According to Frank Newport, editor in chief of Gallup Poll, half of America’s population are Protestants, despite having suffered a 20 percent dip since the 1950s. With 24 percent Catholic and 2 percent Mormon, 76 percent of adults in America identify with some brand of Christianity. That apart, 6 percent Americans identify as non-Christian, of which 2 percent are Jewish and 1 percent that are Muslim. Surprisingly, 19 percent of all Americans claim no particular religious affiliation.
Newport pointed towards the 20 percent decline among Protestants since the 1950s and said the highest rise since then has been seen among those that have no particular religious affiliation.
While assessing the number of people that attend religious services, Gallup found 41 percent of all Americans go to church on a weekly basis. Naturally, the numbers are higher among those that identify with a particular religion. While 75 percent of Mormons said they attend church every week, 53 percent of Protestants said they do the same as Muslims, Catholics and Jews followed right after with 50, 45 and 19 percent of people attending church services on a weekly basis. It comes as no surprise that only 4 percent of those that have no religious identity said they attend religious services on a weekly basis.
Newport believes these patterns are directly linked with what religion means to different people. For instance, churches are of a higher significance to Mormons than synagogues are to Jews. The second factor that plays a role in a person’s religiosity is ethnicity. For example, Hispanic Protestants go to church more regularly than African-American Protestants but more African American Protestants go to church than non-Hispanic whites do. The third factor that applies is age. Most religious Americans are 65 years and above while the least religious Americans are aged between 18 and 29 years. The last factor in this regard is political affiliation, which is evident in the number of religious people that are Republican and the number of non-religious people that are Democratic.
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