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Christianity is the most prevalent religion in the United States. Estimates from 2021 suggest that of the entire U.S. population (332 million) about 63% is Christian (210 million).[1] The majority of Christian Americans are Protestant Christians (140 million; 42%), though there are also significant numbers of American Roman Catholics (70 million; 21%) and other Christian denominations such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians and Oriental Orthodox Christians, and Jehovah's Witnesses (about 13 million in total; 4%).[2] The United States has the largest Christian population in the world and, more specifically, the largest Protestant population in the world, with nearly 210 million Christians and, as of 2021, over 140 million people affiliated with Protestant churches, although other countries have higher percentages of Christians among their populations. The Public Religion Research Institute's "2020 Census of American Religion", carried out between 2014 and 2020, showed that 70% of Americans identified as Christian during this seven-year interval.[3] In a 2020 survey by the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults in the United States identified themselves as Christians.[4] They were 75% in 2015,[5][6] 70.6% in 2014,[7] 78% in 2012,[8] 81.6% in 2001,[9] and 85% in 1990. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.[10]
All Protestant denominations accounted for 48.5% of the population, making Protestantism the most prevalent form of Christianity in the country and the majority religion in general in the United States, while the Catholic Church by itself, at 22.7% of the population, is the largest individual denomination if Protestantism is divided into various denominations instead of being counted as a single category.[11] The nation's second-largest church and the single largest Protestant denomination is the Southern Baptist Convention.[12] Among Eastern Christian denominations, there are several Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, with just below 1 million adherents in the U.S., or 0.4% of the total population.[13] Christianity is the predominant religion in all U.S. states and territories. Conversion into Christianity has significantly increased among Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, and Japanese Americans in the United States. In 2012, the percentage of Christians in these communities were 71%, 30% and 37% respectively.[14]
Christianity was introduced to the Americas during European settlement beginning in the 16th and 17th centuries. Immigration further increased Christian numbers. Going forward from its foundation, the United States has been called a Protestant nation by a variety of sources.[15][16][17][18] When the categories of "irreligion" and "unaffiliated" are included as religious categories for statistical purposes, Protestantism is technically no longer the religious category of the majority; however, this is primarily the result of an increase in Americans, such as Americans of Protestant descent or background, professing no religious affiliation, rather than being the result of an increase in non-Protestant religious affiliations, and Protestantism remains by far the majority or dominant form of religion in the United States among American Christians and those Americans who declare a religion affiliation.[19] Today, most Christian churches in the United States are either Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, or Catholic.[20]
- ^ "About Three-in-Ten U.S. Adults Are Now Religiously Unaffiliated". Measuring Religion in Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel. Pew Research Center. December 14, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
- ^ GALLUP, GALLUP (December 22, 2017). "2017 Update on Americans and Religion". Archived from the original on December 23, 2017.
- ^ "The American Religious Landscape in 2020s". Public Religion Research Institute. July 8, 2021. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
- ^ "Measuring Religion in Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel". Measuring Religion in Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel | Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. January 14, 2021. Archived from the original on February 8, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2021.
- ^ Newport, Frank (December 25, 2015). "Percentage of Christians in U.S. Drifting Down, but Still High". Gallup. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ "America's Changing Religious Landscape". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. May 12, 2015.
- ^ "Church Statistics and Religious Affiliations". Pew Research. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
- ^ "'Nones' on the Rise". Pew Research Center: Religion & Public Life. October 9, 2012.
- ^ "American Religious Identification Survey". CUNY Graduate Center. 2001. Archived from the original on July 9, 2011. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
- ^ Finke, Roger; Rodney Stark (2005). The Churching of America, 1776-2005. Rutgers University Press. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-8135-3553-0. online at Google Books.
- ^ Newport, Frank (December 22, 2017). "2017 Update on Americans and Religion". Gallup. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
- ^ "Trends continue in church membership growth or decline", Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches (reports), US: National Council of Churches, February 14, 2011, retrieved May 14, 2017
- ^ "ARDA Sources for Religious Congregations & Membership Data". ARDA. 2000. Archived from the original on July 25, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
- ^ "Leave China, Study in America, Find Jesus". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on February 12, 2016.
- ^ Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise by Kevin M. Schultz, p. 9
- ^ Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies by Nancy L. Rosenblum, Princeton University Press, 2000 - 438, p. 156
- ^ The Protestant Voice in American Pluralism by Martin E. Marty, chapter 1
- ^ "10 facts about religion in America". August 27, 2015.
- ^ "Protestants no longer the majority in U.S." CBS News. October 9, 2012.
- ^ God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis, p 284, Philip Jenkins - 2007