Democrats are less likely than Republicans to believe in God, to pray, to attend religious services, and to say religion is very important to them, according to Pew Research Center surveys.
At the same time, among Democrats, religiousness differs widely by race and ethnicity. On a host of measures, White Democrats – and sometimes Asian Democrats – are a lot less religious than Black and Hispanic Democrats. Among Republicans, there is less variation.
Religiousness by party overall
In general, U.S. adults who are Republican or lean toward the GOP are more religious than Democrats and Democratic leaners.
For instance, 52% of Republicans say they pray daily, compared with 35% of Democrats. And 41% of Republicans say they go to religious services monthly or more often, compared with 24% of Democrats.
| Rep/lean Rep | Dem/lean Dem | |
|---|---|---|
| Believe in God with absolute certainty | 66% | 41% |
| Pray daily | 52 | 35 |
| View religion as very important in their lives | 48 | 28 |
| Attend religious services monthly or more often | 41 | 24 |
We combined these two questions (about prayer and religious attendance) with two others (about belief in God and how important people say religion is to them). By this measure, Republicans are about twice as likely as Democrats to be highly religious.
Meanwhile, Democrats are more than twice as likely as Republicans to score low on the same scale (34% vs. 14%).
Religiousness by race among Republicans
Levels of religiousness are fairly similar among White, Black and Hispanic Republicans. For example, about two-thirds of each group say they believe in God with absolute certainty.
Similarly, nearly two-thirds of White, Black and Hispanic Republicans are at the high or medium-high end of the religiousness scale. (There are somewhat more White Republicans at the high end of the scale, and more Black and Hispanic Republicans in the “medium-high” category.)
Asian Republicans are somewhat less religious than White, Black and Hispanic Republicans. Still, 51% of Asian Republicans fall into the high or medium-high categories on our scale. And close to half say they believe in God with absolute certainty (46%) or pray daily (44%).
Religiousness by race among Democrats
Religious habits vary more by race among Democrats than they do among Republicans.
Black Democrats tend to be a lot more religious than Democrats overall. Hispanic Democrats are less religious than Black Democrats. And White and Asian Democrats tend to be less religious than both Black and Hispanic Democrats.
For example, 75% of Black Democrats and 48% of Hispanic Democrats say they believe in God or a universal spirit with absolute certainty. That’s a lot higher than the corresponding shares of Asian Democrats (29%) and White Democrats (29%). And the shares of Black and Hispanic Democrats who say they pray daily are higher than among Asian or White Democrats.
On all these measures, Black Democrats look a lot more like Republicans than like other Democrats.
On the religiousness scale, 74% of Black Democrats score at least medium-high. This is higher than the share of Republicans of all racial and ethnic groups – and far higher than the shares of Hispanic, White and Asian Democrats – who are that religious.
While Black Democrats are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group (in either party) to score at least medium-high on the religiousness scale, White Democrats are the least likely to fall into that higher end of the scale (26%).
Religious affiliation
About eight-in-ten Republicans identify with a religion, including large majorities of each racial and ethnic group.
Democrats are less likely than Republicans to identify with a religion. About six-in-ten Democrats do, while four-in-ten are religiously unaffiliated, meaning they identify as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” when asked about their religion.
Most Black Democrats (79%) identify with a religion, as do smaller majorities of Hispanic Democrats (67%) and Asian Democrats (60%). White Democrats are almost evenly divided between those who identify with a religion and those who are religiously unaffiliated.
Looking at Christianity specifically, 76% of Black Democrats are Christians, compared with 42% of White Democrats.
Note: Here are the questions used in the 2023-24 RLS, the topline and the survey methodology. And here are the sample sizes for each group and their margins of error.
