The idea of America being a mostly white, mostly Christian nation is going to soon become a fact for history books.
“The U.S. religious landscape is undergoing a dramatic transformation that is fundamentally reshaping American politics and culture,” said Dan Cox, research director for Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).
Earlier this month, PRRI published American Values Atlas, which is an interactive virtual tool that accumulates information about Americans’ identities, opinions and values. One of the major takeaways from this year’s release was that, for the first time in history, America cannot be defined as a majority Protestant nation. Some of this change is dependent on the increasing number of religiously unaffiliated Americans – currently 34 percent young adults and 22 percent adults.
According to the study, in as many as 19 states, white Christians are now a minority. The names of some of the states where this trend is picking pace is likely to surprise readers because they lie within America’s notorious Bible Belt.
While some have blamed this change on an increasing sense of secularism in the country, others have blamed America’s growing ethnic diversity for the same. PRRI said Hispanic Catholics comprise an increasing proportion of Catholics and evangelical Protestants are emerging less white.
Here is the full ranking of the 19 states with their corresponding percentages of white Christians:
- Hawaii – 20 percent
- California – 25 percent
- New Mexico – 33 percent
- Nevada – 36 percent
- New York – 37 percent
- Alaska – 37 percent
- Texas – 37 percent
- Maryland – 38 percent
- Arizona – 38 percent
- Washington – 42 percent
- Florida – 42 percent
- Oregon – 43 percent
- New Jersey – 43 percent
- Colorado – 44 percent
- Illinois – 46 percent
- Georgia – 46 percent
- Vermont – 47 percent
- Delaware – 48 percent
- Louisiana – 49 percent
PRRI defines white Christians as mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Mormons and Catholics, who identify themselves as white as well as non-Hispanic.
According to PRRI, “The American Values Atlas draws upon 50,000 annual telephone interviews among a random sample of Americans to deliver an unprecedented level of detail about the United States’ cultural and religious landscape.”
Photo Credits: Huffington Post
