Religious Demographic Profile
United States
The U.S. Census Bureau includes data from three non-government studies in its 2006 Statistical Abstract of the United States.1 According to one of these studies, the 2001 American Religious Identification Study (ARIS), 76.7% of the 2001 U.S. adult population of 208 million is Christian. This includes Protestants from numerous traditions (49.8%), Roman Catholics (24.5%) and those who belong to other self-identified Christian traditions, including Mormons (1.3%), Jehovah's Witnesses (0.6%), Eastern Orthodox (0.3%) and others (0.2%).
The next largest category is comprised of those who said they had no religion or did not declare a religion (14.2%). Since secularism is generally associated with lower birth rates,2 when the children of both religiously affiliated and unaffiliated adults are considered, the number of unaffiliated could constitute a somewhat smaller share of the total population. Other groups reported by ARIS include Jews (1.4%), Muslims (0.5%), Hindus (0.4%) and Unitarian Universalists (0.3%). These figures generally accord with the findings of Pew Research Center surveys.
| Religious Affiliation, General Population Surveys | ||||
| ARISa | GSSa | PRCc | Baylord | |
| Christian | 76.7% | 81.3 | 81.9 | |
| Protestant | 49.8% | 50.4 | 53.9 | 60.7 |
| Catholic | 24.5% | 25.1 | 25.2 | 21.2 |
| Other Christian | 2.4% | 2.2 | ||
| Jewish | 1.4% | 2.2 | 1.9 | 2.5 |
| Muslim | 0.5% | 0.7 | 0.5 | |
| Non-affiliated | 14.2% | 14.2 | 11.8 | 10.8 |
| Other/DK | 7.2% | 7.4 | 4.5 | 4.9 |
Although the United States continues to register high levels of religious adherence, the percentage of Protestants in the population has been dropping since 1974. According to successive nationally representative General Social Surveys,5 the Protestant share of the population decreased by nearly 14 percentage points in the 30 years between 1974 and 2004, dropping from 64.3% to 50.4%. (A 2005 nationally representative survey by Baylor University suggests that the decline may not be as large as indicated by the GSS because some evangelically oriented independents do not self-identify as denominationally Protestant.) The Protestant decline has been accompanied by a corresponding growth in the number of the unaffiliated and those identifying with other religions. The share of the unaffiliated more than doubled between 1974 and 2004, from 6.8% to 14.2%, and those identifying with religions other than Christianity and Judaism also increased significantly, from 0.5% to 8.1% of the population. During this same period, the Catholic share of the population has remained relatively steady.
In the 2006 Forum survey, approximately one-in-twenty respondents indicated they belong to a pentecostal church.6 Nearly two-in-ten identified as charismatic, bringing the total number of renewalists to more than two-in-ten. Nearly three-in-ten Protestants interviewed indicated they were either pentecostal or charismatic, and more than three-in-ten Catholics interviewed can be classified as charismatic.
| Renewalists in the United States, Forum 2006 Survey | |||
| Renewalist | Pentecostal | Charismatic | |
| Total Population | 23% | 5 | 18 |
| Catholic | 36% | NA | 36 |
| Protestant | 28% | 10 | 18 |
Notes
2Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart. 2004, pp. 231-239. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge.
3Based on Pew Research Center surveys conducted from January 2006 to September 2006.
4See http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/33304.pdf. Other results from the Baylor Religion Survey are available at The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), http://thearda.com/.
5Religious trend data, including data from recent General Social Surveys, are also available at ARDA.
6See the introduction to the survey report for a discussion of survey methodology and definitions.
