Chapter 1: Religious Affiliation
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Christians
make up the largest single religious group within the Asian-American community,
but the Christian share of U.S. Asians (42%) is far smaller than the Christian
share of the U.S. general public (75%). Only two of the six largest
country-of-origin groups are majority Christian: Filipino Americans (89%
Christian) and Korean Americans (71% Christian). Among other Asian-American
groups, fewer than four-in-ten are Christian.
Among
Asian Americans as a whole, 22% are Protestant, 19% are Catholic, and 1% belong
to other Christian groups, such as Orthodox Christians and Mormons. Most
Filipino Americans are Catholic (65%), while most Korean Americans are
Protestant (61%).
Asian
Americans as a whole are somewhat more likely than the public overall to be
unaffiliated with a particular religion. One-in-four Asian Americans (26%) say
they are religiously unaffiliated, compared with roughly one-in-five people in
the general public (19%).
Religious
affiliation varies greatly across the largest subgroups of U.S. Asians. Half of
Chinese Americans (52%) describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated,
including 15% who say they are atheist or agnostic. A fifth or more of Japanese
Americans (32%), Korean Americans (23%) and Vietnamese Americans (20%) also say
they are unaffiliated with any particular religion. Filipino Americans and
Indian Americans are much less likely to say they are religiously unaffiliated
(8% and 10%, respectively).
As
expected, Buddhists make up a larger portion of Asian Americans than of the
U.S. public as a whole. A total of 14% of Asian Americans are Buddhist,
compared with about 1% of the general public. Roughly four-in-ten Vietnamese
Americans (43%), one-in-four Japanese Americans (25%) and one-in-six Chinese
Americans (15%) are Buddhist.
Hindus
also make up a larger portion of Asian Americans than of the U.S. public as a
whole. One-in-ten Asian Americans are Hindu, compared with less than 1% of the
general public in the U.S. Nearly all Asian-American Hindus trace their roots
to India, with relatively few from other parts of Asia. There are a number of
religious groups in the Indian-American population, however (see below).
While
some Asian-American groups tend to have a preponderance of one religion, others
have a more even mix. For example, Filipino Americans and Korean Americans are
overwhelmingly Christian (89% and 71%, respectively). Japanese Americans, by
comparison, are more evenly split: 38% are Christian, 32% are unaffiliated, 25%
are Buddhist, and 4% belong to other religions. Among Vietnamese Americans, 43%
are Buddhist, 36% are Christian, 20% are unaffiliated, and less than 1% belong
to other religions. While about half of Indian Americans are Hindu (51%), 18%
are Christian, 10% are Muslim, 10% are unaffiliated, 5% are Sikh, 2% are Jain,
1% are Buddhist, and the remainder belong to other religions.
Christians
As
noted above, Asian-American Christians are almost evenly divided between
Protestants and Catholics. Roughly a fifth of all Asian Americans are
Protestant (22%), and a slightly smaller percentage is Catholic (19%). In the
U.S. public as a whole, about half are Protestant, and 23% are Catholic.
Protestants
Of
the six largest country-of-origin groups, only Korean Americans are majority Protestant
(61%). A third of the Japanese Americans surveyed (33%) and about a fifth of
Chinese Americans (22%) and Filipino Americans (21%) also describe themselves
as Protestant. The Protestant share of the Indian-American and
Vietnamese-American communities is much lower (11% and 6%, respectively.)
Looking
at all Asian-American Protestants, there is a higher proportion of born-again
or evangelical Protestants (58%) than mainline Protestants (42%).20
Among white Protestants in the general public, 51% say they are born-again or
evangelical. About two-thirds of black Protestants (65%) in the general public
say they are born-again or evangelical.
Korean-American
Protestants are more likely than other Asian-American Protestants to say they
are evangelical or born-again. Two-thirds of Korean-American Protestants (66%)
describe themselves this way. The majority of Chinese-American Protestants
(58%) also say they are evangelical. The reverse is true for Japanese-American
Protestants, among whom 60% are mainline Protestant and 40% are evangelical.
Nearly
a third of Asian-American Protestants (31%) describe themselves as Pentecostal
Christians, charismatic Christians or both. (See Glossary.) A similar share of Protestants in the U.S. general
public also identify as Pentecostal and/or charismatic (33%), according to the
Pew Forum’s 2007 “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey.”
About
four-in-ten Korean-American Protestants (38%) describe themselves as
Pentecostal and/or charismatic. Fewer Chinese-American Protestants identify as
Pentecostal and/or charismatic (21%), and 14% of Japanese-American Protestants
do so. The survey sample contains too few Protestants in the other U.S. Asian
groups to analyze.
Protestant
Denominational Families
Among
Asian-American Protestants as a whole, the most common denominational families
are Presbyterian (19%) and Baptist (18%). Nondenominational Christians make up
14%. Roughly one-in-ten Asian-American Protestants are Methodist (9%), and 7%
belong to Pentecostal churches and denominations.21
Other denominational families each account for less than 5% of Asian-American
Protestants.
This
pattern differs considerably from Protestants in the general population.
According to the Pew Forum’s 2007 “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,” one-third
of Protestants in the general public are Baptist (compared with 18% among
Asian-American Protestants). Presbyterians, by contrast, make up a much larger
share of Asian-American Protestants (19%) than of Protestants in the general
public (5%).22
Denominational
families differ somewhat across U.S. Asian groups. A plurality of
Korean-American Protestants (43%) are Presbyterian, with the remainder coming
from other denominational families, including Baptist (15%) and Methodist
(15%).
A
quarter of Chinese-American Protestants (25%) are from a nondenominational or
independent church, 15% are Baptist, and 10% are Presbyterian. Among
Japanese-American Protestants, the most common denominational families are
Methodist (17%), Baptist (15%) and Presbyterian (13%). The survey did not
include enough interviews with Protestants in the other three country-of-origin
groups (Filipino, Indian and Vietnamese Americans) to analyze separately.
Catholics
The
share of Asian Americans who are Catholic (19%) is slightly less than the share
who are Protestant (22%). In the U.S. public as a whole, 23% of adults are
Catholic, and about half are Protestant. Roughly two-thirds of Filipino
Americans (65%) and three-in-ten Vietnamese Americans (30%) are Catholic. (See "Religious Affiliation Among U.S. Asian Groups" table.)
Roughly
one-third of Asian-American Catholics (35%) identify as Pentecostal,
charismatic or both. This is similar to the number of Catholics in the general
public (33%) who describe themselves this way. (See Glossary.)
Buddhists
About
one-in-seven Asian Americans (14%) are Buddhist. Buddhism is more common among
some U.S. Asian groups. Roughly four-in-ten Vietnamese Americans (43%) and
one-in-four Japanese Americans (25%) are Buddhist. Among Chinese Americans, 15%
are Buddhist. Buddhists comprise no more than 6% of the other major U.S. Asian
groups.
While
Asian Americans make up a majority of U.S. Buddhists, roughly a third of
American Buddhists are non-Asian; the Pew Forum estimates that 67%-69% of
Buddhists in the U.S. are Asian. Since non-Asian Buddhists are not represented
in this survey, the findings of the survey should not be interpreted as
representing U.S. Buddhists as a whole.23
Almost
half of Asian-American Buddhists (49%) do not specify a particular Buddhist tradition
with which they are affiliated, describing themselves as “just a Buddhist.”
About one-in-eight Asian-American Buddhists (13%) say they practice Mahayana
Buddhism (including Zen and other branches), 8% practice Theravada Buddhism, 5%
identify with Vajrayana (or Tibetan) Buddhism, and 2% identify with Vipassana
Buddhism. About one-in-ten Asian-American
Buddhists (8%) volunteered that they
identify with other traditions, including Jodo Shinshu Buddhism (7%).24
(See Glossary.)
Nearly
six-in-ten Japanese-American Buddhists say they practice either Jodo Shinshu (30%)
or Mahayana Buddhism (28%). By contrast, a majority of Vietnamese-American and
Chinese-American Buddhists say they are “just a Buddhist” (60% and 55%,
respectively). There were too few Buddhists in the other country-of-origin
groups to analyze separately.
Hindus
Like
Buddhists, Hindus represent a very small percentage of all U.S. adults (less
than 1% according to the Pew Forum’s 2007 “U.S. Religious Landscape Survey”). But
unlike Buddhists, the overwhelming majority of Hindus in the U.S. are Asian
Americans from one country of origin: India. The Pew Forum estimates that
85%-97% of U.S. Hindus are Asian American.
Looking
at all U.S. Asians surveyed, 10% are Hindu. Roughly half of the Indian
Americans surveyed (51%) identify their present religion as Hindu, and 59% say
they were raised Hindu. In the U.S., none of the other five large
country-of-origin groups has a significant number of Hindus. Indeed, more than
nine-in-ten Asian-American Hindus surveyed (93%) say they are of Indian
descent, though Hindus also live in such other Asian countries as Nepal, Sri
Lanka, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Roughly
half of the Asian-American Hindus surveyed (53%) identify themselves as “just a
Hindu.” About a fifth (19%) identify with the Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism
and 10% with Shaivite Hinduism. Smaller percentages identify with Hare Krishna
(3%) or the Vedanta philosophy (2%). (See Glossary.)
Muslims and Other
Religious Groups
Asian
Americans also practice a number of other faiths, such as Islam, Judaism,
Sikhism, Jainism and others. (See "Religious Affiliation of U.S. Asians" table.) A total of 4% of U.S.
Asians are Muslim. Unfortunately, the survey sample contains too few
Asian-American Muslims to allow for separate analysis.
The
Pew Research Center estimates that 0.8% of the U.S. adult population is Muslim.
The Pew Research Center’s 2011 survey of Muslim Americans provides a
comprehensive portrait of this religious group, including its religious beliefs
and practices as well as social and political attitudes.25
The survey found that Muslims in the U.S. are racially diverse, with 21%
describing themselves as Asian.26
In addition, 30% of Muslim Americans describe themselves as white, 23% as
black, 6% as Hispanic and 19% as other or mixed race. 27
Appendix 1 provides selected findings for Asian-American Muslims (including
comparisons with U.S. Muslims as a whole) from the 2011 survey, which was
conducted not only in English but also in Arabic, Farsi and Urdu.
Members
of many other religious groups—including Baha’is, Confucians, Jains, Jews,
Shintoists, Sikhs, Taoists and Unitarians, to name just a few—participated in
the survey of Asian Americans. They are included in the overall results for all
Asian Americans, but the survey sample does not include enough individuals from
these religious groups to allow for separate analysis of each group.
The Unaffiliated
About
a quarter of U.S. Asians (26%) say they are atheist, agnostic or have no
particular religion. Asian Americans are somewhat more likely than the general
public to be unaffiliated with any religion. About a fifth of the general
public (19%) has no religious affiliation, a group that has been growing over
time, particularly among younger adults.
Half
of Chinese Americans (52%) describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated;
this includes 15% who say they are atheist or agnostic and 37% who describe
their religion as “nothing in particular.” While Chinese Americans come
primarily from mainland China—where the ruling Communist Party is officially
atheist and there are very high government restrictions on religion—some also
come from Taiwan, Hong Kong and other places.28
Roughly equal portions of U.S.-born (55%) and foreign-born (51%) Chinese
Americans have no religious affiliation. However, native-born Chinese Americans
are more likely than foreign-born Chinese Americans to say they are atheist or
agnostic (28% vs. 12%).
Nearly
a third of Japanese Americans (32%) are religiously unaffiliated. Here, too,
about equal portions of U.S.-born (31%) and foreign-born (34%) Japanese
Americans have no religious affiliation. A fourth of Korean Americans (23%) and
a fifth of Vietnamese Americans (20%) are religiously unaffiliated. By
comparison, fewer Filipino and Indian Americans have no religious affiliation
(8% and 10%, respectively).
Some Asian Americans may follow traditions such as
Confucianism or Chinese folk religion yet not necessarily identify with a
religious affiliation in the survey. Scholars of Chinese religion describe
these folk beliefs and practices as “diffuse” religious traditions, as distinct
from the more “systematic” or institutionalized religions such as Christianity,
Judaism and Islam.29
In the U.S. general public, there also are many people
who have religious beliefs and practices but do not think of themselves as
belonging to an institutionalized religion. Most Americans who say they have
“no particular religion,” for example, nonetheless say they believe in God and
pray on occasion. The survey provides numerous opportunities for U.S. Asians
who do not identify with a particular religious tradition to describe their
spiritual beliefs and practices, if any, including questions about meditation,
ancestral spirits, yoga, reincarnation, spiritual energy, astrology and shrines
in the home. For details on the beliefs and practices of unaffiliated Asian
Americans, the "Unaffiliated Asian Americans" section of the Overview, Chapter 4: “Religious Beliefs” and
Chapter 5: “Religious Practices.”
Footnotes:
20 Respondents to the Asian-American survey were asked whether they think of
themselves as a born-again or evangelical Christian. Responses to this question
were used to divide Protestants into “evangelical” and “mainline” Protestant
categories. Those who answered “yes” to the question were categorized as
evangelical Protestants; those who answered “no” or declined to answer were
categorized as mainline Protestants. (return to text)
21 Many Pentecostals belong to independent or nondenominational churches. This may
explain why the percentage of Asian-American Protestants who describe
themselves as Pentecostals (16%) is higher than the percentage that says they
belong to Pentecostal churches (7%). (return to text)
22 Comparisons between Asian-American Protestants and Protestants in the general
public should be made with caution because the Pew Forum’s 2007 “U.S. Religious
Landscape Survey” asked an additional question to determine denomination. The
additional question allowed respondents to be categorized with more precision
than was possible in the Asian-American survey. Additionally, the general
public estimates provided in this study differ slightly from previous “U.S.
Religious Landscape Survey” reports, as the results reported in this study have
been repercentaged to more closely match the denomination categories employed
in the Asian-American survey. (return to text)
23 For more information on the composition of American Buddhism, see Richard
Hughes Seager, “Buddhism in America,” Columbia University Press, 1999; and
Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka, editors, “The Faces of Buddhism in
America,” University of California Press, 1998. (return to text)
24 Respondents’ self-identification with various forms of Buddhism may differ from
how scholars classify types of Buddhism in the U.S. and around the world. For
example, Jodo Shinshu is often viewed as a branch of Mahayana Buddhism. See
Richard Hughes Seager, “Buddhism in America,” Columbia University Press, 1999;
and Charles S. Prebish and Kenneth K. Tanaka, editors, “The Faces of Buddhism
in America,” University of California Press, 1998. (return to text)
25 See Pew Research Center. 2011. “Muslim
Americans: No Sign of Growth in Alienation or Support for Extremism.”
Washington, D.C.: August. That report includes some analysis of foreign-born
Muslim Americans from Pakistan and other South Asian countries. (return to text)
26 In all, 22% of U.S. Muslims describe themselves as either single-race Asian
(21%) or multiple-race Asian. (return to text)
27 The global distribution of Muslims is very different from the origins of U.S.
Muslims. While a minority of U.S. Muslims identify themselves as Asian (by
race), more than 60% of the global Muslim population lives in Asia, and the
four countries with the largest Muslim populations—Indonesia, Pakistan, India
and Bangladesh—are all in Asia. For more, see Pew Research Center’s Forum on
Religion & Public Life. 2011. “The
Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030,” Washington,
D.C.: January. (return to text)
28 For more information on restrictions on religion in China and other countries
around the world, see Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public
Life. 2011. “Rising
Restrictions on Religion.” Washington, D.C.: August. (return to text)
29 See Tang, Wenfang. 2010. “Religion and Politics in China: Evidence from Survey
Data.” Paper prepared for the 7th Annual Conference of the Social Scientific
Study of Religion in China: The Present and Future of Religion in China. Beijing: July. (return to text)
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