With voters continuing to focus on economic issues, Barack Obama holds a slim 49% to 45% advantage over Mitt Romney in the latest polling by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. However, Romney holds a 53-point lead over Obama among white evangelicals and a 20-point lead among white Catholics. Obama’s strongest support among religious groups comes from black Protestants (96% of whom support Obama) and the religiously unaffiliated (who favor Obama over Romney by 67% to 26%).

The poll also shows that more than eight-in-ten voters cite the economy and jobs as very important issues in deciding who to vote for this fall, and roughly three-quarters cite the federal budget deficit, health care and education. Far fewer rate hot-button social issues such as gay marriage, birth control and abortion as top voting priorities.

The complete report, which includes general election preferences by religion and by gender within religious groups (PDF), is available on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press’ website.