Christianity in America

[RedEarth]

Yesterday I was reading a Newsweek article and it mentioned 84% of American adults consider themselves Christian. ABC had a poll that showed 83%. In light of a number of posts here at DU, I thought these polls were rather interesting.

Here is part of the ABC article....

July 18 — Ask Americans their religion and you'll get an earful — 50 individual answers in an ABCNEWS/Beliefnet poll, ranging from agnostics to Zen Buddhists. The vast majority, though, have something in common: Jesus Christ.


Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians. Most of the rest, 13 percent, have no religion. That leaves just 4 percent as adherents of all non-Christian religions combined — Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and a smattering of individual mentions.
That's quite different from the world at large: Fifty-two percent of the world's population is non-Christian, compared to 4 percent in the United States; and one-third is Christian, compared to 83 percent in the United States. (These are rough comparisons, because the world figures, reported by the Encyclopedia Britannica, are for the full population, while the U.S. figures are among adults only.)


Religion in the U.S. vs. the World:
United States World
Christian 83% 33
No religion 13 15
All non-Christian religions 4 52

more at....

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/beliefnet_poll_010718.html

Here is another poll showing statistics nationwide and for states.


Christian statistics: The following list shows the countries with the largest numbers of Christians. Christianity, as defined for the purpose of census and surveys, includes all those who claim to be Christian. This includes varying degrees of religious activity, from essentially non-participating but still-nominal Christians to active full-communicants and life-long clergy. These numbers also include adherents of different divisions within Christianity, including Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, African Indigenous Churches and others.


Top 10 Largest National Christian Populations
Rank Nation Number Percent
1 USA 224,457,000 85%
2 Brazil 139,000,000 93%
3 Mexico 86,120,000 99%
4 Russia 80,000,000 60%
5 China 70,000,000 5.7%
6 Germany 67,000,000 83%
7 Philippines 63,470,000 93%
8 United Kingdom 51,060,000 88%
9 Italy 47,690,000 90%
10 France 44,150,000 98%
11 Nigeria 38,180,000 45%

.............

The first table show "adherents" of Christian churches and the second table shows "members".


Top 10 Most Christian States in the U.S.A.
(Organizationally reported/affiliated adherents of Christian churches, 1990)
Rank State Percent Number
1 Utah 79.60% 1,371,000
2 North Dakota 75.90 485,000
3 Rhode Island 75.10 754,000
4 Alabama 70.70 2,858,000
5 Louisiana 70.10 2,959,000
6 Mississippi 70.10 1,804,000
7 South Dakota 68.10 474,000
8 Oklahoma 66.50 2,097,000
9 Minnesota 64.20 2,807,000
10 Wisconsin 63.90 3,125,000


Christian church adherents were defined as "all members, including full members, their children and the estimated number of other regular participants who are not considered as communicant, confirmed or full members."

Source: Table: Christian Church Adherents, U.S. States, 1990 in Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1997 (117th Edition); Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce (October 1997). Data reprinted from M. Bradley; N. Green, Jr.; D. Jones; M. Lynn; and L. McNeil; Churches and Church Membership in the United States 1990, Glenmary Research Center, Atlanta, GA

...........

Top 10 Most Christian States in the U.S.A.
(Organizationally reported/affiliated members of Christian churches, 1990)
Rank State Percent Number
1 Utah 75.00% 1,097,000
2 Rhode Island 75.00 710,000
3 North Dakota 73.80 482,000
4 South Dakota 66.90 462,000
5 Minnesota 64.90 2,644,000
6 Wisconsin 64.40 3,029,000
7 Massachusetts 64.00 3,669,000
8 Nebraska 63.10 990,000
9 Iowa 60.80 1,890,000
10 Connecticut 60.80 1,890,000



Source of Christian statistics: Krantz, Les and Jim McCormick. The Peoplepedia: The Ultimate Reference on the American People, Henry Holt and Company: New York (1996), pg. 188: Table: "Top 10 Christian States"; "The table below shows where most religiously affiliated Christians... live, according to the Glenmary Research Center <1990 study>."

http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_christian.html

[papau]

1. DU is a bit less religious than the general population-but not a whole lot

There are just a lot of posts at DU by those fundi's that want to have folks note that they are either non religious, or that they "believe" or "have faith" that there is no God.

Like the lounge posts in general - those posts are a light read that relaxes after one has gotton angry about political rape by the GOP.

Or that is how it affects - or does not affect - me!

peace

:-)

[trotsky]

2. Tell me something, papau.

Do you "have faith" that there are no leprechauns?

Seriously, would your state of belief (or non-belief) about leprechauns, unicorns, or any other fictional thing constitute a "faith" of its own?

I am curious.

[OneBlueSky]

3. Christians span the entire political spectrum . . .

from far right fundamentalists and evangelicals to the extreme left of liberation theology . . . saying that the US is 84% Christian says nothing about how the country breaks down politically . . .