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What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
https://gladerebooted.net/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10859		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  RangerDave [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 12:31 pm ]
Post subject:  What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
What percentage of the US population is neither Christian nor "unaffiliated"? In other words, what's the combined percentage that's Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, etc.?

Take a shot at the poll before peaking.

Spoiler:
Pew Research wrote:
In fact, 95% of the U.S. population is either Christian or religiously unaffiliated, while all other religions combined account for just 5% of Americans....The U.S. is classified as “moderate” in terms of religious diversity. While adherents of many world religions live in the United States – the world’s third most populous country – most of those religions each represent less than 2% of the U.S. population. That includes people who identify their religion in surveys as Judaism (1.8%), Buddhism (1.2%), Islam (0.9%), Hinduism (0.6%) and folk or traditional religions (0.2%).

The breakdown between Christian and unaffiliated is 78% vs 16% (missing 1% is presumably due to rounding). I would have guessed closer to an 80/10/10 split. I knew we were overwhelmingly Christian, but I didn't realize "unaffiliated" so drastically outnumbered everything else.
Author:  FarSky [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 12:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
Hmm. I was off by
Spoiler:
5%.
Author:  Corolinth [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
I did not realize atheists were so numerous.
Author:  Xequecal [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 3:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
"Unaffiliated" doesn't mean atheist. It includes agnostics and deists as well.
Author:  Müs [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 7:28 pm ]
Post subject: 
I said 10%. That's close enough.
Author:  Kaffis Mark V [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 9:09 pm ]
Post subject: 
Mmm. I wasn't far off on the "unaffiliated" slice of the pie -- but I missed the mark on the Christian:Other ratio by enough to raise my eyebrows.
Author:  Stathol [ Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:58 pm ]
Post subject: 
I knew it was hovering somewhere around 5%, but I wasn't sure of the present numbers. I should have rounded up, I guess.

I wonder if this includes students. You can't swing a dead cat on my campus without hitting someone at least nominally Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu. Not that I recommend trying. That's probably classified as a hate crime.
Author:  FarSky [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
Against the religious minority or the cat?
Author:  Rorinthas [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 6:36 am ]
Post subject: 
I would imagine that's "self identifying" on all counts, much like the census data I posted a while back. Many people self identify as christian or some subset thereof who never darken the door of an assembly, and they likely count in the 78 percent. We are still incredibly diverse if you look at the census data for most of Europe or the 10-40 window
Author:  Stathol [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
FarSky wrote:
Against the religious minority or the cat?

Yes.
Author:  Corolinth [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 10:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
It's an interesting figure. I thought the percentage was much higher, but the I also live in an urbanized area. I tend to forget there are huge swaths of the country that hadn't even heard of Muslims before 2001, and likely wouldn't have heard about Jews either, except they're mentioned in the Bible.
Author:  Diamondeye [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What % of US is neither Christian nor unaffiliated?
Corolinth wrote:
It's an interesting figure. I thought the percentage was much higher, but the I also live in an urbanized area. I tend to forget there are huge swaths of the country that hadn't even heard of Muslims before 2001, and likely wouldn't have heard about Jews either, except they're mentioned in the Bible.


It's amazing how easy it is to forget things that aren't actually true in the first place.
Author:  NephyrS [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 5:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think the question of how people self-identify as Christian is quite interesting- there's a large merging, especially in Southern states of being "raised" a Christian, and maintaining that faith and belief.

I can think of quite a few individuals who identify as Christian since they were baptized, and brought up Christian, but haven't been to church since they moved out on their own, and don't really adhere to a particularly Christian belief system.
Author:  Lenas [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 5:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
NephyrS wrote:
I can think of quite a few individuals who identify as Christian since they were baptized, and brought up Christian, but haven't been to church since they moved out on their own, and don't really adhere to a particularly Christian belief system.


I matched this statement for a while before I just dropped it altogether.
Author:  NephyrS [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 6:37 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think it's especially common among some of the more "organized" denominations- Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, etc. The culture identifies more strongly and interweaves more with the religion.
Author:  Rorinthas [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re:
NephyrS wrote:
I think the question of how people self-identify as Christian is quite interesting- there's a large merging, especially in Southern states of being "raised" a Christian, and maintaining that faith and belief.

I can think of quite a few individuals who identify as Christian since they were baptized, and brought up Christian, but haven't been to church since they moved out on their own, and don't really adhere to a particularly Christian belief system.


I matched this statement for many years before becoming an actively believing christian, despite not really being in church as a kid. I went to VBS as a kid, and i wasn't anything else, and I wasn't an atheist. Self Identification isn't a very good metric to actually gauge where and how people live. The large presence of Christianity in our national and cultural history and present give it gravity to pull those who don't fit anywhere else, but aren't atheists into its self identity.
Author:  NephyrS [ Mon Apr 07, 2014 7:34 pm ]
Post subject: 
Personally, I think Brian McLaren has a lot of really interesting views on emerging post-modern Christianity, as well as religion in general. I think the idea of thinking more about what makes you identify as a particular religion, and how that differs or agrees with how others see you is a really central part of that.
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