More Interesting Religion Stats from the Pew Survey

In our last post, we looked at a Pew Survey that shows how major religions in the U.S. compare to each other based on beliefs and practices. It’s such a fascinating survey that we thought we’d share some more of the interesting results.

According to those surveyed, the five most populous religion groups in the U.S. are Evangelical Protestant Churches (26.3 percent), Catholic (23.9 percent), Mainline Protestant Churches (18.1 percent), Unaffiliated (16.1 percent) and Historically Black Churches (6.9 percent). The remaining 8.7 percent—with no group with a percentage higher than 1.7—consisted of Mormon, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness, Other Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Other World Religions and Faiths, and Don’t Know/Refused.

Geographically, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee saw the highest percentages of those affiliated with Evangelical Protestant Churches. Catholics were highly concentrated in New Jersey and parts of New England. Jewish respondents were centered mostly in New York and New Jersey, with Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland having slightly larger populations than the rest of the U.S. Mormons, not surprisingly, were most highly concentrated in Utah, Idaho and Nevada. For the most part, Mainline Protestants were equally distributed throughout the country, while those affiliated with Historically Black Churches were equally spread out among the South.

The survey also looked at social and political views among religious groups. Among Mainline Protestants, 31 percent said they were Republicans while 29 percent said they were Democrats. Among Evangelicals, the numbers were 38 percent Republican and 24 percent Democrat. For those affiliated with Historically Black Churches, 66 percent identified as Democrats while only 7 percent identified as Republican. For Catholics, the numbers were 33 percent Democrat and 23 percent Republican.

When it came to income distribution of religious traditions, some of the numbers are quite telling. Only 8 percent of those surveyed among Historically Black Churches reported incomes of $100,000 or more, while 47 percent reported incomes of less than $30,000. The opposite was true of Hindus and Jews surveyed. Forty-three percent of Hindus surveyed said they earned $100,000 or more, and only 9 percent said they earned less than $30,000. Forty-six percent of Jews surveyed said they earned $100,000 or more, while only 14 percent said they earned less than $30,000.

Source:The Pew Research Center