Religion in the United States

As many of you know, religion is a powerful force in America.  The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, and as a result, there are a multitude of diverse organized religions that have proliferated within the United States.  What you might find surprising are the sheer numbers associated with religious Americans.  This post is an exhibition on some of these statistics.

According to a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Faith, more than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion or no religion at all.  In other words, 1 out of every 4 Americans has either switched or dropped religions.  Not surprisingly, 78.4% of Americans identify with the Christian tradition.  Approximately 51 % are members of one of the many Protestant denominations that seem to proliferate at a faster rate than the actual growth rate of the United States.  Around 24% of Americans are Roman Catholic and 16.1 % are unaffiliated with any faith.  

Catholicism has experienced the greatest net loss as a result of affiliation changes.  About one in three Americans were raised as Catholics, but only 1 in 4 identify themselves as Catholic now.  Despite the exodus from the Catholic faith, the number of Catholics in America has remained relatively stable.  Why?  First, most immigrants coming into the U.S. affiliate themselves with the Roman Catholic tradition.  In particular, Latino-Americans are likely to be Catholic.  Second, although Catholics are leaving the Catholic Church, converts are entering into the Church at a statistically significant rate (2.6% of the entire adult population has converted to Catholicism).  

It’s interesting to note that Jehovah’s Witnesses, despite all their external proselytizing, seem to suffer from a poor retention rate.  In fact, Jehovah’s Witnesses have the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition.  Only 37% of all those raised as a JW currently identify themselves as such.  

Another, perhaps more interesting part of the study found that Americans are not dogmatic about religion.  Of those surveyed, 70% of people affiliated with religions agreed that many religions can lead to eternal life while 68% thought there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of religion.  If you were curious as to how this data was collected, then you will be satisfied to know that over 35,000 Americans were surveyed across the country’s religious landscape.  This is not to say that Americans do not take their religious seriously.  The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey shows that over half of Americans rank the importance of religion very high in their lives, pray daily, and attend religious services.  Moreover, many Americans see a conflict between living a devout religious life and living in modern society.  

You also might be surprised to learn that 92% of Americans believe in a higher power, but note that there is considerable variation as to the nature and ability of this higher power.  

The findings of this survey are very interesting to say the least.  Religion is woven into the fabric of many civilizations across the globe.