Religion in the United States

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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]

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."^[23][24] Many of the unaffiliated retain religious beliefs or practices without affiliating.^[25][26][27] 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,^[28] backlash against the religious right in the 1980s,^[29] and sexual abuse scandals, particularly those within the Southern Baptist Convention^[30] and Catholic Church.^[31]

However, according to some sociologists, perceptions of religious decline are a popular misconception.^[32] 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.^[33][34] "Religious belief and interest" has remained relatively stable in recent years; "organizational participation", in contrast, has decreased.^[35]

History

Ever since its early colonial days, when some Protestant

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."^[42]

Expert researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a "Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles",

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.^[52]

Freedom of religion

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.^[32]

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

The most popular religion in the U.S. is

• 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.

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

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)

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.^[52] 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]

Jews have been present in what is now the US since the 17th century, and specifically allowed since the British colonial

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

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

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.

Bahá'í Faith

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

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

Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the United States, representing approximately 1% of the population in 2010s.^[52][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

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

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.^[52] 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

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

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

Taoism

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,

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

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

A group of churches which started in the 1830s in the United States is known under the banner of "

Unitarian Universalism

In 2020, approximately 28% of Americans declared themselves to be

A 2001 survey directed by Dr. Ariela Keysar for the

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)
  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
  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

"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

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Christian

• 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 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.
• charismata), finds its historic roots in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1904 to 1906, sparked by Charles Parham.^[224]
• Disciples of Christ
  with no governing body.
• 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]
• 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]
• 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
  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]}

Statistics

The

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.

The Association of Religion Data Archives (1900-2050)

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

2010 ASARB data

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%).

Ethnicity

The table below shows the religious affiliations among the

ARIS findings regarding self-identification

The United States government does not collect religious data in its census. The survey below, the

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.

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

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

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

• 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

By age

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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]

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

YouGov America

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

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

See also

• American 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
• Televangelism

References