Questions and Answers About Americans’ Religion

Gallup Poll ^ | December 24, 2007

[rhema]

This time of year provides an opportunity to answer frequently asked questions about exactly where America stands today in regard to religion, based on Gallup's extensive archives.

Christmas is obviously a Christian holiday. But what percentage of Americans today identify with a Christian religion?

About 82% of Americans in 2007 told Gallup interviewers that they identified with a Christian religion. That includes 51% who said they were Protestant, 5% who were "other Christian," 23% Roman Catholic, and 3% who named another Christian faith, including 2% Mormon.

Because 11% said they had no religious identity at all, and another 2% didn't answer, these results suggest that well more than 9 out of 10 Americans who identify with a religion are Christian in one way or the other.

Has this changed over time?

Yes. The percentage of Americans who identify with a Christian religion is down some over the decades. This is not so much because Americans have shifted to other religions, but because a significantly higher percentage of Americans today say they don't have a religious identity. In the late 1940s, when Gallup began summarizing these data, a very small percentage explicitly told interviewers they did not identify with any religion. But of those who did have a religion, Gallup classified -- in 1948, for example -- 69% as Protestant and 22% as Roman Catholic, or about 91% Christian.

It's one thing to identify with a religion, and another to be actively religious. What percentage of Americans are actually members of a church?

Sixty-two percent of Americans in Gallup's latest poll, conducted in December, say they are members of a "church or synagogue," a question Gallup has been asking since 1937.

[colorcountry]

Interesting information. I actually thought the country was doing worse in regards to Church Attendance, and self-identifying as Christian.

[AnalogReigns]

Not to be a scrooge, but when I hear that over 40% attend church regularly, I have to ask why the abortion rate in America is 1 out of 4, whereas in Europe, where not 5% attend church, the abortion rate is more like 1 in 10...

[ExGeeEye]

Liberal American CINOs (Churches In Name Only)...where one finds congragations of CINOs (Christians In Name Only)...with clergy not qualified in accordance with Paul’s instruction to Timothy, and where the Bible is an important piece of historical literature rather than the Revealed Word of God.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

“Not to be a scrooge, but when I hear that over 40% attend church regularly, I have to ask why the abortion rate in America is 1 out of 4, whereas in Europe, where not 5% attend church, the abortion rate is more like 1 in 10...”

What does your statistic mean “abortion rate in America is 1 out of 4” and where does it come from?

Thanks.

[goodnesswins]

Yes.....one wonders what “church” they are attending....the “Church of the Self” seems likely.

[Tree of Liberty]

Unfortunately, many consider the Church as a building, not as a holy society that always helps each other to keep to His teachings, but rather as a building you go to once a week to ‘see and be seen’.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Guyin4Os]

Unfortunately, many consider the Church as a building, not as a holy society that always helps each other to keep to His teachings, but rather as a building you go to once a week to ‘see and be seen’.

You bring up an interesting point. In modern American English, a "church" is a building that houses a congregation of worshipping people. But biblically, a "church" (ekklesia in the Gk. Qahal and Edah in the Hebrew) is a gathering or assembly of people, regardless of where it meets. And regardless of the reason for the meeting.

[GOP Poet]

one really has to wonder with all the accepted henious behavior in our either what people do with what they do in church or what the heck is or IS NOT being taught in the churches. That is for sure.

[mad_as_he$$]

I would rather have them there than in oh say a Mosque.

[MSF BU]

Well, what is the rate among American of European descent?

[TexanToTheCore]

There are lots of women with multiple abortions that skew the figures.

[AnalogReigns]

Not 25%, but a lot higher than their cousins in Europe.

All I’m saying, for all our overt religiosity, Americans in the arena of abortion at least, are more godless than virtually any other 1st world country.

[AnalogReigns]

1 out of every 4 pregnacies in America ends up in an abortion. This is not a controversial statistic as a number..."pro-choice" and pro-life types accept this--even if the pro-aborts think it inconsequential. Here's one source, which breaks it down by age and race: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0764203.html Close to 50 Million kids Americans now have willingly killed. The Nazi's killed about 20 million civilian non-combatants. Stalin over 30 million. Mao over 100 million. We're getting there, only without a dictator doing the killings...