Americans who go to religious services tend to worship where most other congregants and senior leaders share their race or ethnicity.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults who attend religious services in person at least a few times a year (called “attenders” in this chapter) say they go to a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other house of worship in which all or most other congregants share their race or ethnicity.
Two-thirds also go to congregations where the senior religious leaders share their race or ethnicity.
The new Religious Landscape Study (RLS) also asked about the religious composition of the congregation that respondents attended as children. Most people who grew up attending religious services at least a few times a year (78%) say they went to religious services in which most other congregants had the same race or ethnicity as they did.
One-in-ten say that as children they went to a house of worship where most attendees were of a different race than their own. A similar share (10%) say they attended a congregation where no single racial group made up a majority.
Today, half of U.S. adults who attend religious services at least a few times a year report that all or most other people in their house of worship are White, 11% say most of their fellow congregants are Hispanic, 10% say most are Black, and 4% say most are Asian.
And when it comes to leadership in their houses of worship, 53% of U.S. adults who attend services at least a few times a year say that all or most of the senior leaders there are White, 11% say most are Black, 10% say most are Hispanic, and 4% say most are Asian.
Additionally, 21% of attenders go to congregations where no one racial or ethnic group accounts for a majority of congregants, and 18% go to a congregation where no one racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of senior leaders.
Read more about how religious service attenders answer the survey’s questions about the racial and ethnic compositions of congregations and congregational leaders.
The racial and ethnic composition of congregations
Two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year say that all or most of their fellow worshippers are the same race or ethnicity as themselves. An additional 11% say they go to a congregation where all or most other congregants have a different race or ethnicity than they do, and 21% attend a congregation in which no single racial group makes up a majority.
Most Jews (81%) worship where all or most attendees are the same race or ethnicity as themselves, as do 73% of mainline Protestants, 72% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition, and 71% of Hindus.
Muslim Americans are an exception. Just 35% of Muslim Americans say they worship in congregations where they share the race or ethnicity of all or most of their fellow worshippers. A majority of Muslims who attend religious services do so either where all or most congregants are a different race than they are (26%), or where no one racial group makes up a majority (39%).
We do not discuss results for religious “nones” in this section because the vast majority of them – 88% – seldom or never attend religious services. Most of the rest say they attend religious services a few times a year (9%). Just 3% of religious “nones” say they attend religious services at least once or twice a month.
The survey did not include enough interviews with Orthodox Christians or members of other religiously affiliated groups who attend religious services in person at least a few times a year to be able to show their results.
The survey finds that 85% of Jewish attenders say they go to a congregation in which all or most other congregants are White, as do 70% of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (widely known as Mormons), 70% of mainline Protestants and 61% of evangelical Protestants.
Two-thirds of attenders who identify with the historically Black Protestant tradition say they go to a congregation in which all or most other people are Black or African American.51 And about three-quarters of Hindu attenders (77%) report that all or most of their fellow worshippers are Asian or Asian American.
Nearly half of Catholic attenders (47%) go to Mass at a church in which all or most other congregants are White, while 27% of Catholic attenders go to a church that is mostly Hispanic or Latino, and 19% say they attend a church where no racial group makes up a majority.
The differences across religious groups in the way respondents describe the racial and ethnic makeup of their congregations partly reflects the racial and ethnic composition of the groups themselves. For details on the racial and ethnic composition of people within these religious categories, refer to Chapter 24.
The racial and ethnic composition of congregational leaders
As with the racial and ethnic composition of congregants, two-thirds of Americans who attend religious services say they go to congregations in which all or most of the senior religious leaders are the same race or ethnicity as they are.
Here again, Muslims are a notable exception. Fewer than half of Muslim respondents say they share the same race as most of the religious leaders at their mosque.
Roughly nine-in-ten Jewish Americans who attend religious services at least a few times a year say all or most of the leaders at their congregation are White. Three-quarters of Latter-day Saints and mainline Protestants say the same, as do two-thirds of evangelical Protestants.
About half of Catholics say all or most of the senior religious leaders at their parishes are White.
