Religion Statistics

Index: World | U.S. | Charts | Scientists | Education | Misc.

Selected data by state

Washington: 19% Catholic (31st), 14% None (2nd), Baptist 7.2%, Jehovah's Witnesses 1.4% (2nd), Agnostic 1.4% (1st)

Highest state populations (% state pop.)

• Baptist: Mississippi (55.0%), Alabama (51.4%), Georgia (50.8%)
• Catholic: Rhode Island (61.7%), Massachusetts (54.3%) Connecticut (50.4%), Lousiana (46.8%)
• Episcopalian: Wyoming (5.2%), Rhode Island (5.1%), D.C. (4.5%), Connecticut (4.4%)
• Jewish: New York (6.9%), New Jersey (4.3%), Florida (3.6%)
• Lutheran: North Dakota (36.5%), Minnesota (33.9%) South Dakota (30.3%)
• Methodist: Delaware (26.5%), Iowa (15.7%), South Carolina (15.6%)
• Mormon: Utah (69.2%), Idaho (30.5%), Wyoming (8.8%)

National Survey of Religious Identification (NRSI), City University of New York, the most extensive survey of religious identification in 20th-century America.

Additional Charts
American Denominations 1776-1850
Religious Adherence 1776-1980
U.S. Denominational Map
U.S. Adherence - 1985

Dan Barker [of Freedom From Religion Foundation]:

This comes up sometimes in debates: morally and practically, are Christians better off than non-Christians?

I just read George Barna's book, The Second Coming Of The Church (Word Publishing, 1998). Barna is a born-again Christian, sociologist, founder and president of Barna Research Group, which releases many meaningful survey results. Although 90% of Barna's book is just a sermon to Christian ministers on how the church should regain its lost status, he does report some frank statistics showing how the present church has "failed" in its mission. The numbers are based on his own studies, and other national studies. On page 6 he gives a table: "Examples of the Similarity of Behavior Between Christians and Non-Christians." The 25 items on this list include:

"Have been divorced (among those who have been married)"
    Born Again Christians - 27%; Non-Christians - 23%

"Gave money to a homeless person or poor person, in past year"
    Born Again Christians - 24%; Non-Christians - 34%

"Took drugs or medication prescribed for depression, in past year"
    Born Again Christians - 7%; Non-Christians - 8%

"Watched an X-rated movie in the past 3 months"
    Born Again Christians - 9%; Non-Christians - 16%

"Read all or part of a book for pleasure, in the past week"
    Born Again Christians - 50%; Non-Christians - 57%

"Donated any money to a nonprofit organization, in past month"
    Born Again Christians - 47%; Non-Christians - 48%

"Bought a lottery ticket, in the past week"
    Born Again Christians - 23%; Non-Christians - 27%

"Attended a community meeting on local issue, in past year"
    Born Again Christians - 37%; Non-Christians - 42%

And so on . . .

On page 121, he gives another table, "Examples of the Similarity of Attitudes Between Christians and non-Christians"

"Feel completely or very successful in life"
    Born Again Christians - 58%; Non-Christians - 49%

"It is impossible to get ahead because of your financial debt"
    Born Again Christians - 33%; Non-Christians - 39%

"You are still trying to figure out the purpose of your life"
    Born Again Christians - 36%; Non-Christians - 47%

"Satisfied with your life these days"
    Born Again Christians - 69%; Non-Christians - 68%

"Your personal financial situation is getting better"
    Born Again Christians - 27%; Non-Christians - 28%

Barna concludes: "We think and behave no differently from anyone else." [p. 7] He also sheds some light on the definition of "God" that most Americans claim to believe in:

"Since more than nine out of ten Americans own at least one Bible, and 86 percent call themselves Christian, you might expect people to pay homage to the deity described and followed by the Christian Church. In July 1997, we asked a nationwide sample of 1,012 adults to describe the God they believe in. Two out of three adults (67 percent) said they believe that God is the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator of the universe who rules the world today. The remaining one-third described their god as 'the total realization of personal, human potential'; or 'a state of higher consciousness that a person may reach'; or said, 'Everyone is God'; 'There are many gods, each with different power and authority'; or 'There is no such thing as God.' The remaining 5 percent said they did not know." [Page 25-26]

So, according to Barna, one American out of three does not really believe in "God" at all.

Percentage of members who gave $2,000 or more to church in the past year: Catholics 2%, liberal protestants 3%, conservative protestants 14%, Mormons 48% (AOF p52)

"Mormons are more likely to read the Bible during the week than are Protestants or Catholics." (Barna, 2001)

Most Americans – nearly two-thirds of them – continue to give significant amounts of money to churches and houses of worship. Not only did the dollar amount of donations rise, but about three out of every four dollars contributed to a non-profit entity was given to a church last year. (Barna, 12/21/2004)

About six out of every ten adults (59%) favor teaching creationism while less than four out of ten (38%) do not want it added to the public school curriculum content. (Barna, 12/21/2004)

Asians were the only subgroup among which a majority opposed teaching creationism. (It is helpful to realize that among the Asians living in the U.S., six out of ten are atheist, agnostic or associated with a non-Christian faith – a combination that is more than double proportion found among other ethnic segments.) (Barna, 12/21/2004)

Pacific region has highest percentage of religion switchers (36.5%); New England the lowest (15%); well-educated males in high prestige jobs most likely to switch.

Will the second coming of Jesus Christ occur sometime around the year 2000?

• 20% Yes
• 49% No
• 31% Not Sure

(Time/CNN poll - Vox Pop Time Magazine c.4/93 p.13)

American views in 2002

• Today, 61% of Americans say religion is "very" important in their own lives, compared with 60% who said that in Dec. 2001.
• 66% of Americans today say they belong to a church or synagogue, identical to what was reported last year.
• The current poll finds 43% of Americans saying they attended church or synagogue in the past week, virtually the same as the 41% measured last year.
• This year as well as last, 45% of Americans say they generally attend church or synagogue weekly or almost weekly.
• Just under half of all Americans (46%) say they describe themselves as "born-again or evangelical," slightly higher than last year (42%).
• This year, 59% of Americans say that religion can answer most or all of today's problems, while 24% say religion is largely old-fashioned and out of date. Last year, the percentages were very similar: 61% vs. 21% respectively.

Early Christian Conversion Rate: "There is general agreement among scholars that Christians in the Greco-Roman world numbered somewhere between five and seven million in the year 300.... suppose we assume that the Christian rate of growth during thi period was similar to that of the Mormon rate of growth over the past century, which has been approximately 40 percent per decade....from a starting point of 1,000 Christians in the year 40, a growth rate of 40% ... results in a total of 6,299,832 Christians in the year 3000." (AOF p.126-7)

3/29/00 -- Two-thirds of all Americans believe that religion can answer all or most of today's problems, according to a recent Gallup poll. Large majorities of Americans also say that religion is "very" important in their lives, that they are members of a church or synagogue, and that they attend church on a regular basis. The poll also shows that belief in the relevance of religion for today's problems is quite likely to be found among college-educated and high-income Americans, as well as among the poor and among lower-educated groups. (Full Release)

3/28/00 -- Approximately two in five adults (44%) are considered to be "unchurched" in America today, a percentage which has changed little over the last two decades. The number of Americans who are without a church membership or have not attended regular services within the last six months -- 44%, according to a 1998 Gallup poll -- is the same percentage recorded a decade earlier in 1988, and is only slightly higher than the percentage of the population recorded in 1978 (41%). (Full Release)

Little Evidence That Born-Again or Conservative Protestants Are More Anti-Catholic Than Are Other Americans: 3/27/00 -- The attitudes of conservative Protestants toward Catholics have come under scrutiny in recent months after the visit of George W. Bush to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist college that has taken anti-Catholic positions, and the controversy surrounding the appointment of a Catholic priest to be chaplain of the House of Representatives. A new Gallup poll shows that while one-quarter of Americans have unfavorable attitudes toward Catholics, these attitudes are no more likely to occur among Protestants, those who are "born again," or supporters of the Christian right than they are among other Americans. Anti-Catholicism appears to be most strongly related to a general lack of religious belief or religious practice. (Full Release)

Christianity started mostly among upper to middle classes, like all cults for which we have data. (ROC p.32-33)

"The majority of converts to modern American cult movements report that their parents had no religious affiliation." (ROC p.19)

"...negative correlations were found between social class and accepting traditional religious beliefs, having religious and mystical experiences, and frequency of personal prayers. In contrast there are positive correlations between social class and church membership, attendance at worship services, participation in church activities, and saying grace between meals. But there seem to be no correlations between social class and belief in life after death or the existence of heaven." (ROC p.35)

"Religious skepticism is more prevalent among the most privileged." (ROC p.37)

"But skepticism does not entail a general immunity to the essential supernaturalism of all religions. For example, although sociologists have long believed that people who give their religious affiliation as "none" are primarily secular humanists, considerable recent research shows this not to be the case. Most such people are merely indicating a lack of conviction in a conventional brand of faith, for they are also the group most likely to express interest in belief in unconventional mystical, magical, and religious doctrines. For example, "nones" are the group of Americans most willing to accept astrology, yoga, and the like." (ROC p.37)

Catholics and Sexuality: ("High Infidelity," NYRB, Garry Wills)
"Various polls show Catholics rejecting the ban on contraceptives by 70 to 80 percent -- but that understates the reality since the polls include Catholics in their forties, fifties, sixties, and seventies. The shape of the future appears more clearly from an extensive poll funded by the Lilly Foundation in 1998. It polled Catholics in their twenties and thirties, and found support for the ban could not even be reported, since preliminary questioning showed that it fell within the margin of error."
",,,96 percent of Catholics told the Zogby national poll that the Pope should punish any bishop who covers up for pedophile priests. Yet not one of them was punished. (The only bishops removed were themselves guilty of sexual misconduct.)"

Torture, Catholics, secularists

Survey by Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Oct. 12-24, 2005; nationwide survey conducted among 2,006 adults (published in National Catholic Reporter, March 24, 2006)

Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?
	Often	Sometimes	Rarely	Never	Don’t know/refused
Total public	15%	31%	17%	32%	5%
Total Catholic	21%	35%	16%	26%	4%
White Protestant	15%	34%	16%	31%	4%
White evangelical	13%	36%	16%	31%	4%
Secular	10%	25%	16%	41%	4%