report | May 7, 2014

Major New Survey Explores the Shifting Religious Identity of Latinos in the United States

Washington, May 7, 2014 — Although most Hispanics in the United States continue to belong to the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic share of the Hispanic population is declining, while rising numbers of Hispanics say they are Protestant or unaffiliated with any religion. Indeed, nearly one-in-four Hispanic adults (24%) are now former Catholics, according to […]

report | Aug 6, 2012

How Many U.S. Sikhs?

The August 5 shootings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., left six dead and many questions about the motives behind the tragedy. News coverage of the event has focused on why the alleged gunman targeted people at the Sikh Temple and has turned attention to the Sikh community, a religious group with a […]

report | Jul 19, 2012

New Study Finds Asian Americans Contribute to Diversity of U.S. Religious Landscape

Washington, D.C. – As their numbers rise, Asian Americans have been largely responsible for the growth of non-Abrahamic faiths in the U.S., particularly Buddhism and Hinduism. Counted together, Buddhists and Hindus now account for about the same share of the U.S. public as Jews (roughly 2%). At the same time, most Asian Americans belong to […]

report | Jul 19, 2012

Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths

When it comes to religion, the Asian-American community is a study in contrasts, encompassing groups that run the gamut from highly religious to highly secular. A new survey report examines the Asian-American population from the angle of religious affiliation, highlighting the beliefs, practices and views of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, the religiously unaffiliated and other faiths.

report | Feb 17, 2010

Religion Among the Millennials

Introduction and Overview MILLENNIALS This is part of a Pew Research Center series of reports exploring the behaviors, values and opinions of the teens and twenty-somethings that make up the Millennial generation. By some key measures, Americans ages 18 to 29 are considerably less religious than older Americans. Fewer young adults belong to any particular […]

report | Jan 26, 2010

A Brief History of Religion and the U.S. Census

Note: For a more recent overview of the Census Bureau’s history of asking about religion, read this April 2023 article. The U.S. Census Bureau has not asked questions about religion since the 1950s, but the federal government did gather some information about religion for about a century before that. Starting in 1850, census takers began […]

report | Nov 9, 2009

Religious Landscape Survey Data Release

Data files from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, including interviews with a representative sample of more than 35,000 U.S. adults, are now available to the public for further study and analysis.

report | Jul 24, 2009

A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S.

In Utah, July 24 is Pioneer Day, a state holiday commemorating the day in 1847 when the first Mormon settlers, led by Brigham Young, entered the Salt Lake Valley. Today, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Mormon groups make up 58% of Utah’s population and 1.7% of the total […]

feature | Jun 18, 2009

About One-in-Six Americans Are Baptist

Two of the largest Baptist denominations in the U.S. — the Southern Baptist Convention and the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. — will hold national meetings in late June. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that Baptists represent the largest Protestant denominational […]

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