, 2024
religion, united, states, this, article, need, rewritten, comply, with, wikipedia, quality, standards, this, article, lacks, clear, structure, jumping, from, topic, another, without, clear, transitions, there, also, excessive, number, tables, charts, tables, t. This article may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia s quality standards as this article lacks clear structure jumping from one topic to another without clear transitions There are also an excessive number of tables charts and tables that could be consolidated removed You can help The talk page may contain suggestions February 2024 Religion in the United States is widespread diverse and vibrant with the country being far more religious than other wealthy Western nations 2 An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power 3 engage in spiritual practices 4 and consider themselves religious or spiritual 5 6 Christianity is the most widely professed religion with most Americans being Evangelicals Mainline Protestants or Catholics 7 8 Religious affiliation in the United States per Gallup Inc 2022 1 Protestantism 34 Catholicism 23 Non specific Christian 11 Mormonism 2 Judaism 2 Other religions 6 Unaffiliated with organized forms of religion 21 No answer 1 Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution Many scholars of religion credit this and the country s separation of church and state for its high level of religiousness 9 lacking a state church it completely avoided the experiences of religious warfare and conflict that characterized European modernization 10 Its history of religion has always been marked by religious pluralism and diversity 11 12 In colonial times Anglicans Quakers and other mainline Protestants as well as Mennonites arrived from Northwestern Europe Various dissenting Protestants who had left the Church of England greatly diversified the religious landscape The religiosity of the country has grown greatly over time 13 Religious involvement among American citizens has gradually grown from 17 in 1776 to 62 in 2000 14 The Thirteen Colonies were initially marked by low levels of religiosity 13 15 The two Great Awakenings the first in the 1730s and 1740s the second between the 1790s and 1840s led to an immense rise in observance and gave birth to many evangelical Protestant denominations When they began one in ten Americans were members of congregations by the time they ended eight in ten were 13 The aftermath led to what historian Martin Marty calls the Evangelical Empire a period in which evangelicals dominated U S cultural institutions They supported measures to abolish slavery further women s rights enact prohibition and reform education and criminal justice 16 The Episcopal Church splitting from the Church of England came into being in the American Revolution New Protestant branches like Adventism emerged Restorationists like the Jehovah s Witnesses the Latter Day Saint movement Churches of Christ and Church of Christ Scientist as well as Unitarian and Universalist communities all spread in the 19th century Deism also found support among American upper classes and intellectual thinkers During the immigrant waves of the mid to late 19th and 20th century an unprecedented number of Catholic and Jewish immigrants arrived in the United States Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century as a result of the Azusa Street Revival Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merge of Unitarian and Universalist churches in the 20th century The U S has the largest Christian and Protestant population in the world 17 75 of Americans report praying often or sometimes and religion plays a very 46 or fairly 26 important role in their lives 18 Judaism is the second largest religion in the U S practiced by 2 of the population followed by Hinduism Buddhism and Islam each with 1 of the population 19 Mississippi is the most religious state in the country with 63 of its adult population described as very religious saying that religion is important to them and attending religious services almost every week while New Hampshire with only 20 of its adult population described as very religious is the least religious state 20 Congress overwhelmingly identifies as religious and Christian both the Republican and Democratic parties generally nominate those who are 21 22 The Christian left as seen through figures such as Martin Luther King Jr Jimmy Carter and William Jennings Bryan along with many figures within the Christian right have played a profound role in the country s politics Contents 1 History 2 Freedom of religion 3 Measuring religion 3 1 Census and independent polling 3 1 1 Inaccuracies of independent polling 4 Christianity 4 1 Protestant denominations 4 2 Great Awakenings and other Protestant descendants 4 3 Catholicism 4 4 Orthodox Christianity 4 5 Demographics of various Christian groups 5 Other Abrahamic religions 5 1 Judaism 5 2 Islam 5 3 Baha i Faith 5 4 Rastafari 5 5 Druze faith 6 Asian religions 6 1 Hinduism 6 2 Buddhism 6 3 Jainism 6 4 Sikhism 6 5 Taoism 7 Other religions 7 1 Native American religions 7 2 Neopaganism 7 2 1 Druidry 7 2 2 Wicca 7 3 New Thought Movement 7 4 Unitarian Universalism 8 No religion 8 1 Agnosticism atheism and humanism 8 1 1 Belief in the existence of a god 8 2 Spiritual but not religious 9 Major U S origin movements 9 1 Christian 9 2 Other 10 Statistics 10 1 Historical trends 10 2 Change in religious identification 1950 2020 10 3 The Association of Religion Data Archives 1900 2050 10 4 Public Religion Research Institute data 2020 10 5 2014 Pew Research Center data 10 6 2010 ASARB data 10 7 Ethnicity 10 8 ARIS findings regarding self identification 10 9 Attendance 11 Religion and politics 12 By age 13 Theism religion morality and politics 13 1 Pew Research Center 13 2 YouGov America 13 2 1 Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person 267 13 2 2 Effect of churches and religious organizations on morality 267 14 See also 15 References 16 Bibliography 17 External linksHistoryMain article History of religion in the United States nbsp Pilgrims Going to Church by George Henry Boughton 1867 Ever since its early colonial days when some Protestant dissenter English and German settlers moved in search of religious freedom America has been profoundly influenced by religion 23 Throughout its history religious involvement among American citizens has grown since 1776 from 17 of the US population to 62 in 2000 14 Approximately 35 40 percent of Americans regularly attended religious services from eighteenth century colonial America up to 1940 9 That influence continues in American culture social life and politics 24 Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion within a community of like minded people the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans Congregationalists Pennsylvania by British Quakers Maryland by English Catholics and Virginia by English Anglicans Despite these and as a result of intervening religious strife and preference in England 25 the Plantation Act 1740 would set official policy for new immigrants coming to British America until the American Revolution While most settlers and colonists during this time were Protestant a few early Catholic and Jewish settlers also arrived from Northwestern Europe into the colonies however their numbers were very slight compared to the Protestant majority Even in the Catholic Proprietary or colony of Maryland the vast majority of Maryland colonists were Protestant by 1670 26 The text of the First Amendment in the U S Constitution states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances 27 It guarantees the free exercise of religion while also preventing the government from establishing a state religion However the states were not bound by the provision and as late as the 1830s Massachusetts provided tax money to local Congregational churches 28 Since the 1940s the Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as applying the First Amendment to state and local governments citation needed President John Adams and a unanimous Senate endorsed the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797 that stated the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion 29 Expert researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a Protestant nation or founded on Protestant principles 30 31 32 33 specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage 34 35 The modern official motto of the United States of America as established in a 1956 law signed by President Dwight D Eisenhower is In God We Trust 36 37 38 The phrase first appeared on U S coins in 1864 37 According to a 2002 survey by the Pew Research Center nearly 6 in 10 Americans said that religion plays an important role in their lives compared to 33 in Great Britain 27 in Italy 21 in Germany 12 in Japan and 11 in France The survey report stated that the results showed America having a greater similarity to developing nations where higher percentages say that religion plays an important role than to other wealthy nations where religion plays a minor role 2 In 1963 90 of U S adults claimed to be Christians while only 2 professed no religious identity citation needed In 2016 73 7 identified as Christians while 18 2 claimed no religious affiliation 39 Pew Research Center surveys conclude that the religiously unaffiliated share of the population consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist agnostic or nothing in particular now stands at 26 up from 17 in 2009 and that both Protestantism and Catholicism are experiencing losses of population share 40 41 Many of the unaffiliated retain religious beliefs or practices without affiliating 42 43 44 There have been variant explanations for secularization including lack of trust in the labor market with government in marriage and in other aspects of life 45 backlash against the religious right in the 1980s 46 and sexual abuse scandals particularly those within the Southern Baptist Convention 47 and Catholic Church 48 However according to some sociologists perceptions of religious decline are a popular misconception 49 They state that surveys showing so suffer from methodological deficiencies that Americans are becoming more religious and that Atheists and Agnostics make up a small and stable percentage of the population 50 51 Religious belief and interest has remained relatively stable in recent years organizational participation in contrast has decreased 52 Freedom of religion nbsp The Maryland Toleration Act secured religious liberty in the English colony of Maryland Similar laws were passed in the Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Connecticut and Pennsylvania These laws stood in direct contrast with the Puritan theocratic rule in the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies 53 According to Noah Feldman the United States federal government was the first government to be designed with no established religion at all dubious discuss 54 However some states established religions until the 1830s Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise thus protecting any religious organization institution or denomination from government interference The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them 55 Measuring religionCensus and independent polling Since the first American census in 1790 census forms have never asked the religion of participants with Vincent P Barabba former head of the United States Census Bureau stating in April 1976 that asking such a question in the decennial census in which replies are mandatory would appear to infringe upon the traditional separation of church and state and could affect public cooperation in the census Data on religious affiliation comes from independent pollsters 56 by the Pew Research Center and other agencies or on membership from religious associations such the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches of the National Council of Churches Inaccuracies of independent polling Independent polling results on religion are generally questionable due to numerous factors 57 polls consistently fail to predict political election outcomes signifying consistent failure to capture the actual views of the population very low response rates for all polls since the 1990s biases in wording or topic affect how people respond to polls polls categorize people based on limited choices polls often generalize broadly polls have shallow or superficial choices which complicate capturing complexity of religious beliefs and practices poll interviewer and respondent fatigue is very commonResearchers note that an estimated 20 40 of the population changes their self reported religious affiliation identity over time due to numerous factors and that usually it is their answers on surveys that change not necessarily their religious practices or beliefs 49 Researchers advise caution when looking at the Nones demographics on surveys because different surveys systematically have discrepancies that amount to 8 and growing of estimates part of it being that the respondents on surveys are not consistent and also the questions asked are worded differently generating consistent discrepancies in responses 58 According to Gallup there are variations on the responses based on how they ask questions They routinely ask on complex things like belief in God since the early 2000s in 3 different wordings and they constantly receive 3 different percentages in responses 59 ChristianityMain article Christianity in the United States The most popular religion in the U S is Christianity comprising the majority of the population 73 7 of adults in 2016 with the majority of American Christians belonging to a Protestant denomination or a Protestant offshoot such as Mormonism or the Jehovah s Witnesses 60 According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017 based on data from 2010 Christians were the largest religious population in all 3 143 counties in the country 61 Roughly 48 9 of Americans are Protestants 23 0 are Catholics 1 8 are Mormons members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints 60 Christianity was introduced during the period of European colonization The United States has the world s largest Christian population 17 62 According to membership statistics from current reports and official web sites the five largest Christian denominations are The Catholic Church in the United States 71 000 000 members 63 The Southern Baptist Convention 13 680 493 members 64 The National Baptist Convention USA Inc 8 415 100 members 65 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints 6 920 086 members 66 The United Methodist Church 5 714 815 members 67 The Southern Baptist Convention with over 13 million adherents is the largest of more than 200 68 distinctly named Protestant denominations 69 In 2007 members of evangelical churches comprised 26 of the American population while another 18 belonged to mainline Protestant churches and 7 belonged to historically black churches 70 A 2015 study estimates some 450 000 Christian believers from a Muslim background in the country most of them belonging to some form of Protestantism 71 In 2010 there were approximately 180 000 Arab Americans and about 130 000 Iranian Americans who converted from Islam to Christianity Dudley Woodbury a Fulbright scholar of Islam estimates that 20 000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the United States 72 Protestant denominations Main article Protestantism in the United States nbsp A Congregational church in Cheshire ConnecticutBeginning around 1600 Northwestern European settlers introduced the Anglican and Puritan religion as well as Baptist Presbyterian Lutheran Quaker and Moravian denominations 73 Historians agree that members of mainline Protestant denominations have played leadership roles in many aspects of American life including politics business science the arts and education They founded most of the country s leading institutes of higher education 74 According to Harriet Zuckerman 72 of American Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 1972 have identified from Protestant background 75 Episcopalians 76 and Presbyterians 77 tend to be considerably wealthier and better educated than most other religious groups and numbers of the most wealthy and affluent American families as the Vanderbilts 76 and Astors 76 Rockefeller 78 79 Du Pont 79 Roosevelt Forbes Fords 79 Whitneys 76 Morgans 76 and Harrimans are Mainline Protestant families 76 though those affiliated with Judaism are the wealthiest religious group in the United States 80 81 and those affiliated with Catholicism owing to sheer size have one of the largest number of adherents of all groups in the top income bracket if each Protestant denomination is divided into separate groups though the overall percentage of Catholics in high income brackets is far lower than the percentage of any Mainline Protestant group in high income brackets and the percentage of Catholics in high income brackets is comparable to the percentage of general Americans in high income brackets 82 Some of the first colleges and universities in America including Harvard 83 Yale 84 Princeton 85 Columbia 86 Dartmouth 87 Pennsylvania 88 89 Duke 90 Boston 91 Williams Bowdoin Middlebury 92 and Amherst all were founded by mainline Protestant denominations By the 1920s most had weakened or dropped their formal connection with a denomination James Hunter argues The private schools and colleges established by the mainline Protestant denominations as a rule still want to be known as places that foster values but few will go so far as to identify those values as Christian Overall the distinctiveness of mainline Protestant identity has largely dissolved since the 1960s 93 Great Awakenings and other Protestant descendants Several Christian groups were founded in America during the Great Awakenings Interdenominational evangelicalism and Pentecostalism emerged new Protestant denominations such as Adventism non denominational movements such as the Restoration Movement which over time separated into the Churches of Christ the Christian churches and churches of Christ and the Christian Church Disciples of Christ Jehovah s Witnesses called Bible Students in the latter part of the 19th century and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints Mormonism Catholicism Main article Roman Catholicism in the United States nbsp The Founding of Maryland 1634 depicts Father Andrew White a Jesuit missionary in the left and colonists meeting the people of the Yaocomico branch of the Piscatawy Indian Nation in St Mary s City Maryland the site of Maryland s first colonial settlement 94 While the Puritans were securing their Commonwealth members of the Catholic church in England were also planning a refuge for they too were being persecuted on account of their religion 95 Among those interested in providing a refuge for Catholics was the second Lord of Baltimore George Calvert who established Maryland a Catholic Proprietary in 1634 95 more than sixty years after the founding of the Spanish Florida mission of St Augustine 96 The first US Catholic university Georgetown University was founded in 1789 Though small in number in the beginning Catholicism grew over the centuries to become the largest single denomination in the US primarily through immigration but also through the acquisition of continental territories under the jurisdiction of French and Spanish Catholic powers 97 Though the European Catholic and indigenous population of these former territories were small 98 the material cultures there the original mission foundations with their canonical Catholic names are still recognized today as they were formerly known in any number of cities in California New Mexico and Louisiana The most recognizable cities of California for example are named after Catholic saints nbsp The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D C is the largest Catholic church in the US While Catholic Americans were present in small numbers early in United States history both in Maryland and in the former French and Spanish colonies that were eventually absorbed into the United States the vast majority of Catholics in the United States today derive from unprecedented waves of immigration from primarily Catholic countries and regions Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom until 1921 and German unification didn t officially occur until 1871 99 during the mid to late 19th and 20th century Irish Hispanic Italian Portuguese French Canadian Polish German 100 and Lebanese Maronite immigrants largely contributed to the growth in the number of Catholics in the United States Irish and German Catholics by far provided the greatest number of Catholic immigrants before 1900 From 1815 until the close of the Civil War in 1865 1 683 791 Irish Catholics immigrated to the US The German states followed providing the second largest immigration of Catholics clergy and lay some 606 791 in the period 1815 1865 and another 680 000 between 1865 and 1900 while the Irish immigration in the latter period amounted to only 520 000 101 Of the four major national groups of clergy early and mid 19th century Irish German Anglo American and French the French emigre priests may be said to have been the outstanding men intellectually 102 As the number of Catholics increased in the late 19th and 20th century they built up a vast system of schools from primary schools to universities and hospitals Since then the Catholic Church has founded hundreds of other colleges and universities along with thousands of primary and secondary schools Schools like the University of Notre Dame is ranked best in its state Indiana as Georgetown University is ranked best in the District of Columbia 12 which Catholic universities are also ranked among the top 100 universities in the US 103 Orthodox Christianity Eastern Orthodox Christianity was present in North America since the Russian colonization of Alaska however Alaska would not become a United States territory until 1867 and most Eastern Orthodox Russian settlers in Alaska returned to Russia after the American acquisition of the Alaskan territory However the native converts and a few priests remained behind and Alaska still is represented clarification needed Most Eastern Orthodox Christians arrived in the contiguous United States as immigrants beginning in the late 19th century and throughout the 20th century During the 19th century two main branches of Eastern Christianity also arrived to America Eastern Orthodoxy was brought to America by Greek Ukrainian Serbian and other immigrant groups mainly from Eastern Europe In the same time several immigrant groups from the Middle East mainly Armenians Copts and Syriacs brought Oriental Orthodoxy to America 104 105 Demographics of various Christian groups The strength of various sects varies greatly in different regions of the country with rural parts of the South having many evangelicals but very few Catholics except Louisiana and the Gulf Coast and from among the Hispanic community both of which consist mainly of Catholics while urbanized areas of the north Atlantic states and Great Lakes as well as many industrial and mining towns are heavily Catholic though still quite mixed especially due to the heavily Protestant African American communities In 1990 nearly 72 of the population of Utah was Mormon as well as 26 of neighboring Idaho 106 Lutheranism is most prominent in the Upper Midwest with North Dakota having the highest percentage of Lutherans 35 according to a 2001 survey 107 The largest religion Christianity has proportionately diminished since 1990 While the absolute number of Christians rose from 1990 to 2008 the percentage of Christians dropped from 86 to 76 108 A nationwide telephone interview of 1 002 adults conducted by The Barna Group found that 70 of American adults believe that God is the all powerful all knowing creator of the universe who still rules it today and that 9 of all American adults and 0 5 young adults hold to what the survey defined as a biblical worldview 109 Episcopalian Presbyterian Eastern Orthodox and United Church of Christ members 110 have the highest number of graduate and post graduate degrees per capita of all Christian denominations in the United States 111 112 as well as the most high income earners 113 114 However owing to the sheer size or demographic head count of Catholics more individual Catholics have graduate degrees and are in the highest income brackets than have or are individuals of any other religious community 115 Other Abrahamic religionsJudaism Main articles American Jews and History of the Jews in the United States After Christianity Judaism is the next largest religious affiliation in the US though this identification is not necessarily indicative of religious beliefs or practices 108 The Jewish population in the United States is approximately 6 million 116 117 A significant number of people identify themselves as American Jews on ethnic and cultural grounds rather than religious ones For example 19 of self identified American Jews do not believe God exists 118 The 2001 ARIS study projected from its sample that there are about 5 3 million adults in the American Jewish population 2 83 million adults 1 4 of the U S adult population are estimated to be adherents of Judaism 1 08 million are estimated to be adherents of no religion and 1 36 million are estimated to be adherents of a religion other than Judaism 119 ARIS 2008 estimated about 2 68 million adults 1 2 in the country identify Judaism as their faith 108 According to a 2017 study Judaism is the religion of approximately 2 of the American population 39 According to a 2020 study by the Pew Research Center the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7 5 million people this includes 5 8 million Jewish adults 120 According to study by Steinhardt Social Research Institute as of 2020 the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7 6 million people this includes 4 9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish 1 2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion and 1 6 million Jewish children 121 nbsp Touro Synagogue built 1759 in Newport Rhode Island has the oldest still existing synagogue building in the United States Jews have been present in what is now the US since the 17th century and specifically allowed since the British colonial Plantation Act 1740 Although small Western European communities initially developed and grew large scale immigration did not take place until the late 19th century largely as a result of persecutions in parts of Eastern Europe The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe There are however small numbers of older and some recently arrived communities of Sephardi Jews with roots tracing back to 15th century Iberia Spain Portugal and North Africa There are also Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East Caucasia and Central Asia as well as much smaller numbers of Ethiopian Jews Indian Jews and others from various smaller Jewish ethnic divisions Approximately 25 of the Jewish American population lives in New York City 122 According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017 based on data from 2010 Jews were the largest minority religion in 231 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country 61 According to a 2014 survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life 1 7 of adults in the U S identify Judaism as their religion Among those surveyed 44 said they were Reform Jews 22 said they were Conservative Jews and 14 said they were Orthodox Jews 123 124 According to the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey 38 of Jews were affiliated with the Reform tradition 35 were Conservative 6 were Orthodox 1 were Reconstructionists 10 linked themselves to some other tradition and 10 said they are just Jewish 125 This way the American Jews majority continue to identify themselves with Jewish main traditions such as Conservative Orthodox and Reform Judaism 126 127 But already in the 1980s 20 30 percent of members of largest Jewish communities such as of New York City Chicago Miami and others rejected a denominational label 126 According to the 2001 National Jewish Population Survey 4 3 million American Jewish adults have some sort of strong connection to the Jewish community whether religious or cultural 128 Jewishness is generally considered an ethnic identity as well as a religious one Among the 4 3 million American Jews described as strongly connected to Judaism over 80 have some sort of active engagement with Judaism ranging from attendance at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum to attending Passover Seders or lighting Hanukkah candles on the other The survey also discovered that Jews in the Northeast and Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the South or West The Jewish American community has higher household incomes than average and is one of the best educated religious communities in the United States 110 Islam Main article Islam in the United States nbsp The Islamic Center of Washington in the nation s capital is a leading American Islamic Center Islam is probably the third largest religion in numbers in the United States after Christianity and Judaism followed according to Gallup by 0 8 of the population in 2016 60 Hinduism and Buddhism follow it closely in numbers in 2014 the large scale Religious Life Survey found Islam with 0 9 and the other two with 0 7 each 110 According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published in March 2017 based on data from 2010 Muslims were the largest minority religion in 392 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country 61 According to the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding ISPU in 2018 there are approximately 3 45 million Muslims living in the United States with 2 05 million adults and the rest being children 129 Across faith groups ISPU found in 2017 that Muslims were most likely to be born outside of the US 50 with 36 having undergone naturalization American Muslims are also America s most diverse religious community with 25 identifying as black or African American 24 identifying as white 18 identifying as Asian Chinese Japanese 18 identifying as Arab and 5 identifying as Hispanic 130 In addition to diversity Americans Muslims are most likely to report being low income and among those who identify as middle class the majority are Muslim women not men Although American Muslim education levels are similar to other religious communities namely Christians within the Muslim American population Muslim women surpass Muslim men in education with 31 of Muslim women having graduated from a four year university 90 of Muslim Americans identify as straight 130 Islam in America effectively began with the arrival of African slaves It is estimated that about 10 of African slaves transported to the United States were Muslim 131 Most however became Christians and the United States did not have a significant Muslim population until the arrival of immigrants from Arab and East Asian Muslim areas 132 According to some experts 133 Islam later gained a higher profile through the Nation of Islam a religious group that appealed to black Americans after the 1940s its prominent converts included Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali 134 135 The first Muslim elected to Congress was Keith Ellison in 2006 136 followed by Andre Carson in 2008 137 Out of all religious groups surveyed by ISPU Muslims were found to be the most likely to report experiences of religious discrimination 61 That can also be broken down when looking at gender with Muslim women more likely than Muslim men to experience racial discrimination age with young people more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination than older people and race with Arab Muslims the most likely to report experiencing religious discrimination Muslims born in the United States are more likely to experience all three forms of discrimination gender religious and racial 130 Research indicates that Muslims in the United States are generally more assimilated and prosperous than their counterparts in Europe 138 139 140 Like other subcultural and religious communities the Islamic community has generated its own political organizations and charity organizations ISPU also conducted a series of impact reports on Muslim Americans in both Michigan and New York City 129 22 3 of Muslims live in New York City the home of more mosques 285 total than any other American city Though just shy of 9 of the NYC population Muslims make up over 12 of the city s pharmacists lab technicians and over 9 of all doctors They make up 11 3 of all engineers and are engaged at every level of civic life in the city from senior adviser to the city government to directing outreach at the city council level Nearly 10 000 NYC teachers are Muslim Baha i Faith Main article Baha i Faith in the United States nbsp Baha i House of Worship built 1953 in Wilmette Illinois is the oldest still existing Baha i house of worship in the world and the only one in the United States The Bahaʼi Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago 141 Soon after early American converts began embracing the new religion Thornton Chase was the first American Bahaʼi dating from 1894 142 One of the first Bahaʼi institutions in the U S was established in Chicago to facilitate the establishment of the first Bahaʼi House of Worship in the West which was eventually built in Wilmette Illinois and dedicated in 1953 143 Worldwide the religion has grown faster than the rate of population growth over the 20th century 144 and has been recognized since the 1980s as the most widespread minority religion in the countries of the world 145 Similarly by 2020 the religion was the largest minority religion in about half of the counties 146 Since about 1970 the state with the single largest Bahaʼi population was South Carolina 147 From 2010 data the largest populations of Bahaʼis at the county by county level are in Los Angeles CA Palm Beach FL Harris County TX and Cook County IL 148 However estimates of the total number of Bahaʼis varies widely from around 175 000 149 to 500 000 150 Rastafari Main article Rastafari movement in the United States Rastafarians began migrating to the United States in the 1950s 60s and 70s from the religion s 1930s birthplace Jamaica 151 152 Marcus Garvey who is considered a prophet by many Rastafarians rose to prominence and cultivated many of his ideas in the United States 153 154 Druze faith Druze began migrating to the United States in the late 1800s from the Levant Syria and Lebanon 155 Druze emigration to the Americas increased at the outset of the 20th century due to the famine during World War I that killed an estimated one third to one half of the population the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war and the Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990 155 The United States is the second largest home of Druze communities outside the Middle East after Venezuela 60 000 156 According to some estimates there are about 30 000 157 to 50 000 156 Druzes in the United States with the largest concentration in Southern California 157 American Druze are mostly of Lebanese and Syrian descent 157 Members of the Druze faith face the difficulty of finding a Druze partner and practicing endogamy marriage outside the Druze faith is strongly discouraged according to the Druze doctrine They also face the pressure of keeping the religion alive because many Druze immigrants to the United States converted to Protestantism becoming communicants of the Presbyterian or Methodist churches 158 159 Asian religionsHinduism Main article Hinduism in the United States nbsp Saiva Siddhanta Temple in Kauai Island in Hawaii is the only Hindu monastery in the North American continent Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the United States representing approximately 1 of the population in 2010s 39 160 In 2001 there were an estimated 766 000 Hindus in the US about 0 2 of the total population 161 162 The first time Hinduism entered the United States is not clearly identifiable However large groups of Hindus have immigrated from India Sri Lanka Nepal Pakistan Bangladesh Guyana Trinidad and Tobago other parts of the Caribbean southern Africa eastern Africa Singapore Malaysia Indonesia Mauritius Fiji Europe Australia New Zealand and other regions and countries since the enactment of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 During the 1960s and 1970s Hinduism exercised fascination contributing to the development of New Age thought During the same decades the International Society for Krishna Consciousness ISKCON a Vaishnavite Hindu reform organization was founded in the US by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada In 2003 the Hindu American Foundation a national institution protecting rights of the Hindu community of U S was founded According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017 based on data from 2010 Hindus were the largest minority religion in 92 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country 61 American Hindus have one of the highest rates of educational attainment and household income among all religious communities and tend to have lower divorce rates 110 Hindus also have higher acceptance towards homosexuality 71 which is higher than the general public 62 163 Buddhism Main article Buddhism in the United States nbsp Services at the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple Los Angeles around 1925Buddhism entered the US during the 19th century with the arrival of the first immigrants from East Asia The first Buddhist temple was established in San Francisco in 1853 by Chinese Americans The first prominent US citizen to publicly convert to Buddhism was Colonel Henry Steel Olcott in 1880 who is still honored in Sri Lanka for his Buddhist revival efforts An event that contributed to the strengthening of Buddhism in the United States was the Parliament of the World s Religions in 1893 which was attended by many Buddhist delegates sent from India China Japan Vietnam Thailand and Sri Lanka During the late 19th century Buddhist missionaries from Japan traveled to the US During the same time period US intellectuals started to take interest in Buddhism The early 20th century was characterized by a continuation of tendencies that had their roots in the 19th century The second half by contrast saw the emergence of new approaches and the move of Buddhism into the mainstream and making itself a mass and social religious phenomenon 164 165 According to a 2016 study Buddhists are approximately 1 of the American population 39 According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published March 2017 based on data from 2010 Buddhists were the largest minority religion in 186 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country 61 Jainism Main article Jainism in the United States Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s The United States has since become a center of the Jain Diaspora The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations to preserve practice and promote Jainism and the Jain way of life 166 Sikhism Main article Sikhism in the United States nbsp Front of the Stockton Sikh Temple circa 1915 This wooden structure was replaced with a new building in 1929 Sikhism is a religion originating from the Indian subcontinent which was introduced into the United States when around the turn of the 20th century Sikhs started emigrating to the United States in significant numbers to work on farms in California They were the first community to come from India to the US in large numbers 167 The first Sikh Gurdwara in America was built in Stockton California in 1912 168 In 2007 there were estimated to be between 250 000 and 500 000 Sikhs living in the United States with the largest populations living on the East and West Coasts with additional populations in Detroit Chicago and Austin 169 170 The United States also has a number of non Punjabi converts to Sikhism 171 Taoism Taoism was popularized throughout the world by the writings and teachings of Laozi and other Taoists as well as the practice of qigong tai chi and other Chinese martial arts 172 The first Taoists in the US were immigrants from China during the mid nineteenth century They settled mostly in California where the built the first Taoist temples in the country including the Tin How Temple in San Francisco s Chinatown and the Joss House in Weaverville Currently the Temple of Original Simplicity is located outside of Boston Massachusetts In 2004 there were an estimated 56 000 Taoists in the US 173 Other religionsMany other religions are represented in the United States including Shinto Caodaism Thelema Santeria Kemetism Neopaganism Zoroastrianism Vodou Druze and many forms of New Age spirituality as well as satirical religions such as Pastafarianism Native American religions Main article Native American religions nbsp Bear Butte in South Dakota is a sacred site for over 30 Plains tribes Native American religions historically exhibited much diversity and are often characterized by animism or panentheism 174 175 176 177 The membership of Native American religions in the 21st century comprises about 9 000 people 178 The Native American Church is a religious tradition involving the ceremonial and sacred use of Lophophora williamsii peyote 179 180 Neopaganism Main article Contemporary Paganism Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different movements and organizations The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca followed by Neo Druidism 181 182 Other neopagan movements include Germanic Neopaganism Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism and Semitic neopaganism Druidry According to the American Religious Identification Survey ARIS there are approximately 30 000 druids in the United States 183 Modern Druidism arrived in North America first in the form of fraternal Druidic organizations in the nineteenth century and orders such as the Ancient Order of Druids in America were founded as distinct American groups as early as 1912 In 1963 the Reformed Druids of North America RDNA was founded by students at Carleton College Northfield Minnesota They adopted elements of Neopaganism into their practices for instance celebrating the festivals of the Wheel of the Year 184 Wicca Wicca advanced in North America in the 1960s by Raymond Buckland an expatriate Briton who visited Gardner s Isle of Man coven to gain initiation 185 Universal Eclectic Wicca was popularized in 1969 for a diverse membership drawing from both Dianic and British Traditional Wiccan backgrounds 186 New Thought Movement Main article New Thought A group of churches which started in the 1830s in the United States is known under the banner of New Thought These churches share a spiritual metaphysical and mystical predisposition and understanding of the Bible and were strongly influenced by the Transcendentalist movement particularly the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson Another antecedent of this movement was Swedenborgianism founded on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg in 1787 187 The New Thought concept was named by Emma Curtis Hopkins teacher of teachers after Hopkins broke off from Mary Baker Eddy s Church of Christ Scientist The movement had been previously known as the Mental Sciences or the Christian Sciences The three major branches are Religious Science Unity Church and Divine Science Unitarian Universalism Main article Unitarian Universalism Unitarian Universalists UUs are among the most liberal of all religious denominations in America 188 The shared creed includes beliefs in inherent dignity a common search for truth respect for beliefs of others compassion and social action 189 They are unified by their shared search for spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual s theology is a result of that search and not obedience to an authoritarian requirement 190 UUs have historical ties to anti war civil rights and LGBT rights movements 191 as well as providing inclusive church services for the broad spectrum of liberal Christians liberal Jews secular humanists LGBT Jewish Christian parents and partners Earth centered Wicca and Buddhist meditation adherents 192 In fact many UUs also identify as belonging to another religious group including atheism and agnosticism 193 No religionMain article Irreligion in the United States In 2020 approximately 28 of Americans declared themselves to be not religiously affiliated 194 Agnosticism atheism and humanism See also Discrimination against atheists in the United States nbsp Atheism promoted on an electronic billboard in Times SquareA 2001 survey directed by Dr Ariela Keysar for the City University of New York indicated that amongst the more than 100 categories of response no religious identification had the greatest increase in population in both absolute and percentage terms This category included atheists agnostics humanists and others with no stated religious preferences Figures are up from 14 3 million in 1990 to 34 2 million in 2008 representing an increase from 8 of the total population in 1990 to 15 in 2008 108 A nationwide Pew Research study published in 2008 put the figure of unaffiliated persons at 16 1 162 while another Pew study published in 2012 was described as placing the proportion at about 20 overall and roughly 33 for the 18 29 year old demographic 195 It is unknown why the number of self identified nones are rising although it may relate to a general decline of trust in institutions 45 the September 11 attacks 196 rise of the religious right 197 and sexual abuse scandals particularly those within the Southern Baptist Convention 198 and Catholic Church 199 The majority of nones have religion like beliefs and believe in some conception of a higher power 42 In a 2006 nationwide poll University of Minnesota researchers found that despite an increasing acceptance of religious diversity atheists were generally distrusted by other Americans who trusted them less than Muslims recent immigrants and other minority groups in sharing their vision of American society They also associated atheists with undesirable attributes such as amorality criminal behavior rampant materialism and cultural elitism 200 201 However the same study also reported that The researchers also found acceptance or rejection of atheists is related not only to personal religiosity but also to one s exposure to diversity education and political orientation with more educated East and West Coast Americans more accepting of atheists than their Midwestern counterparts 202 Some surveys have indicated that doubts about the existence of the divine were growing quickly among Americans under 30 203 On March 24 2012 American atheists sponsored the Reason Rally in Washington D C followed by the American Atheist Convention in Bethesda Maryland Organizers called the estimated crowd of 8 000 10 000 the largest ever US gathering of atheists in one place 204 Secular people in the United States such as atheist and agnostics have a distinctive secular tradition that can be traced for at least hundreds of years They sometimes create religion like institutions and communities create rituals and debate aspects of their shared beliefs 205 Belief in the existence of a god Various polls have been conducted to determine Americans actual beliefs regarding a god A 2021 Pew Research Center Survey found that 91 of American believe in a higher power 206 A 2018 Pew Research Center Survey found that 90 of American believe in a higher power 207 In 2014 the Pew Research Center s Religious Landscape Study showed 63 of Americans believed in God and were absolutely certain in their view while the figure rose to 89 including those who were agnostic 208 A 2012 WIN Gallup International poll showed that 5 of Americans considered themselves convinced atheists which was a fivefold increase from the last time the survey was taken in 2005 and 5 said they did not know or else did not respond 209 A 2012 Pew Research Center survey found that doubts about the existence of a god had grown among younger Americans with 68 telling Pew they never doubt God s existence a 15 point drop in five years In 2007 83 of American millennials said they never doubted God s existence 203 210 A 2011 Gallup poll found 92 of Americans said yes to the basic question Do you believe in God while 7 said no and 1 had no opinion 211 A 2010 Gallup poll found 80 of Americans believe in a god 12 believe in a universal spirit 6 don t believe in either 1 chose other and 1 had no opinion 80 is a decrease from the 1940s when Gallup first asked this question A late 2009 online Harris poll of 2 303 U S adults 18 and older 212 found that 82 of adult Americans believe in God the same number as in two earlier polls in 2005 and 2007 Another 9 said they did not believe in God and 9 said that they were not sure It further concluded Large majorities also believe in miracles 76 heaven 75 that Jesus is God or the Son of God 73 in angels 72 the survival of the soul after death 71 and in the resurrection of Jesus 70 Less than half 45 of adults believe in Darwin s theory of evolution but this is more than the 40 who believe in creationism Many people consider themselves Christians without necessarily believing in some of the key beliefs of Christianity However this is not true of born again Christians In addition to their religious beliefs large minorities of adults including many Christians have pagan or pre Christian beliefs such as a belief in ghosts astrology witches and reincarnation Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated A 2008 survey of 1 000 people concluded that based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification 69 5 of Americans believe in a personal God roughly 12 3 of Americans are atheist or agnostic and another 12 1 are deistic believing in a higher power non personal God but no personal God 108 Mark Chaves a Duke University professor of sociology religion and divinity found that 92 of Americans believed in God in 2008 but that significantly fewer Americans have great confidence in their religious leaders than a generation ago 213 According to a 2008 ARIS survey belief in God varies considerably by region The lowest rate is in the West with 59 reporting a belief in God and the highest rate is in the South at 86 214 Spiritual but not religious Main article Spiritual but not religious Spiritual but not religious SBNR is self identified stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth Spirituality places an emphasis upon the wellbeing of the mind body spirit 215 so holistic activities such as tai chi reiki and yoga are common within the SBNR movement 216 In contrast to religion spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the individual 217 One fifth of the US public and a third of adults under the age of 30 are reportedly unaffiliated with any religion however they identify as being spiritual in some way Of these religiously unaffiliated Americans 37 classify themselves as spiritual but not religious 218 Major U S origin movementsSee also List of religious movements that began in the United States This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2018 Learn how and when to remove this template message Christian nbsp The First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston MassachusettsAdventism began as an inter denominational movement Its most vocal leader was William Miller who in the 1830s in New York became convinced of an imminent Second Coming of Jesus The most prominent modern group to emerge from this is the Seventh day Adventists 219 220 Christian Science a denomination founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 19th century Holiness movement a movement that emerged chiefly within 19th century American Methodism with the belief that the Christian life should be free of sin 221 Jehovah s Witnesses originated with the religious movement known as Bible Students which was founded in Pennsylvania in the late 1870s by Charles Taze Russell In their early years the Bible Students were loosely connected with Adventism and the Jehovah s Witnesses still share some similarities with it 220 222 Latter Day Saint movement founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith in upstate New York a product of the Christian revivalist movement of the Second Great Awakening and based in Christian primitivism Multiple Latter Day Saint denominations can be found throughout the United States The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints LDS Church the largest denomination is headquartered in Salt Lake City Utah and it has members in many countries The Community of Christ the second largest denomination is headquartered in Independence Missouri 223 Metropolitan Community Church founded by Troy Perry in Los Angeles in 1968 Pentecostalism and Charismatic movement a large movement which emphasizes the role of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the use of spiritual gifts charismata finds its historic roots in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1904 to 1906 sparked by Charles Parham 224 Restoration Movement a k a American Restoration Movement or the Stone Campbell Movement seeking primitive undenominational Christianity Two groups which independently developed in the first years of the 19th century Christians led by Barton W Stone at Cane Ridge Kentucky and Disciples of Christ championed by Thomas Campbell in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia Presently the movement is incorporated to the Churches of Christ Disciples of Christ with no governing body Unitarianism a nontrinitarian denomination developed out of the Congregational Churches In 1825 the American Unitarian Association was formed in Boston Universalist Church of America s first regional conference was founded in 1793 225 Other Church of Satan founded in San Francisco in 1966 by Anton LaVey Eckankar founded in Las Vegas in 1965 by Paul Twitchell and drawing from the Radha Soami new Indian movement 226 International Society for Krishna Consciousness ISKCON or Hare Krishna movement founded in 1966 in New York City by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada It preaches Gaudiya Vaishnavism a sect of Hinduism 227 228 Nation of Islam a sect of Islam created and followed predominantly by African Americans Native American Church also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion founded by Quanah Parker beginning in the 1890s and incorporating in 1918 Today it is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States except Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians with an estimated 250 000 followers 229 New Thought Movement two of the early proponents of New Thought beliefs during the mid to late 19th century were Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and the Mother of New Thought Emma Curtis Hopkins The three major branches are Religious Science Unity Church and Divine Science Reconstructionist Judaism founded by Mordecai Kaplan and started in the 1920s 230 Self Realization Fellowship a neo Hindu movement founded in Los Angeles by Paramahansa Yogananda in 1920 Theosophy an influential esoteric religion established during the late 19th century by Helena Blavatsky 231 Unitarian Universalist Association founded in 1961 from the consolidation of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America Historically Christian denominations the UUA is no longer Christian and is the largest Unitarian Universalist denomination in the world 3HO a sect of Sikhism founded in Los Angeles in 1971 by Yogi Bhajan and followed mostly by White Americans 232 233 234 235 236 StatisticsSee also List of U S states and territories by religiosity The U S Census does not ask about religion Various groups have conducted surveys to determine approximate percentages of those affiliated with each religious group Historical trends Sources Based on Pew Center Research especially editions 2007 2014 123 and 2019 19 CID Gallup Center since 1948 237 Public Religion Research Institute 238 Christianity Today 1900 1950 Religious Trends in the United States 239 The Database of Religious History 240 and Historical information sources 241 242 Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki org Change in religious identification 1950 2020 Percentage of Americans by religious identification 1950 2020 237 Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki org Protestantism Christian nonspecified Catholicism Mormonism Jewish Other Unaffiliated No Answer The Association of Religion Data Archives 1900 2050 Major Religions 243 Year All Christians Non Religious Jewish Muslim Buddhists1900 97 0 1 3 1 41950 93 1 3 3 3 1 0 11970 91 3 5 2 2 6 0 4 0 12000 82 0 12 0 1 9 1 2 1 22020 74 2 19 7 1 7 1 4 1 32050 P 66 3 25 8 1 3 2 6 1 8Major Christian Denominations 243 Year Protestant Independents Unaffiliated Christian Catholic Orthodox1900 48 7 8 8 24 8 14 2 0 51950 37 0 15 1 20 1 19 2 1 71970 28 8 17 8 19 6 23 1 2 12000 21 0 20 2 16 4 22 4 2 02020 16 3 19 3 14 1 22 3 2 22050 P 15 8 19 1 8 0 21 1 2 3Public Religion Research Institute data 2020 The Public Religion Research Institute PRRI has made annual estimates about religious adherence in the United States every year since 2013 and they most recently updated their data in 2020 Their data can be broken down to the state level and data has also been made available of several large metro areas Data is collected from roughly 50 000 telephone interviews conducted every year 238 Their most recent data shows that approximately 70 of Americans are Christians down from 71 in 2013 with about 46 of the population professing belief in Protestant Christianity and another 22 adhering to Catholicism About 23 of the population adheres to no religion and 7 more of the population professes a Non Christian religion such as Judaism Islam or Hinduism 238 244 Religion in the United States according to the American Values Atlas published by the PRRI 2020 238 Religious Affiliation National South West Midwest Northeast Christian 69 7 69 7 74 65 72 67Protestant 45 6 45 6 53 36 50 39White Evangelical 14 5 14 5 18 10 18 9White Mainline Protestant 16 4 16 4 17 14 21 15Black Protestant 7 3 7 3 10 3 6 8Hispanic Protestant 3 9 3 9 4 5 2 4Other non white Protestant 3 5 3 5 4 4 3 3Catholic 21 8 21 8 19 24 21 26White Catholic 11 7 11 7 9 9 15 16Hispanic Catholic 8 2 8 2 8 13 4 8Other non white Catholic 1 9 1 9 2 2 2 2Mormon 1 3 1 3 1 4 1 1Jehovah s Witness 0 5 0 5 1 1 0 0Orthodox Christian 0 5 0 5 0 0 0 1Unaffiliated 23 3 23 3 21 27 22 24Non Christian 7 0 7 5 8 6 9Jewish 1 4 1 4 1 1 1 3Muslim 0 8 0 8 1 1 1 1Buddhist 0 8 0 8 1 1 1 1Hindu 0 5 0 5 0 1 0 1Other non Christian 3 5 3 5 2 4 3 3Total 100 100 100 100 100 1002014 Pew Research Center data nbsp The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2014 according to the Pew Research Center Protestantism 70 79 60 69 50 59 40 49 30 39 Catholicism 40 49 30 39 Mormonism 50 59 Unaffiliated 30 39 Religion in the United States according to the Pew Research Center 2014 123 Affiliation of U S populationChristian 70 6 70 6 Protestant 46 5 46 5 Evangelical Protestant 25 4 25 4 Mainline Protestant 14 7 14 7 Black church 6 5 6 5 Catholic 20 8 20 8 Mormon 1 6 1 6 Jehovah s Witnesses 0 8 0 8 Eastern Orthodox 0 5 0 5 Other Christian 0 4 0 4 Unaffiliated 22 8 22 8 Nothing in particular 15 8 15 8 Agnostic 4 0 4 Atheist 3 1 3 1 Non Christian 5 9 5 9 Jewish 1 9 1 9 Muslim 0 9 0 9 Buddhist 0 7 0 7 Hindu 0 7 0 7 Other non Christian 1 8 1 8 Don t know refused answer 0 6 0 6 Total 100 100 2010 ASARB data nbsp The map above shows plurality religious denomination by state as of 2010 according to a survey of religious denominations Protestantism 60 50 59 40 49 30 49 Catholicism 60 50 59 40 49 30 39 Mormonism 60 30 39 The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies ASARB surveyed congregations for their memberships Churches were asked for their membership numbers Adjustments were made for those congregations that did not respond and for religious groups that reported only adult membership 245 ASARB estimates that most of the churches not responding were black Protestant congregations Significant difference in results from other databases include the lower representation of adherents of 1 all kinds 62 7 2 Christians 59 9 3 Protestants less than 36 and the greater number of unaffiliated 37 3 nbsp Percentage of religion against average 2001 Major gt 10 gt 20 Catholic Baptist Lutheran Methodist No religion Mormonism Protestant Pentecostal Christian unspecified other nbsp Plurality of religious preference by state in 2014 lt 20 lt 30 lt 40 lt 50 gt 50 Baptist Catholic Mormon LutheranReligious groups Religious group Numberin year2010 inyear2010Total US pop year 2010 308 745 538 100 0 Evangelical Protestant 50 013 107 16 2 Mainline Protestant 22 568 258 7 3 Black Protestant 4 877 067 1 6 Protestant total 77 458 432 25 1 Catholic 58 934 906 19 1 Orthodox 1 056 535 0 3 adherents unadjusted 150 596 792 48 8 unclaimed 158 148 746 51 2 other including Mormon amp Christ Scientist 13 146 919 4 3 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Mormon LDS 6 144 582 2 0 other excluding Mormon 7 002 337 2 3 Jewish estimate 6 141 325 2 0 Buddhist estimate 2 000 000 0 7 Muslim estimate 2 600 082 0 8 Hindu estimate 400 000 0 4 Source ASARB 117 246 Ethnicity The table below shows the religious affiliations among the ethnicities in the United States according to the Pew Forum 2014 survey 123 People of Black ethnicity were most likely to be part of a formal religion with 80 percent being Christians Protestant denominations make up the majority of the Christians in the ethnicities Religion Non HispanicWhite 62 Black 13 Hispanic 17 Other mixed 8 Christian 70 79 77 49 Protestant 48 71 26 33 Catholic 19 5 48 13 Mormon 2 lt 0 5 1 1 Jehovah s Witness lt 0 5 2 1 1 Orthodox 1 lt 0 5 lt 0 5 1 Other lt 0 5 1 lt 0 5 1 Non Christian faiths 5 3 2 21 Jewish 3 lt 0 5 1 1 Muslim lt 0 5 2 lt 0 5 3 Buddhist lt 0 5 lt 0 5 1 4 Hindu lt 0 5 lt 0 5 lt 0 5 8 Other world religions lt 0 5 lt 0 5 lt 0 5 2 Other faiths 2 1 1 2 Unaffiliated including atheist and agnostic 24 18 20 29 ARIS findings regarding self identification The United States government does not collect religious data in its census The survey below the American Religious Identification Survey ARIS of 2008 was a random digit dialed telephone survey of 54 461 American residential households in the contiguous United States The 1990 sample size was 113 723 2001 sample size was 50 281 Adult respondents were asked the open ended question What is your religion if any Interviewers did not prompt or offer a suggested list of potential answers The religion of the spouse or partner was also asked If the initial answer was Protestant or Christian further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination About one third of the sample was asked more detailed demographic questions Religious Self Identification of the U S Adult Population 1990 2001 2008 108 Figures are not adjusted for refusals to reply investigators suspect refusals are possibly more representative of no religion than any other group Source ARIS 2008 108 Group 1990adultsx 1 000 2001adultsx 1 000 2008adultsx 1 000 NumericalChange1990 2008as of 1990 1990 ofadults 2001 ofadults 2008 ofadults changein oftotaladults1990 2008Adult population total 175 440 207 983 228 182 30 1 Adult population responded 171 409 196 683 216 367 26 2 97 7 94 6 94 8 2 9 Total Christian 151 225 159 514 173 402 14 7 86 2 76 7 76 0 10 2 Catholic 46 004 50 873 57 199 24 3 26 2 24 5 25 1 1 2 non Catholic Christian 105 221 108 641 116 203 10 4 60 0 52 2 50 9 9 0 Baptist 33 964 33 820 36 148 6 4 19 4 16 3 15 8 3 5 Mainline Christian 32 784 35 788 29 375 10 4 18 7 17 2 12 9 5 8 Methodist 14 174 14 039 11 366 19 8 8 1 6 8 5 0 3 1 Lutheran 9 110 9 580 8 674 4 8 5 2 4 6 3 8 1 4 Presbyterian 4 985 5 596 4 723 5 3 2 8 2 7 2 1 0 8 Episcopal Anglican 3 043 3 451 2 405 21 0 1 7 1 7 1 1 0 7 United Church of Christ 438 1 378 736 68 0 0 2 0 7 0 3 0 1 Christian Generic 25 980 22 546 32 441 24 9 14 8 10 8 14 2 0 6 Christian Unspecified 8 073 14 190 16 384 102 9 4 6 6 8 7 2 2 6 Non denominational Christian 194 2 489 8 032 4040 2 0 1 1 2 3 5 3 4 Protestant Unspecified 17 214 4 647 5 187 69 9 9 8 2 2 2 3 7 5 Evangelical Born Again 546 1 088 2 154 294 5 0 3 0 5 0 9 0 6 Pentecostal Charismatic 5 647 7 831 7 948 40 7 3 2 3 8 3 5 0 3 Pentecostal Unspecified 3 116 4 407 5 416 73 8 1 8 2 1 2 4 0 6 Assemblies of God 617 1 105 810 31 3 0 4 0 5 0 4 0 0 Church of God 590 943 663 12 4 0 3 0 5 0 3 0 0 Other Protestant Denominations 4 630 5 949 7 131 54 0 2 6 2 9 3 1 0 5 Churches of Christ 1 769 2 593 1 921 8 6 1 0 1 2 0 8 0 2 Jehovah s Witness 1 381 1 331 1 914 38 6 0 8 0 6 0 8 0 1 Seventh Day Adventist 668 724 938 40 4 0 4 0 3 0 4 0 0 Mormon Latter Day Saints 2 487 2 697 3 158 27 0 1 4 1 3 1 4 0 0 Total non Christian religions 5 853 7 740 8 796 50 3 3 3 3 7 3 9 0 5 Jewish 3 137 2 837 2 680 14 6 1 8 1 4 1 2 0 6 Eastern Religions 687 2 020 1 961 185 4 0 4 1 0 0 9 0 5 Buddhist 404 1 082 1 189 194 3 0 2 0 5 0 5 0 3 Muslim 527 1 104 1 349 156 0 0 3 0 5 0 6 0 3 New Religious Movements amp Others 1 296 1 770 2 804 116 4 0 7 0 9 1 2 0 5 None No religion total 14 331 29 481 34 169 138 4 8 2 14 2 15 0 6 8 Agnostic Atheist 1 186 1 893 3 606 204 0 0 7 0 9 1 6 0 9 Did Not Know Refused to reply 4 031 11 300 11 815 193 1 2 3 5 4 5 2 2 9 Self identified religiosity 2023 The Wall Street Journal NORC poll 247 Very religious 17 Moderately religious 31 Slightly religious 23 Not religious at all 29 Highlights 108 The ARIS 2008 survey was carried out during February November 2008 and collected answers from 54 461 respondents who were questioned in English or Spanish The American population self identifies as predominantly Christian but Americans are slowly becoming less Christian 86 of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76 in 2008 The historic mainline churches and denominations have experienced the steepest declines while the non denominational Christian identity has been trending upward particularly since 2001 The challenge to Christianity in the U S does not come from other religions but rather from a rejection of all forms of organized religion 34 of American adults considered themselves Born Again or Evangelical Christians in 2008 The U S population continues to show signs of becoming less religious with one out of every seven Americans failing to indicate a religious identity in 2008 The Nones no stated religious preference atheist or agnostic continue to grow though at a much slower pace than in the 1990s from 8 2 in 1990 to 14 1 in 2001 to 15 0 in 2008 Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups One sign of the lack of attachment of Americans to religion is that 27 do not expect a religious funeral at their death Based on their stated beliefs rather than their religious identification in 2008 70 of Americans believe in a personal God roughly 12 of Americans are atheist no God or agnostic unknowable or unsure and another 12 are deistic a higher power but no personal God America s religious geography has been transformed since 1990 Religious switching along with Hispanic immigration has significantly changed the religious profile of some states and regions Between 1990 and 2008 the Catholic population proportion of the New England states fell from 50 to 36 and in New York fell from 44 to 37 while it rose in California from 29 to 37 and in Texas from 23 to 32 Overall the 1990 2008 ARIS time series shows that changes in religious self identification in the first decade of the 21st century have been moderate in comparison to the 1990s which was a period of significant shifts in the religious composition of the United States Attendance nbsp Church synagogue or mosque attendance by state 2014 50 attending weekly 45 49 attending weekly 40 44 attending weekly 35 39 attending weekly 30 34 attending weekly 25 29 attending weekly 20 24 attending weekly 15 19 attending weeklyGallup survey data found that 73 of Americans were members of a church synagogue or mosque in 1937 peaking at 76 shortly after World War II before trending slightly downward to 70 by 2000 The percentage declined steadily during the first two decades of the 21st century reaching 47 in 2020 Gallup attributed the decline to increasing numbers of Americans expressing no religious preference 248 249 A 2013 Public Religion Research Institute survey reported that 31 of Americans attend religious services at least weekly 250 In a 2009 Gallup survey 41 6 251 of American residents stated that they attended a church synagogue or mosque once a week or almost every week This percentage is higher than other surveyed Western countries 252 253 Church attendance varies considerably by state and region The figures updated to 2014 ranged from 51 in Utah to 17 in Vermont When it comes to mosque attendance specifically data collected by a 2017 poll by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding ISPU shows that American Muslim women and men attend the mosque at similar rates 45 for men and 35 for women 130 Additionally when compared to the general public looking at the attendance of religious services young Muslim Americans attend the mosque at closer rates to older Muslim Americans Muslim Americans who regularly attend mosques are more likely to work with their neighbors to solve community problems 49 vs 30 percent be registered to vote 74 vs 49 percent and plan to vote 92 vs 81 percent Overall there is no correlation between Muslim attitudes toward violence and their frequency of mosque attendance 130 Religion and politicsMain article Religion and politics in the United States See also Religious affiliations of presidents of the United States and Religious affiliation in the United States Senate nbsp The U S guarantees freedom of religion and some churches in the U S take strong stances on political subjects In August 2010 67 of Americans said religion was losing influence compared with 59 who said this in 2006 Majorities of white evangelical Protestants 79 white mainline Protestants 67 black Protestants 56 Catholics 71 and the religiously unaffiliated 62 all agreed that religion was losing influence on American life 53 of the total public said this was a bad thing while just 10 see it as a good thing 254 Politicians frequently discuss their religion when campaigning and fundamentalists and black Protestants are highly politically active However to keep their status as tax exempt organizations they must not officially endorse a candidate Historically Catholics were heavily Democratic before the 1970s while mainline Protestants comprised the core of the Republican Party Those patterns have faded away Catholics for example now split about 50 50 However white evangelicals since 1980 have made up a solidly Republican group that favors conservative candidates Secular voters are increasingly Democratic 255 Only four presidential candidates for major parties have been Catholics all for the Democratic party Alfred E Smith in presidential election of 1928 was subjected to anti Catholic rhetoric which seriously hurt him in the Baptist areas of the South and Lutheran areas of the Midwest but he did well in the Catholic urban strongholds of the Northeast John F Kennedy secured the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960 In the 1960 election Kennedy faced accusations that as a Catholic president he would do as the Pope would tell him to do a charge that Kennedy refuted in a famous address to Protestant ministers John Kerry a Catholic won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 In the 2004 election religion was hardly an issue and most Catholics voted for his Protestant opponent George W Bush 256 Joe Biden a Catholic won the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and then won the 2020 presidential election becoming the second Catholic president after John F Kennedy 257 Biden was also the first Catholic vice president 258 Joe Lieberman was the first major presidential candidate that was Jewish on the Gore Lieberman campaign of 2000 although John Kerry and Barry Goldwater both had Jewish ancestry they were practicing Christians Bernie Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary of 2016 He was the first major Jewish candidate to compete in the presidential primary process However Sanders noted during the campaign that he does not actively practice any religion 259 In 2006 Keith Ellison of Minnesota became the first Muslim elected to Congress when re enacting his swearing in for photos he used the copy of the Qur an once owned by Thomas Jefferson 260 Andre Carson is the second Muslim to serve in Congress A Gallup poll released in 2007 261 indicated that 53 of Americans would refuse to vote for an atheist as president up from 48 in 1987 and 1999 But then the number started to drop again and reached record low 43 in 2012 and 40 in 2015 262 263 Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nominee in 2012 is Mormon and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints He is the former governor of the state of Massachusetts and his father George Romney was the governor of the state of Michigan On January 3 2013 Tulsi Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress using a copy of the Bhagavad Gita while swearing in 264 By ageThis section is empty You can help by adding to it April 2023 Self identified religious affiliation among 18 29 year olds Spring 2023 Harvard Youth Poll 265 Unaffiliated 33 Catholicism 19 Evangelical Christian 14 Mainline Protestant 8 LDS Mormon 2 Judaism 2 Muslim 2 Other religion 7 Not sure 6 Decline to answer Refuse 7 Theism religion morality and politicsPew Research CenterThe Pew Research Center has routinely conducted surveys surrounding theism religion and morality since 2002 asking 266 Which of the following statements comes closest to your opinion And whether they feel like 266 Option 1 It is not necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values Or Option 2 It is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral and have good values Online survey trends Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person 266 Polling Date Necessary Not necessary Unsure Refused OtherSpring 2022 34 65 1January 2020 35 65 1September 2019 36 63 1December 2017 33 66 gt 0July 2014 44 55 1Telephone trends Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person 266 Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person Necessary Not necessary Don t Know Unsure otherSpring 2019 44 54 2Spring 2011 53 46 2Spring 2007 57 41 2Summer 2002 58 40 2YouGov America Is it necessary to believe in God to be a good person 267 Survey Polling Date Necessary Not Necessary Don t Know Unsure OtherNovember 17 21 2022 32 53 15Effect of churches and religious organizations on morality 267 Survey Polling Date Strengthen morality in society Don t make much difference to morality in society Don t Know Weaken morality in societyNovember 17 21 2022 47 26 14 13See alsoAmerican civil religion Christianity in the United States Confucianism in the United States Church property disputes in the United States Freedom of religion in the United States Historical religious demographics of the United States List of religious movements that began in the United States List of U S states and territories by religiosity Protestantism in the United States Relationship between religion and science Religion in United States prisons School prayer in the United States Separation of church and state in the United States TelevangelismReferences Staff June 8 2007 In Depth Topics A to Z Religion Gallup Inc Retrieved November 1 2023 a b Fahmy Dalia July 31 2018 Americans are far more religious than adults in other wealthy nations Pew Research Center Archived from the original on January 9 2020 Retrieved January 23 2020 American adults under the age of 40 are less likely to pray than their elders less likely to attend church services and less likely to identify with any religion all of which may portend future declines in levels of religious commitment Mitchell Travis November 23 2021 Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic Other Tragedies Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project The combined nine in ten Americans who believe in God or a higher power 91 were asked a series of follow up questions about the relationship between God and human suffering Froese Paul Uecker Jeremy E September 2022 Prayer in America A Detailed Analysis of the Various Dimensions of Prayer Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 61 3 4 663 689 doi 10 1111 jssr 12810 ISSN 0021 8294 S2CID 253439298 Chaves Mark 2017 American Religion Contemporary Trends Princeton NJ London Princeton University Press pp 38 39 ISBN 9780691177564 The vast majority of people approximately 80 percent describe themselves as both spiritual and religious Still a small but growing minority of Americans describe themselves as spiritual but not religious as figure 3 4 shows In 1998 9 percent of Americans described themselves as at least moderately spiritual but not more than slightly religious That number rose to 16 percent in the 2010s Pearce Lisa D Gilliland Claire C 2020 Religion in America Sociology in the Twenty First Century 6 Oakland Ca University of California Press p 5 ISBN 9780520296411 Most people in the United States however identify as spiritual and religious Melton J Gordon 2012 2003 Protestant Faith in America 2nd ed New York Chelsea House Facts On File ISBN 978 1 4381 4039 1 Pearce Lisa D Gilliland Claire C 2020 Religion in America Sociology in the Twenty First Century 6 Oakland Ca University of California Press pp 7 8 ISBN 9780520296411 a b Holifield E Brooks 2015 Why Are Americans So Religious The Limitations of Market Explanations Religion and the Marketplace in the United States pp 33 60 ISBN 9780199361809 Donadio Rachel November 22 2021 Why Is France So Afraid of God The Atlantic Retrieved September 20 2023 Melton J Gordon et al eds 2009 1978 Melton s Encyclopedia of American Religions 8th ed Detroit Mi Gale Cengage Learning ISBN 978 0 787 69696 2 Pasquier Michael 2023 2016 Religion in America The Basics 2nd ed London New York Routledge pp 6 7 ISBN 9780367691806 a b c Sullivan Andrew September 14 2018 The American Past A History of Contradictions The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved September 28 2023 a b Finke Roger Stark Rodney 2006 The Churching of America 1776 2005 Winners and Losers in our Religious Economy New Brunswick NJ Rutgers University Press pp 22 23 ISBN 978 0813535531 Edwards Mark July 2 2015 Was America founded as a Christian nation CNN Retrieved September 28 2023 Only after the violent attacks on religion in the French Revolution did alarm about the low level of religion in America escalate and enthusiasm for religion catch fire Conroy Krutz Emily June 7 2013 Religion and Reform The American Yawp Retrieved March 19 2023 a b ANALYSIS December 19 2011 Global Christianity Pewforum org Archived from the original on July 30 2013 Retrieved August 17 2012 Religion Historical Trends Gallup 2022 a b In U S Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace Archived October 3 2021 at the Wayback Machine Pew Research Center October 17 2019 Retrieved July 27 2020 Newport Frank February 4 2016 New Hampshire Now Least Religious State in U S Gallup Archived 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October 19 2019 a b Burge Ryan February 24 2021 Most Nones Still Keep the Faith Research Christianity Today What I discovered was that while many people have walked away from a religious affiliation they haven t left all aspects of religion and spirituality behind So while growing numbers of Americans may not readily identify as Christian any longer they still show up to a worship service a few times a year or maintain their belief in God The reality is that many of the nones are really somes The center of the Venn diagram indicates that just 15 3 percent of the population that are nones on one dimension are nones on all dimensions That amounts to just about 6 percent of the general public who don t belong to a religious tradition and don t attend church and hold to an atheist or agnostic worldview Davis Jim Graham Michael Burge Ryan Hansen Collin 2023 The Great Dechurching Who s Leaving Why Are They Going and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back Zondervan p 121 ISBN 9780310147435 What is often overlooked is that when people say they no longer go to church or affiliate with a religious institution that doesn t mean they leave all vestiges of religion behind They left the religious label behind but not their belief In the same way a lack of church attendance doesn t necessarily mean someone has given up on the idea of God Among those who report never attending church in the General Social Survey the share who don t believe in God is about 20 percent But the share of these never attenders who say they believe in God without any doubts is also about 20 percent Despite the fact that about 40 percent of Americans never attend church and 30 percent say they have no religious affiliation just one in ten Americans says God does not exist or that we have no way to know if God exists Religious belief is stubborn in the United States and while someone may not act on that belief by going to a house of worship on Sunday morning that doesn t mean they think their spiritual life is unimportant Johnson Todd Zurlo Gina 2016 Unaffiliated Yet Religious A Methodological and Demographic Analysis In Cipriani Roberto Garelli Franco eds Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion Vol 7 Sociology of Atheism Leiden Brill pp 58 60 ISBN 9789004317536 While much of the media as well as non religious advocacy groups honed on the fact that unaffiliated category was growing Pew stressed their finding that most unaffiliated adults had religious and spiritual leanings According to the Pew survey 68 of the unaffiliated said they believed in God more than a third described themselves as spiritual but not religious and 21 said they prayed every day This report provided evidence that that people who check nothing in particular are not uniformly non religious many are individuals who are unaffiliated with traditional religious structures like churches or synagogues but still engage in religious practices and hold religious beliefs a b Masci David January 8 2016 Q amp A Why Millennials are less religious than older Americans Pew Research Center Hout Michael Fischer Claude 2014 Explaining Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference Political Backlash and Generational Succession 1987 2012 Sociological Science 1 423 447 doi 10 15195 v1 a24 ISSN 2330 6696 Wehner Peter May 24 2022 No Atheist Has Done This Much Damage to the Christian Faith The Atlantic Retrieved January 21 2023 Smietana Bob September 13 2022 U S Christian majority could fade in coming decades models find The Washington Post Retrieved January 21 2023 a b Johnson Byron Stark Rodney Bradshaw Matt Levin Jeff 2022 Are Religious Nones Really Not Religious Revisiting Glenn Three Decades Later Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 18 7 Johnson Byron Stark Rodney Bradshaw Matt Levin Jeff 2022 Are Religious Nones Really Not Religious Revisiting Glenn Three Decades Later Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 18 7 As briefly noted above proportions of atheists and intense practicing Christians appear to be somewhat stable across time casting some doubt on a major decline in religiosity Stark 2008 2011 Hout and Smith 2015 Stetzer 2015 According to Stark 2008 177 data from multiple population surveys show that the proportion of the U S population that identifies as atheist was unchanged for at least 70 years from the 1940s until the past decade at about 4 Johnson Byron R Levin Jeff July 28 2022 Religion Is Dying Don t Believe It The Wall Street Journal ISSN 0099 9660 Retrieved September 20 2023 Grose Jessica April 19 2023 Lots of Americans Are Losing Their Religion Have You New York Times Retrieved October 23 2023 American History Massachusetts Bay Colony Encyclopaedia Britannica Archived from the original on December 4 2020 Retrieved December 15 2020 Feldman Noah 2005 Divided by God Farrar Straus and Giroux p 10 For the first time in recorded history they designed a government with no established religion at all Marsden George M 1990 Religion and American Culture 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Zach June 24 2022 How Many Americans Believe in God Gallup com Gallup The answer to how many Americans believe in God depends on how the question is asked Gallup has measured U S adults belief in God three different ways in recent years with varying results a b c Newport Frank December 23 2016 Five Key Findings on Religion in the U S Gallup Archived from the original on September 12 2017 Retrieved April 5 2018 a b c d e Religion Census Newsletter PDF RCMS2010 org Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies March 2017 Retrieved March 17 2017 Global Christianity Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project December 1 2014 Archived from the original on July 19 2014 Retrieved August 23 2015 The top 10 most Catholic Countries in the world January 18 2019 https sbcnet wpenginepowered com wp content uploads 2022 10 SBC Fast Facts 10 26 22 pdf National Baptist Convention USA INC Baptist World Alliance July 21 2022 Latter day Saint membership increased this much in 2021 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Retrieved February 9 2021 Statistics are from the 2020 ATP profile survey after adjustments from NPORS Phillips Erica E Kesling Ben March 9 10 2013 Some Church Folk Ask What Would Jesus Brew The Wall Street Journal paper Thompson Derek September 26 2019 Three Decades Ago America Lost Its Religion Why The Atlantic Retrieved October 2 2022 when it comes to religion Americans really are exceptional No rich country prays nearly as much as the U S and no country that prays as much as the U S is nearly as rich Stubbornly pious Americans threw a wrench in the secularization thesis Deep into the 20th century more than nine in 10 Americans said they believed in God and belonged to an organized religion with the great majority of them calling themselves Christian That number held steady through the sexual revolution 60s through the rootless and anxious 70s and through the greed is good 80s But in the early 1990s the historical tether between American identity and faith snapped Religious non affiliation in the U S started to rise and rise and rise By the early 2000s the share of Americans who said they didn t associate with any established religion also known as nones had doubled By the 2010s this grab bag of atheists agnostics and spiritual dabblers had tripled in size History does not often give the satisfaction of a sudden and lasting turning point History tends to unfold in messy cycles actions and reactions revolutions and counterrevolutions and even semipermanent changes are subtle and glacial But the rise of religious non affiliation in America looks like one of those rare historical moments that is neither slow nor subtle nor cyclical You might call it exceptional Hout Michael Fischer Claude 2014 Explaining Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference Political Backlash and Generational Succession 1987 2012 Sociological Science 1 423 447 doi 10 15195 v1 a24 ISSN 2330 6696 Wehner Peter May 24 2022 No Atheist Has Done This Much Damage to the Christian Faith The Atlantic Retrieved January 21 2023 Smietana Bob September 13 2022 U S Christian majority could fade in coming decades models find The Washington Post Retrieved January 21 2023 Atheists Are Distrusted May 3 2006 Archived from the original on June 13 2010 Retrieved February 16 2010 Paulos John Allen April 2 2006 Who s Counting Distrusting Atheists ABC News Archived from the original on August 6 2020 Retrieved February 16 2010 Atheists identified as America s most distrusted minority according to new U of M study UMN News Archived from the original on April 23 2014 Retrieved March 22 2006 a b Pew survey Doubt of God growing quickly among millennials Religion blogs cnn com August 16 2012 Archived from the original on November 17 2021 Retrieved December 29 2012 Raushenbush Paul March 24 2012 Atheists Rally on National Mall Huffingtonpost com Archived from the original on June 8 2016 Retrieved December 29 2012 Blankholm Joseph 2022 The Secular Paradox On the Religiosity of the Not Religious New York University Press pp 3 8 ISBN 9781479809509 Secular people s efforts to avoid religion and the creative ways in which they embrace it generate the diversity in American secularism This book makes sense of secular people s strange ambivalence toward religion Though being secular means being not religious it also means participating in a secular tradition and sharing ways of life with other secular people The secular paradox is the tension between what secular people do not share and what they have in common between avoiding religion and embracing something like it all secular people live with the secular paradox amp Each chapter of this book examines a different aspect of religion belief community ritual conversion and tradition Because secular people struggle to simply remove all of these religion like elements from their lives they affirm them in part or entirely sometimes uncritically but more often quite carefully and not without reservations Mitchell Travis November 23 2021 Few Americans Blame God or Say Faith Has Been Shaken Amid Pandemic Other Tragedies Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project nearly six in ten U S adults 58 say they believe in God as described in the Bible and an additional one third 32 believe there is some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe Key findings about Americans belief in God Pew Research Center April 25 2018 The vast majority of Americans 90 believe in some kind of higher power with 56 professing faith in God as described in the Bible and another 33 saying they believe in another type of higher power or spiritual force Only one in ten Americans say they don t believe in God or a higher power of any kind Religious Landscape Study Pew Research Center May 11 2015 Archived from the original on January 14 2022 Retrieved July 4 2016 Religiosity and Atheism PDF Archived from the original PDF on September 6 2012 Retrieved December 29 2012 Merica Dan June 12 2012 Pew Survey Doubt of God Growing Quickly among Millennials CNN Archived from the original on November 17 2021 Retrieved June 14 2012 More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God Gallup com June 3 2011 Archived from the original on August 30 2017 Retrieved December 29 2012 What People Do and Do Not Believe in PDF Harris Interactive December 15 2009 Archived from the original PDF on January 24 2011 Retrieved May 15 2011 Eric Ferreri August 16 2011 according to Mark Chaves Today duke edu Archived from the original on January 27 2021 Retrieved December 29 2012 Newport Frank July 28 2008 Belief in God Far Lower in Western U S The Gallup Organization Archived from the original on September 11 2017 Retrieved September 4 2010 Heelas Spiritualities of Life 63 Heelas Spiritualities of Life 64 Carette and King Selling Spirituality 41 Funk Cary Smith Greg Nones on the Rise One in Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation PDF pewforum org The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life Archived from the original PDF on August 26 2014 Retrieved December 6 2015 Olson Roger E Mead Frank S Hill Samuel S Atwood Craig D 2018 1951 Adventist and Sabbatarian Hebraic Churches Handbook of Denominations in the United States 14th updated ed Nashville Tn Abingdon Press ISBN 9781501822513 Morgan Douglas 2001 Adventism and the American Republic The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement University of Tennessee Press ISBN 1 57233 111 9 a b Bergman Jerry 1995 The Adventist and Jehovah s Witness Branch of Protestantism In Miller Timothy ed America s Alternative Religions Albany NY SUNY Press pp 33 46 ISBN 978 0 7914 2397 4 Archived from the original on July 24 2020 Queen Edward L Prothero Stephen R Shattuck Gardener H 1996 The Encyclopedia of American Religious History Vol 1 New York Facts On File p 295 ISBN 0 8160 2406 5 Chryssides George D 2016 Jehovah s Witnesses Continuity and Change Ashgate new religions Farnham Surrey Ashgate Publ ISBN 978 1 4094 5608 7 Mauss Armand L 1994 The Angel and the Beehive The Mormon 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works and further reading Ahlstrom Sydney E 2004 1972 A Religious History of the American People 2nd ed New Haven Conn Yale University Press ISBN 0 30010 012 4 Alba Richard Raboteau Albert DeWind Josh eds 2008 Immigration and Religion in America Comparative and Historical Perspectives New York New York University Press ISBN 9780814705049 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a journal ignored help Alexander Estrelda Y ed 2018 The Dictionary of Pan African Pentecostalism Volume One North America Eugene Or Cascade Books ISBN 978 1 4982 8477 6 Ammerman N 1991 North American Protestant Fundamentalism In Marty Martin E Appleby R Scott eds Fundamentalisms Observed The Fundamentalism Project 1 Chicago Il London University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 226 50878 1 Anderson Owanah 1988 Jamestown Commitment the Episcopal Church and the American Indian Cincinnati Ohio Forward Movement Publ ISBN 0 88028 082 4 Ariel Yaakov 2000 Evangelizing the Chosen People Missions to the Jews in America 1880 2000 Chapel Hill NC London University of North Carolina Press ISBN 0 8078 2566 2 OCLC 43708450 Askew Thomas A Spellman Peter W 1984 The Churches and the American Experiment Ideals and Institutions Balmer Randall Herbert Winner Lauren F 2002 Protestantism in America New York Columbia University Press ISBN 9780231111300 Baltzell E Digby 1964 The Protestant Establishment Aristocracy and Caste in America New York Random House Beale David 2021 Christian Fundamentalism in America The Story of the Rest from 1857 to 2020 Best Felton O ed 1998 Black Religious Leadership from the Slave Community to the Million Man March flames of fire Lewiston NY Edwin Mellen Press Blankholm Joseph 2022 The Secular Paradox On the Religiosity of the Not Religious New York New York University Press ISBN 9781479809509 Blau Joseph Leon 1976 Judaism in America From Curiosity to Third Faith Chicago Il University of Chicago Press ISBN 0 22605 727 5 Bonomi Patricia U 1988 Under the Cope of Heaven Religion Society and Politics in Colonial America Archived July 21 2012 at the Wayback Machine Oxford University Press Bowman Matthew 2012 The Mormon People The Making of an American Faith New York Random House ISBN 978 0 679 64490 3 Brackney William H 2006 Baptists in North America An Historical Perspective Blackwell Publ ISBN 1 4051 1865 2 Brown Brian Edward 1999 Religion Law and the Land Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretations of Sacred Land Westport Conn Greenwood Press ISBN 978 0 313 30972 4 Brown Michael F 1997 The Channeling Zone American Spirituality in an Anxious Age Cambridge Ma Harvard University Press ISBN 9780674108820 Buck Christopher 2009 Religious myths and visions of America how minority faiths redefined America s world role Westport Conn Praeger Publ ISBN 978 0 313 35959 0 link, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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