In 2023, **** percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further **** percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional **** percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.

The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2001 is a 10-year follow-up study of religious identification among American adults, undertaken for the first time in 1990. Carried out under the auspices of The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the 1990 National Survey of Religious Identification (NSRI) was the most extensive survey of religious identification in the later half of 20th-century America. That study, like the current follow-up, was undertaken because the U.S. Census does not produce a religious profile of the American population. Yet, the religious categories into which a population sorts itself is surely no less important than some of the other social-demographic categories that are enumerated by the decennial census. This survey represents the first large-scale national survey of religious identification conducted among Americans in the 21st century. The primary question of the interview was: What is your religion, if any? The religion of the spouse/partner also was asked. If the initial answer was 'Protestant' or 'Christian,' further questions were asked to probe which particular denomination.

This statistic shows religious diversity in North America in 2010, by share of religious population. In 2010, about 77 percent of population were Christians.

This graph shows the ratio of religious adherents to population in the United States in 2010, by state. In 2010, about 79 percent of Utah's population were adherents to a religion.

The 2008 Conversion Recontact Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, is a follow-up to the 2007 "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey." One of the most striking findings from the Landscape Survey was the large number of people who have left their childhood faith. The Landscape Survey found that more than one in four American adults (28%) have changed their religious affiliation from that in which they were raised. This number includes people who have changed from one major religious tradition to another, for instance, from Protestantism to Catholicism or from Judaism to no religion. If change within religious traditions is included (e.g., from one Protestant denominational family to another), the survey found that roughly 44% of Americans now profess a religious affiliation different from that in which they were raised.

The Conversion Recontact Survey is designed to offer a fuller picture of this churn within American religion, with a special focus on the reasons that people change religious affiliation. The Conversion Recontact Survey is based on follow-up interviews with Landscape Survey respondents, including those from the largest segments of the population that have changed religious affiliation as well as those who still belong to the religious faith in which they were raised. Interviews were conducted by telephone with a nationally representative sample of 2,867 adults living in continental United States telephone households. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI). Interviews were conducted on landline telephones in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source (PDS), LLC from Oct. 3 to Nov. 7, 2008. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. A full report on the survey's findings, "Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.," is available on the Pew Forum's "http://www.pewforum.org/2009/04/27/faith-in-flux/" Target="_blank">website.

This study, designed and carried out by the "http://www.asarb.org/" Target="_blank">Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), compiled data on 372 religious bodies by county in the United States. Of these, the ASARB was able to gather data on congregations and adherents for 217 religious bodies and on congregations only for 155. Participating bodies included 354 Christian denominations, associations, or communions (including Latter-day Saints, Messianic Jews, and Unitarian/Universalist groups); counts of Jain, Shinto, Sikh, Tao, Zoroastrian, American Ethical Union, and National Spiritualist Association congregations, and counts of congregations and adherents from Baha'i, three Buddhist groupings, two Hindu groupings, and four Jewish groupings, and Muslims. The 372 groups reported a total of 356,642 congregations with 161,224,088 adherents, comprising 48.6 percent of the total U.S. population of 331,449,281. Membership totals were estimated for some religious groups.

In January 2024, the ARDA added 21 religious tradition (RELTRAD) variables to this dataset. These variables start at variable #8 (TOTCNG_2020). Categories were assigned based on pages 88-94 in the original "https://www.usreligioncensus.org/index.php/node/1638" Target="_blank">2020 U.S. Religion Census Report.

Visit the "https://www.thearda.com/us-religion/sources-for-religious-congregations-membership-data" Target="_blank">frequently asked questions page for more information about the ARDA's religious congregation and membership data sources.

This study, designed and carried out by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), compiled data on the number of congregations and adherents for 236 religious groups in each county of the United States. Participants included 217 Christian denominations, associations, or communions (including Latter-day Saints, Messianic Jews, and Unitarian/Universalist groups); counts of Jain, Shinto, Sikh, Tao and National Spiritualist Association congregations, and counts of congregations and adherents from Bahá'ís, three Buddhist groupings, four Hindu groupings, four Jewish groupings, Muslims and Zoroastrians. The 236 groups reported a total of 344,894 congregations with 150,686,156 adherents, comprising 48.8 percent of the total U.S. population of 308,745,538 in 2010.

Visit the "/us-religion/sources-for-religious-congregations-membership-data" Target="_blank">frequently asked questions page for more information about the ARDA's religious congregation and membership data.

In 1972, an estimated ** percent of the population in the United States identified as Christian. By 2020, this number dropped down to ** percent, a phenomenon which may be attributed to recent trends where many Americans have left Christianity to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular. If these trends continue, the number of Americans who are Christian has been projected to fall to ** percent by 2070.

In 2023, 27.5 percent of Americans were unaffiliated with any religion. A further 13.4 percent of Americans were White evangelical Protestants, and an additional 13.3 percent were White mainline Protestants. Religious trends in the United States Although the United States is still home to the largest number of Christians worldwide, the nation has started to reflect a more diverse religious landscape in recent years. Americans now report a wide range of religious beliefs and backgrounds, in addition to an increasing number of people who are choosing to identify with no religion at all. Studies suggest that many Americans have left their previous religion to instead identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular, with many reasoning that they stopped believing in the religion's teachings, that they didn't approve of negative teachings or treatment of LGBTQ+ people, or that their family was never that religious growing up. Christian controversies Over the last few years, controversies linked to Christian denominations have plagued the nation, including reports of child sexual abuse by the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Southern Baptist Convention. Christian churches have also been accused of supporting discriminatory actions against LGBTQ+ people and people belonging to other religious groups. In addition, there have been increasing concerns about Christian nationalism, the political ideology that asserts that America was founded to be a Christian nation. Although the majority of Americans still think that declaring the United States a Christian nation would go against the U.S. Constitution, studies found that most Republicans would be in favor of this change.

Dataset

This dataset was created by marklandon79

Released under Apache 2.0

Contents

This Pew Research Center survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of adults to provide estimates of the U.S. population’s religious composition, beliefs and practices.

Pew Research Center is releasing two versions of the dataset – a public-use file (PUF) and restricted-use file (RUF). THIS PRODUCT IS THE PUF. Both datasets include information on all 36,908 of the survey’s respondents. The PUF does not include any information about geography, and it excludes information on several other sensitive variables (including detailed variables about religious identity). These geographic and other sensitive variables will be included only in the RUF, which we intend to make accessible via ICPSR with a data use agreement. Refer to the enclosed readme file for additional details.

Literature and art have long depicted God as a stern and elderly white man, but do people actually see Him this way? We use reverse correlation to understand how a representative sample of American Christians visualize the face of God, which we argue is indicative of how believers think about God’s mind. In contrast to historical depictions, Americans generally see God as young, Caucasian, and loving, but perceptions vary by believers’ political ideology and physical appearance. Liberals see God as relatively more feminine, more African American, and more loving than conservatives, who see God as older, more intelligent, and more powerful. All participants see God as similar to themselves on attractiveness, age, and, to a lesser extent, race. These differences are consistent with past research showing that people’s views of God are shaped by their group-based motivations and cognitive biases. Our results also speak to the broad scope of religious differences: even people of the same nationality and the same faith appear to think differently about God’s appearance.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the Faith population distribution across 18 age groups. It lists the population in each age group along with the percentage population relative of the total population for Faith. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of Faith by age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group in Faith.

Key observations

The largest age group in Faith, SD was for the group of age 50-54 years with a population of 40 (14.18%), according to the 2021 American Community Survey. At the same time, the smallest age group in Faith, SD was the 20-24 years with a population of 0 (0.00%). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group in consideration
• Population: The population for the specific age group in the Faith is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the population of each age group as a proportion of Faith total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Faith Population by Age. You can refer the same here

In 2007, the Pew Research Center conducted the "/data-archive?fid=MUSLIMS" Target="_blank">first-ever nationwide survey of Muslim Americans. As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approached, it seemed an appropriate time to survey Muslim Americans again and take stock of any important changes in the attitudes, opinions and experiences of this growing segment of U.S. society. The 2011 survey repeats many key questions from the 2007 poll. It also closely follows the methodology of the previous survey, including the use of random-digit-dialing to screen a large number of households (more than 41,000) to obtain a representative national sample of Muslims. As in 2007, interviews were conducted not only in English but also in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi, helping to ensure coverage of parts of the heavily immigrant Muslim American population that could be missed by an English-only survey.

The Pew Research Center study was able to complete interviews with 1,033 Muslim American adults 18 years old and older from a probability sample consisting of three sampling frames. Interviews were conducted by telephone between April 14 and July 22, 2001 by the research firm Abt SRBI.

Content

Pew Religions Model

This directory contains the code and data behind the story Evangelical Protestants Are The Biggest Winners When People Change Faiths.

The model uses the Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Survey to measure the relative "pull" of different American religious groups by using Pew's transition matrix for rates of conversions between various faiths to compute what the eventual, stable proportions of religious faiths would be, if people kept leaving and joining faiths at the current rates until the overall numbers stabilized.

Context

This is a dataset from FiveThirtyEight hosted on their GitHub. Explore FiveThirtyEight data using Kaggle and all of the data sources available through the FiveThirtyEight organization page!

• Update Frequency: This dataset is updated daily.

Acknowledgements

This dataset is maintained using GitHub's API and Kaggle's API.

This dataset is distributed under the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of Faith by race. It includes the population of Faith across racial categories (excluding ethnicity) as identified by the Census Bureau. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of Faith across relevant racial categories.

Key observations

The percent distribution of Faith population by race (across all racial categories recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau): 97.04% are white and 2.96% are multiracial.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2018-2022 5-Year Estimates.

Racial categories include:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• Some other race
• Two or more races (multiracial)

Variables / Data Columns

• Race: This column displays the racial categories (excluding ethnicity) for the Faith
• Population: The population of the racial category (excluding ethnicity) in the Faith is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the percentage distribution of each race as a proportion of Faith total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for Faith Population by Race & Ethnicity. You can refer the same here

In 2007, the Pew Research Center conducted what is believed to be the first-ever national telephone survey of a probability sample of Muslim Americans, a rare, dispersed, and highly diverse population. The study examined the political and social values, religious beliefs and practices, and life experiences of Muslims living in the U.S. today. The survey also contrasts the views of the Muslim population as a whole with those of the U.S. general population, and with the attitudes of Muslims all around the world, including Western Europe. Finally, findings from the survey make important contributions to the debate over the total size of the Muslim American population.

Graph and download economic data for Population Estimate, Total, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian and Alaska Native Alone (5-year estimate) in Christian County, IL (B03002015E017021) from 2009 to 2023 about Christian County, IL; American Indian; AK; latino; hispanic; IL; estimate; 5-year; persons; population; and USA.

This statistic shows religious diversity in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2010, by share of religious population. In 2010, about 90 percent of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean were Christians.

This study, designed and carried out by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), compiled data on the number of congregations and adherents for 236 religious groups in each county of the United States. Participants included 217 Christian denominations, associations, or communions (including Latter-day Saints, Messianic Jews, and Unitarian/Universalist groups); counts of Jain, Shinto, Sikh, Tao and National Spiritualist Association congregations, and counts of congregations and adherents from Baha'ís, three Buddhist groupings, four Hindu groupings, four Jewish groupings, Muslims and Zoroastrians. The 236 groups reported a total of 344,894 congregations with 150,686,156 adherents, comprising 48.8 percent of the total U.S. population of 308,745,538 in 2010. Visit the frequently asked questions page for more information about the ARDA's religious congregation and membership data sources.