Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Christians in America are declining

Public Religion Research Institute publishes a survey of American religious and denominational identity that is the largest of its kind. It is based on a sample of more than 101,000 Americans from all 50 states and includes detailed information about their religious affiliation, denominational ties, political affiliation, and other important demographic attributes. The findings are interesting.

  1. White Christians now account for fewer than half of the public. 
  2.  White evangelical Protestants are in decline—along with white mainline Protestants and white Catholics.
  3. Non-Christian religious groups are growing, but they still represent less than one in ten Americans combined.  America’s youngest religious groups are all non-Christian. 
  4.  The Catholic Church is experiencing an ethnic transformation. 
  5.  Atheists and agnostics account for a minority of all religiously unaffiliated. Most are secular. 
  6.  There are 20 states in which no religious group comprises a greater share of residents than the religiously unaffiliated. 
  7. No state is less religiously diverse than Mississippi. 
  8. The cultural center of the Catholic Church is shifting south Jews, Hindus, and Unitarian-Universalists stand out as the most educated groups in the American religious landscape
  9. Asian or Pacific-Islander Americans have a significantly different religious profile than other racial or ethnic groups. 
  10. Nearly half of LGBT Americans are religiously unaffiliated.
  11. White Christians have become a minority in the Democratic Party. 
  12. White evangelical Protestants remain the dominant religious force in the GOP

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