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.

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, 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 #12 (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.

According to a survey conducted in 2020, ** percent of Indian Americans in the United States said that they identified as Hindu while ** percent said that they identified as Muslim. A further **** percent said that they identified with no religion in particular.

A Study of Spirituality in the United States 2020 was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on behalf of the Fetzer Institute and Hattaway Communications. This survey brings people's spiritual lives to light, focusing on how Americans' spirituality may inform their prosocial and civic behaviors. It also includes a focus is on how people identify as spiritual and religious and the perceived differences and similarities between the two identities.

From 2000 to 2020, the share of multiracial congregations in the United States has been steadily increasing. In 2020, ** percent of congregations in the U.S. had ** percent or more of participants who were not part of the dominant racial group in that religious community.

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.

According to a survey conducted in 2020, 54 percent of Indian Americans in the United States said that they identified as Hindu while 13 percent said that they identified as Muslim. A further nine percent said that they identified with no religion in particular.

The Faith Communities Today (FACT) surveys comprise a series of national surveys of U.S. congregations conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership. The inaugural FACT survey, launched in 2000, represents the largest national survey of congregations ever undertaken in the United States. Coordinated by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford Seminary, these surveys aim to compare and contrast congregational life across religious traditions and offer insights into the evolving nature of congregational life in the U.S.

The 2020 Faith Communities Today national data set is the result of a collaborative venture of 21 denominations and religious groups in this cooperative partnership. These partners developed a common core questionnaire of 180 questions consisting of items from the previous surveys plus original (first-time) items. This dataset contains information from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

According to a survey conducted in 2020, ** percent of Indian Americans who identified as Christian said that they attended religious services once or several times a week in comparison to ** percent of Indian Americans who were Muslim and ** percent of Indian Americans who were Hindu.

"https://spiritualitystudy.fetzer.org/" Target="_blank">The National Religion and Spirituality Survey (2022) was conducted by the "https://www.norc.org/" Target="_blank">National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago on behalf of the "https://fetzer.org/" Target="_blank">Fetzer Institute. The purpose of the study was to measure religion and spirituality in America. Along with specific questions about how spirituality and religion are viewed, the survey measured how these perceptions may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and how these perceptions did or did not influence civic participation. This file includes the first wave of the NRSS.

According to a 2022 survey, 31 percent of Americans never attend church or synagogue, compared to 20 percent of Americans who attend every week.

Religiosity in the United States

Despite only about a fifth of Americans attending church or synagogue on a weekly basis, almost 40 percent consider themselves to be very religious. Additionally, states in the Deep South such as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana had the most residents identifying as very religious. In contrast, New England states like Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire had the most people identifying as nonreligious.

A Christian nation?

Despite the official separation of church and state embedded in the Constitution, many would still consider the United States to be a Christian nation. Catholicism has the largest number of adherents in the United States, due to there being many different Protestant denominations. The Southern Baptist Convention had the largest number of Evangelical adherents, while the United Methodist Church was the largest Mainline Protestant denomination.

Replication materials for "Taking the Cloth: Social norms and elite cues increase support for masks among white Evangelical Americans." Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDC and the WHO have recommended face masks as key to reducing viral transmission. Yet, in the United States, as the first wave erupted in the Summer of 2020, one fifth of individuals said they wore masks at most some of the time, and a majority said that people in their community wore masks at most some of the time. What strategies most effectively encourage compliance with this critical COVID-19 prevention measure? Relying on social identity theory, we experimentally assess two possible mechanisms of compliance, elite endorsement and social norms, among a representative sample of White U.S.– born Evangelicals, a group that has shown resistance to prevention measures. We find evidence for both mechanisms, but social norms play a remarkably important role – increasing support for mask-wearing by 6% with spillover effects on other prevention guidelines. Our findings confirm the role that appeals to norms and elite endorsements play in shaping individual behavior, and offer lessons for public health messaging.

What does it mean to be Jewish in America? A new "https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/" Target="_blank">Pew Research Center survey finds that many Jewish Americans participate, at least occasionally, both in some traditional religious practices - like going to a synagogue or fasting on Yom Kippur - and in some Jewish cultural activities, like making potato latkes, watching Israeli movies, or reading Jewish news online. Among young Jewish adults, however, two sharply divergent expressions of Jewishness appear to be gaining ground - one involving religion deeply enmeshed in every aspect of life, and the other involving little or no religion at all. This file contains extended data and is one of three files. The other files contain "https://www.thearda.com/data-archive?fid=PUSJH2020" Target="_blank">household data and "https://www.thearda.com/data-archive?fid=PUSJS2020" Target="_blank">screening data.

What does it mean to be Jewish in America? A new "https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/" Target="_blank">Pew Research Center survey finds that many Jewish Americans participate, at least occasionally, both in some traditional religious practices - like going to a synagogue or fasting on Yom Kippur - and in some Jewish cultural activities, like making potato latkes, watching Israeli movies, or reading Jewish news online. Among young Jewish adults, however, two sharply divergent expressions of Jewishness appear to be gaining ground - one involving religion deeply enmeshed in every aspect of life, and the other involving little or no religion at all. This file contains household data and is one of three files. The other files contain "https://www.thearda.com/data-archive?fid=PUSJE2020" Target="_blank">extended data and "https://www.thearda.com/data-archive?fid=PUSJS2020" Target="_blank">screening data.

The role of religion and politics in the responses to the coronavirus pandemic raises the question of their influence on the risk of other diseases. This study focuses on age-adjusted death rates of cancer, heart disease, and infant mortality per 1000 live births before the pandemic (2018-2019) and COVID-19 in 2020-2021. Eight hypothesized predictors of health effects were analyzed by examining their correlation to age-adjusted death rates among U.S. states, percentage who pray once or more daily, Republican influence on state health policies as indicated by the percentage vote for Trump in 2016, percent of household incomes below poverty, median family income divided by a cost-of-living index, the Gini income inequality index, urban concentration of the population, physicians per capita, and public health expenditures per capita. Since prayer for divine intervention is common to otherwise diverse religious beliefs and practices, the percentage of people claiming to pray daily in each state was used to indicate potential religious influence. All of the death rates were higher in states where more people claimed to pray daily, and where Trump received a larger percentage of the vote. Except for COVID-19, the death rates were consistently lower in states with higher public health expenditures per capita. Only COVID-19 was correlated to physicians per capita, lower where there were more physicians. Corrected statistically for the other factors, income per cost of living explains no variance. Heart disease and COVID-19 death rates were higher in areas with more income inequality. All of the disease rates were in correlation with more rural populations. Correlation of daily prayer with smoking cigarettes, and neglect of public health recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption and COVID-19 vaccination suggests that prayer may be substituted for preventive practices.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the Faith population over the last 20 plus years. It lists the population for each year, along with the year on year change in population, as well as the change in percentage terms for each year. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population change of Faith across the last two decades. For example, using this dataset, we can identify if the population is declining or increasing. If there is a change, when the population peaked, or if it is still growing and has not reached its peak. We can also compare the trend with the overall trend of United States population over the same period of time.

Key observations

In 2022, the population of Faith was 827, a 0.73% increase year-by-year from 2021. Previously, in 2021, Faith population was 821, an increase of 0.74% compared to a population of 815 in 2020. Over the last 20 plus years, between 2000 and 2022, population of Faith increased by 130. In this period, the peak population was 827 in the year 2022. The numbers suggest that the population has not reached its peak yet and is showing a trend of further growth. Source: U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP).

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP).

Data Coverage:

• From 2000 to 2022

Variables / Data Columns

• Year: This column displays the data year (Measured annually and for years 2000 to 2022)
• Population: The population for the specific year for the Faith is shown in this column.
• Year on Year Change: This column displays the change in Faith population for each year compared to the previous year.
• Change in Percent: This column displays the year on year change as a percentage. 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 Year. You can refer the same here

Im Jahr 2024 waren rund 40 Prozent der Befragten in den USA Anhänger einer protestantischen Glaubensgemeinschaft. Die Statistik zeigt die Ergebnisse einer landesweiten, repräsentativen Befragung hinsichtlich der religiösen Zugehörigkeit in den USA für die Jahre 2013, 2016, 2020 und 2024. Entwicklung der Religionszugehörigkeit in den USA Der Anteil der weißen Christen in den USA ist in den 2000er-Jahren deutlich zurückgegangen und hat sich in den letzten Jahren stabilisiert. Der Anteil der Protestant:innen insgesamt ist seit 2013 von rund 45,8 Prozent auf rund 40 Prozent zurückgegangen. Ein großer Anteil des Rückgangs ist auf weiße Evangelikale zurückzuführen, deren Anteil um einen Prozentpunkt gesunken ist. Der Anteil der religiös Ungebundenen ist dagegen erneut angestiegen, von rund 21,1 Prozent (2013) auf etwa 28 Prozent. Der Anteil der weißen Evangelikalen in den USA beträgt rund 13 Prozent im Jahr 2024. Christen im US-Kongress deutlich überrepräsentiert Im US-Kongress sind Christen deutlich stärker repräsentiert als in der Bevölkerung. Fast 87 Prozent der Kongressabgeordneten im Jahr 2025 sind Christen. Unterrepräsentiert ist vor allem der Anteil der religiös ungebundenen. Lediglich eine Senatorin aus Arizona identifiziert sich als religiös ungebunden. Den staatlichen amerikanischen Behörden und Institutionen in den USA ist es, anders als in Deutschland, nicht erlaubt, die Religionszugehörigkeit der Bevölkerung zu erfassen. Daher verwenden staatliche Quellen wie das "United States Census Bureau" nur Daten hinsichtlich der Religionszugehörigkeit der Bevölkerung, die von seriösen, nicht staatlichen Quellen nach allgemeinem wissenschaftlichem Standard erhoben wurden.

The "https://faithcommunitiestoday.org/" Target="_blank">Faith Communities Today (FACT) surveys are a series of national surveys of U.S. congregations run by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership. The first FACT survey was launched back in 2000 as the largest national survey of congregations ever conducted in the United States. Coordinated by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at the Hartford Seminary, these surveys aim to not only compare and contrast congregational life across religious traditions, but also to provide insight into the changing nature of congregational life in the United States.

The 2020 Faith Communities Today national data set is the result of a collaborative venture of 21 denominations and religious groups. This dataset contains information from the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

United States E-Commerce Transactions: Volume: Community & Society: Faith & Beliefs data was reported at 59.000 Unit in 10 May 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 158.000 Unit for 09 May 2025. United States E-Commerce Transactions: Volume: Community & Society: Faith & Beliefs data is updated daily, averaging 234.000 Unit from Dec 2018 (Median) to 10 May 2025, with 2322 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,290.000 Unit in 31 May 2020 and a record low of 24.000 Unit in 22 Jun 2024. United States E-Commerce Transactions: Volume: Community & Society: Faith & Beliefs data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Grips Intelligence Inc.. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.GI.EC: E-Commerce Transactions: by Category.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, White Evangelicals and Muslims were the most likely religious groups in the United States to say that they had ever served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, Military Reserves, or National Guard, at ** percent and ** percent respectively. In comparison, Jews were the least likely group to say that they had actively served in the military, at **** percent.