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Religion in the
United States

Christianity is the most widely professed religion in the United

States,[2][3][4] with Protestantism being its largest branch, although the
country is believed to be "rapidly secularizing".[2][4] A large variety of faiths
have historically flourished within the country.[5] The United States is a
substantial outlier among other highly developed countries: uniquely
combining a high level of religiosity and wealth, although this has lessened
somewhat since the early 1990s.[2][3] A 2020 Pew Research Center survey
found that about 65% of Americans report that religion plays an important
or very important role in their lives, 43% report attending religious services
at least monthly, and 68% report praying daily or weekly.[1] Surveys from
the same period found that 28% to 32% of Americans were atheist,
agnostic or "nothing in particular", proportions which have been growing in
recent years.[6][7][8] Freedom of religion in the United States is guaranteed
in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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 Religion in the United States (2020)[1]

Protestant (42%)
Catholic (21%)
Mormon (2%)
Orthodox (0.5%)
Unaffiliated (18%)
Atheist (5%)
Agnostic (6%)
Jewish (1%)
Muslim (1%)
Hindu (1%)
Buddhist (1%)
Other religion (1%)
Unanswered (1%)
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 A Christian worship service at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas.

Saint Paul's Cathedral in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Historically, the United States has always been marked by religious

pluralism and diversity, beginning with various native beliefs of the pre-
colonial time, though Protestantism has long been the predominant and
majority religion. In colonial times, Anglicans, Quakers, and other mainline
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 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 Great Awakenings gave birth to
multiple evangelical Protestant denominations; membership in Methodist
and Baptist churches increased drastically in the Second Great Awakening.
In the 18th century, deism found support among American upper classes
and intellectual thinkers. The Episcopal Church, splitting from the Church of
England, came into being in the American Revolution. New Protestant
branches like Adventism emerged; Restorationists and other Christians 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. During the immigrant waves of
the mid to late 19th and 20th century, an unprecedented number of
Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox Christian immigrants arrived in the United
States. Protestant Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century as a
result of the Azusa Street Revival. Scientology emerged in the 1950s.
Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merge of Unitarian and Universalist
churches in the 20th century.

Since the 1990s, the religious share of Christians has decreased, while
Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism, and other religions have spread,
mainly from immigration. When including "irreligion" or "unaffiliated" as a
religious category for statistical purposes, Protestantism, historically and
currently the dominant form of religion in the United States, ceased to be
the religious category of the majority in the early 2010s, though this is
primarily the result of an increase in Americans, including Americans of
Protestant descent, professing no religious affiliation, rather than being
primarily the result of an increase in non-Protestant religious affiliations;
Protestantism remains the most common or the majority religion among
those Americans who declare a religious affiliation.[9]

The United States has the world's largest Christian population[10] and, more
specifically, contains the largest Protestant population in the world.
Christianity is the largest religion in the United States, with the various
Protestant Churches having the most adherents. The United States has
been called a Protestant nation by a variety of sources.[11][12][13][14] In 2019,
Christians represent 65% of the total adult population, 43% identifying as
Protestants, 20% as Catholics, and 2% as Mormons. People with no formal
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 religious identity form 26% of the total population. However, in the latest
Pew Research Center survey (2021), religiously unaffiliated adults rose to
29% while Christianity dropped to 63%, with 40% Protestant, 21% Catholic
and 2% other.[15] When consolidating all Christian denominations into one
religious grouping, 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.[4] 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.[16]
The most religious state or territory of the United States is American Samoa
(99.3% religious).[17]

History

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.[18] That influence continues in
American culture, social life, and politics.[19] 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),
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 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[20] 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.[21]

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."[22] 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.[23] Since the 1940s, the Supreme Court has
interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as applying the First Amendment to
state and local governments.

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."[24]

Expert researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a

"Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles,"[11][25][13][26]
specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage.[27][28]

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".[29][30][31] The phrase first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864.[30]

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
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 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.[8]

In 1963, 90% of U.S. adults claimed to be Christians while only 2%

professed no religious identity. In 2016, 73.7% identified as Christians while
18.2% claimed no religious affiliation.[32]

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.[33]

The United States federal government was the first national government to
have no official state-endorsed religion.[34] However, some states had
established religions in some form 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.[35]
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 Christianity

Washington National Cathedral, the Episcopal cathedral in Washington, D.C.

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.)[36] 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.[37] 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).[36]
Christianity was introduced during the period of European colonization. The
United States has the world's largest Christian population.[10][38]

According to a 2012 review by the National Council of Churches, the five

largest denominations are:[39]

The Catholic Church, 68,202,492 members

The Southern Baptist Convention, 16,136,044 members

The United Methodist Church, 7,679,850 members

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 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6,157,238 members

The Church of God in Christ, 5,499,875 members

The Southern Baptist Convention, with over 16 million adherents, is the

largest of more than 200[40] distinctly named Protestant denominations.[41]
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.[42]

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.[43] 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.[44]

Protestant denominations

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.[45] 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.[46] According to Harriet Zuckerman, 72% of American Nobel
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 Prize laureates between 1901 and 1972, have identified from Protestant
background.[47]

Episcopalians[48] and Presbyterians[49] 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[48] and
Astors,[48] Rockefeller,[50][51] Du Pont,[51] Roosevelt, Forbes, Fords,[51]
Whitneys,[48] Morgans[48] and Harrimans are Mainline Protestant
families,[48] though those affiliated with Judaism are the wealthiest religious
group in the United States[52][53] 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.)[54]

Some of the first colleges and universities in America, including Harvard,[55]

Yale,[56] Princeton,[57] Columbia,[58] Dartmouth,[59] Pennsylvania,[60][61]
Duke,[62] Boston,[63] Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury,[64] 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 that:

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.[65]

Great Awakenings and other Protestant descendants

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 The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah

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

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.[66]
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 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."[67] 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,[67] more than sixty years after the founding of the Spanish Florida
mission of St. Augustine.[68] 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.[69] Though the European Catholic and indigenous
population of these former territories were small,[70] 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
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 officially occur until 1871)[71] during the mid-to-late 19th and 20th century.
Irish, Hispanic, Italian, Portuguese, French Canadian, Polish, German,[72]
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."[73] 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."[74] 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 Catholic universities are also ranked among the top 100
universities in the US.[75]

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. 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.[76][77]
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 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.[78] Lutheranism is most prominent in
the Upper Midwest, with North Dakota having the highest percentage of
Lutherans (35% according to a 2001 survey).[79]

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%.[80] 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".[81]

Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Eastern Orthodox and United Church of Christ

members[82] have the highest number of graduate and post-graduate
degrees per capita of all Christian denominations in the United
States,[83][84] as well as the most high-income earners.[85][86] 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.[87]

Other Abrahamic religions

Judaism

After Christianity, Judaism is the next largest religious affiliation in the US,
though this identification is not necessarily indicative of religious beliefs or
practices.[80] There are between 5.3 and 6.6 million Jews. A significant
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 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.[88] 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.[89] ARIS 2008 estimated
about 2.68 million adults (1.2%) in the country identify Judaism as their
faith.[80] According to a 2017 study, Judaism is the religion of approximately
2% of the American population.[32] 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.[90] 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.[91]

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
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 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, Kaifeng Jews and others from various smaller
Jewish ethnic divisions. Approximately 25% of the Jewish American
population lives in New York City.[92]

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.[37] 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.[93][94] 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".[95]

Congregation Shearith Israel (founded 1655) in New York is the oldest Jewish
congregation in the United States.

The Pew Research Center report on American Judaism released in October

2013 revealed that 22% of Jewish Americans say they have "no religion"
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 and the majority of respondents do not see religion as the primary
constituent of Jewish identity. 62% believe Jewish identity is based
primarily in ancestry and culture, only 15% in religion. Among Jews who
gave Judaism as their religion, 55% based Jewish identity on ancestry and
culture, and 66% did not view belief in God as essential to Judaism.[96]

A 2009 study estimated the Jewish population (including both those who
define themselves as Jewish by religion and those who define themselves
as Jewish in cultural or ethnic terms) to be between 6.0 and 6.4 million.[97]
According to a study done in 2000 there were an estimated 6.14 million
Jewish people in the country, about 2% of the population.[98]

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.[99] 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.[82]

Islam
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 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.[36] 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[82]). 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.[37] 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.[100] 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.[101] 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.[101]
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 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.[102] 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.[103] According to some experts,[104]
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.[105][106] The first Muslim
elected to Congress was Keith Ellison in 2006,[107] followed by André
Carson in 2008.[108]

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.[101]

The Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, is the largest mosque in the
United States.

Research indicates that Muslims in the United States are generally more
assimilated and prosperous than their counterparts in Europe.[109][110][111]
Like other subcultural and religious communities, the Islamic community
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 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.[100] 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. Looking at
NYC, it is evident that Muslim Americans are engaged and active in
important sectors of American life. That level of engagement and dynamic
interaction with the communities around them is further highlighted through
the Michigan case study as well.

Bahá'í Faith

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 Bahá’í Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the
World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.[112] Soon after, early American
converts began embracing the new religion. Thornton Chase was the first
American Bahá’í, dating from 1894.[113] One of the first Bahá’í institutions in
the U.S. was established in Chicago to facilitate the establishment of the
first Bahá’í House of Worship in the West, which was eventually built in
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 Wilmette, Illinois and dedicated in 1953.[114]

World wide, the religion has grown faster than the rate of population growth
over the 20th century,[115] and has been recognized since the 1980s as the
most widespread minority religion in the countries of the world.[116]
Similarly, by 2020, the religion was the largest minority religion in about half
of the counties.[117] Since about 1970 the state with the single largest Bahá’í
population was South Carolina.[118] From 2010 data the largest populations
of Bahá’ís at the county-by-county level are in Los Angeles, CA, Palm
Beach, FL, Harris County, TX, and Cook County, IL.[119] However, estimates
of the total number of Bahá’ís varies widely from around 500,000[120] to
175,000.[121]

Rastafari

Rastafarians began migrating to the United States in the 1950s, '60s and
'70s from the religion's 1930s birthplace, Jamaica.[122][123] Marcus Garvey,
who is considered a prophet by many Rastafarians,[124][125] rose to
prominence and cultivated many of his ideas in the United States.

Druze faith

Druze began migrating to the United States in the late 1800s from the
Levant (Syria and Lebanon).[126] 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.[126] The United States is the second largest home of Druze
communities outside the Middle East after Venezuela (60,000).[127]
According to some estimates there are about 30,000[128] to 50,000[127]
Druzes in the United States, with the largest concentration in Southern
California.[128] American Druze are mostly of Lebanese and Syrian
descent.[128]

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
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 States converted to Protestantism, becoming communicants of the
Presbyterian or Methodist churches.[129][130]

Dharmic religions

Buddhism

Hsi Lai Temple ("Coming West Temple"), a Buddhist monastery in Hacienda Heights,
California, near Los Angeles

Services at the Hompa Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, Los Angeles, around 1925.
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 Tibetan Buddhist temple in Seattle, Washington

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 US 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.[131][132]

According to a 2016 study, Buddhists are approximately 1% of the American

population.[32] 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.[37]

Hinduism
:
 Saiva Siddhanta Church in Kauai Island in Hawaii is the only Hindu monastery in the
North American continent

Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple Complex in New Jersey, USA

Hinduism is the fourth largest faith in the United States, representing

approximately 1% of the population in 2016.[32] In 2001, there were an
estimated 766,000 Hindus in the US, about 0.2% of the total
population.[133][134]

The first time Hinduism entered the U.S. is not clearly identifiable. However,
large groups of Hindus have immigrated from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, 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.[37]

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.[82] Hindus also have higher acceptance towards
homosexuality (71%), which is higher than the general public (62%).[135]

Jainism

Jain Center of Greater Phoenix (JCGP)

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.[136]
:
 Sikhism

Front of the Stockton Sikh Temple, circa 1915. This wooden structure was replaced
with a new building in 1929.

Sikh Center of San Francisco Bay Area, a Sikh Gurdwara in El Sobrante, California.

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.[137] The first Sikh Gurdwara in
America was built in Stockton, California, in 1912.[138] 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.[139][140]

The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to

Sikhism.[141]

East Asian religions

Taoism

Taoism was popularized throughout the world by the writings and teachings
of Lao Tzu and other Taoists as well as the practice of Qigong, Tai Chi
Chuan, and other Chinese martial arts.[142] 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.[143]

No religion

In 2020, approximately 28% of the Americans declared to be not religiously

affiliated.[1]

Agnosticism, atheism, and humanism

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.[80] A nationwide
Pew Research study published in 2008 put the figure of unaffiliated persons
at 16.1%,[134] 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.[144]

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.[145][146] 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."[147] Some surveys have indicated that doubts about the
existence of the divine were growing quickly among Americans under
30.[148]

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.[149]

Deism

In the United States, Enlightenment philosophy (which itself was heavily

inspired by deist ideals) played a major role in creating the principle of
:
 religious freedom, expressed in Thomas Jefferson's letters and included in
the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. American Founding
Fathers, or Framers of the Constitution, who were especially noted for being
influenced by such philosophy of deism include Thomas Jefferson,
Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh
Williamson. Their political speeches show distinct deistic influence. Other
notable Founding Fathers may have been more directly deist. These include
Thomas Paine, James Madison, possibly Alexander Hamilton, and Ethan
Allen.[150]

Belief in the existence of a god

Various polls have been conducted to determine Americans' actual beliefs

regarding a god:

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.[151]

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.[152]

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.[148][153]

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.[154]

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)[155]
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).[80]

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.[156]

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%.[157]

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,"[158] so holistic activities such as tai chi,
reiki, and yoga are common within the SBNR movement.[159] In contrast to
religion, spirituality has often been associated with the interior life of the
individual.[160]

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.[161]

Others

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

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.[162] The membership of
Native American religions in the 21st century comprises about 9,000
people.[163]

Neopaganism

Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different

movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is Wicca,
followed by Neo-Druidism.[164][165] 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.[166] 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.[167]

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.[168] Universal Eclectic Wicca was popularized in 1969 for a
diverse membership drawing from both Dianic and British Traditional
Wiccan backgrounds.[169]

Nordic Paganism

Nordic Paganism is the umbrella term for polytheistic followers of the Proto-
Norse period religions involving the Nordic pantheon of gods. This
pantheon includes gods such as the Æsir; Odin, Thor, Loki, Sif, Heimdallr,
Baldr, and Týr, as well as goddesses that include Vanir; Freyja, Freyr, Njörðr,
and Nerthus. The followers of Nordic Paganism include Odinists, Tyrists,
Lokians, Asatru, and practitioners of Seiðr, among other varying followers.
Nordic Pagans follow the teachings of the Hávamál. This old text, along with
the Prose Edda and Poetic Edda, gives the basis for Norse mythology,
stories, legends, and beliefs.

Norse mythology is portrayed in popular culture and Nordic symbols and

teachings are also used by many white supremacy groups. This use has
prompted some prisons to ban the wearing of these symbols, such as
Mjölnir, by inmates due to their gang affiliation.
:
 New Thought Movement

Church of the Holy City in Washington, D.C. is tied to the New Church.

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.[170] 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
:
 Sign on a UU church in Rochester, Minnesota. The denomination stems from the
original Congregationalism of the Pilgrim Fathers.

Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are among the most liberal of all religious
denominations in America.[171] The shared creed includes beliefs in inherent
dignity, a common search for truth, respect for beliefs of others,
compassion, and social action.[172] 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.[173] UUs have historical ties to anti-war, civil rights, and LGBT
rights movements,[174] 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.[175] In fact, many UUs also identify as belonging to
another religious group, including atheism and agnosticism.[176]

Major religious movements founded in the United

States

Christian
:
 Former New York City headquarters of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society run
by Jehovah's Witnesses

The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts

Pentecostalism – movement which emphasizes the role of the Holy Spirit,

finds its historic roots in the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from
1904 to 1906, sparked by Charles Parham. It is estimated to have over
279 million followers worldwide, many in Africa and South America.[177]

Adventism – 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.

The 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.
Worldwide they claim about 15 million members.

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. They claim about 8.7 million active members
worldwide.[178]

Christian Science – founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the late 19th century.
The church claims some 400,000 members worldwide.

Churches of Christ/Disciples of Christ – a restoration movement with no

governing body. The Restoration Movement solidified as a historical
phenomenon in 1832 when restorationists from two major movements
championed by Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell merged. It has
an estimated 3 million followers worldwide.

Metropolitan Community Church – founded by Troy Perry in Los Angeles,

1968.

Unitarianism Developed out of the Congregational Churches. In 1825 the

American Unitarian Association was formed in Boston, MA.

Universalist Church of America's first regional conference was founded in

1793.

Other
:
 Church of Scientology building in Los Angeles, California

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[179][180]

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.

Scientology – founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1954. Numbers estimated

from a few tens of thousands to 15 million (latter is the religion's
estimation in 2004).

Reconstructionist Judaism – founded by Mordecai Kaplan and started in

the 1920s.

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.

Nation of Islam – a sect of Islam, created and followed predominantly by

African-Americans.

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 Sikhism and Hinduism.[181]

3HO – a sect of Sikhism, founded in Los Angeles in 1971 by Yogi Bhajan

and followed mostly by White Americans.[182][183][184][185][186]

Self-Realization Fellowship - founded in Los Angeles by Paramahansa

Yogananda in 1920.

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.

Government positions

The First Amendment guarantees both the free practice of religion and the
non-establishment of religion by the federal government (later court
decisions have extended that prohibition to the states).[187] The U.S. Pledge
of Allegiance was modified in 1954 to add the phrase "under God", in order
to distinguish itself from the Marxist–Leninist atheism espoused by the
Soviet Union.[188][189][190][191]

Various American presidents have often stated the importance of religion.

On February 20, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower stated that
"Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression
of Americanism."[192] President Gerald Ford agreed with and repeated this
statement in 1974.[193]

Statistics

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[93] and 2019,[4] CID-Gallup Center since 1948,[194] Public Religion
:
 Research Institute,[195] Christianity Today 1900-1950:Religious Trends in
the United States,[196] The Database of Religious History,[197] and
Historical information sources.[198][199]

Change in religious identification, 1950–2020

Percentage of Americans by religious identification (1950 – 2020)[194]

Protestantism
Christian (nonspecified)
Catholicism
Mormonism
Jewish
Other
Unaffiliated
No Answer
:
 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.[195]

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).[195]

Religion in the United States according to the American Values Atlas

published by the PRRI (2020)[195]
Religious
National % South % West % Midwest
Affiliation

Christian 69.7 74 65 72

Protestant 45.6 53 36 50

White
14.5 18 10 18
Evangelical

White
Mainline 16.4 17 14 21
Protestant

Black
7.3 10 3 6
Protestant

Hispanic
3.9 4 5 2
Protestant

Other
non-white 3.5 4 4 3
Protestant

Catholic 21.8 19 24 21
:
 White 11.7 9 9 15
Catholic

Hispanic
8.2 8 13 4
Catholic

Other
non-white 1.9 2 2 2
Catholic

Mormon 1.3 1 4 1

Jehovah's
0.5 1 1 0
Witness

Orthodox
0.5 0 0 0
Christian

Unaffiliated 23.3 21 27 22

Non-
7.0 5 8 6
Christian

Jewish 1.4 1 1 1

Muslim 0.8 1 1 1

Buddhist 0.8 1 1 1

Hindu 0.5 0 1 0

Other
non- 3.5 2 4 3
Christian

Total 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)[93]
Affiliation % of U.S. population

Christian 70.6

Protestant 46.5

Evangelical Protestant 25.4

Mainline Protestant 14.7

Black church 6.5

Catholic 20.8

Mormon 1.6

Jehovah's Witnesses 0.8

Eastern Orthodox 0.5

Other Christian 0.4

Unaffiliated 22.8

Nothing in particular 15.8

Agnostic 4.0

Atheist 3.1

Non-Christian 5.9

Jewish 1.9

Muslim 0.9

Buddhist 0.7

Hindu 0.7

Other non-Christian 1.8

Don't know/refused answer 0.6

Total 100

2010 ARDA data

The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) 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.[200]
ARDA 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
Number % in
Religious group in year year
2010 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

6,144,582 2.0%
(Mormon, LDS)

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: ARDA[98][201]

Ethnicity

The table below shows the religious affiliations among the ethnicities in the
United States, according to the Pew Forum 2014 survey.[93] 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.
:
 Non-
Hispanic Black Hispanic Other/mixed
Religion
White (13%) (17%) (8%)
(62%)

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 24% 18% 20% 29%
agnostic)

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[80]
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[80]

Numerical
1990 2001 2008
Change
adults adults adults
Group 1990–
x x x
2008
1,000 1,000 1,000
as %
of 1990

Adult population, total 175,440 207,983 228,182 30.1%

Adult population, responded 171,409 196,683 216,367 26.2%

Total Christian 151,225 159,514 173,402 14.7%

Catholic 46,004 50,873 57,199 24.3%

non-Catholic Christian 105,221 108,641 116,203 10.4%

Baptist 33,964 33,820 36,148 6.4%

Mainline Christian 32,784 35,788 29,375 −10.4%

Methodist 14,174 14,039 11,366 −19.8%

Lutheran 9,110 9,580 8,674 −4.8%

Presbyterian 4,985 5,596 4,723 −5.3%

Episcopal/Anglican 3,043 3,451 2,405 −21.0%

United Church of
438 1,378 736 68.0%
Christ

Christian Generic 25,980 22,546 32,441 24.9%

Christian Unspecified 8,073 14,190 16,384 102.9%

Non-denominational
194 2,489 8,032 4040.2%
Christian
:
 Protestant – 17,214 4,647 5,187 −69.9%
Unspecified

Evangelical/Born Again 546 1,088 2,154 294.5%

Pentecostal/Charismatic 5,647 7,831 7,948 40.7%

Pentecostal –
3,116 4,407 5,416 73.8%
Unspecified

Assemblies of God 617 1,105 810 31.3%

Church of God 590 943 663 12.4%

Other Protestant
4,630 5,949 7,131 54.0%
Denominations

Churches of Christ 1,769 2,593 1,921 8.6%

Jehovah's Witness 1,381 1,331 1,914 38.6%

Seventh-Day Adventist 668 724 938 40.4%

Mormon/Latter Day
2,487 2,697 3,158 27.0%
Saints

Total non-Christian
5,853 7,740 8,796 50.3%
religions

Jewish 3,137 2,837 2,680 −14.6%

Eastern Religions 687 2,020 1,961 185.4%

Buddhist 404 1,082 1,189 194.3%

Muslim 527 1,104 1,349 156.0%

New Religious
1,296 1,770 2,804 116.4%
Movements & Others

None/No religion, total 14,331 29,481 34,169 138.4%

Agnostic+Atheist 1,186 1,893 3,606 204.0%

Did Not Know/Refused to

4,031 11,300 11,815 193.1%
reply

Highlights:[80]

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.[202][203]

A 2013 Public Religion Research Institute survey reported that 31% of

Americans attend religious services at least weekly.[204]
:
 In a 2009 Gallup survey, 41.6%[205] 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.[206][207] 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).[101] 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".[101]

Religion and politics

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.[208]

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.[209]

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.[210]

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.[211] Biden was also the first
Catholic vice president.[212]

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.[213]

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.[214] André Carson is the
second Muslim to serve in Congress.

A Gallup poll released in 2007[215] 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.[216][217]

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.[218]

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

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

Protestantism in the United States

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Gordon, Melton, J. Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th ed. Thomson,

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Hill, Samuel S., Charles H. Lippy, and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds.
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 (3rd ed. 3 vol, Facts on File, 2009)

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Religion in the United States.

Association of Religion Data Archives (https://www.thearda.com) -

compilation of religion data from a project jointly supported by Penn State
University, Chapman University, the Lilly Endowment, and the John
Templeton Foundation

The ARIS (American Religious Identification Survey) time series surveys (

https://commons.trincoll.edu/aris/) - website of academic research
team that conducted "three large replicate, representative, national
surveys of adults" in the continental United States in 1990, 2001 and
2008. Includes reports, data sets, and other information.

Material History of American Religion Project (https://www.materialreligio

n.org/) - based at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School and
supported by the Lilly Endowment

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (https://www.pewforum.org/) -a

project of the Pew Research Center, publishing statistical reports on
religion and American life

Religion: Gallup Historical Trends (https://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religi

on.aspx) - opinion polling of Americans by the Gallup Poll from the
1940s to the present

Portals: Religion United States

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