In a blinding flash of the obvious, Gallup finds that “Christianity Remains Dominant Religion in the United States.”
This Christmas season, 78% of American adults identify with some form of Christian religion. Less than 2% are Jewish, less than 1% are Muslim, and 15% do not have a religious identity. This means that 95% of all Americans who have a religious identity are Christians.
More interesting but certainly not surprising is that “one major trend that is clear from Gallup’s and other organizations’ surveys is the increase in the percentage of Americans who do not have a formal religious identity. Some 60 years ago, in 1951, for example, just 1% of Americans in Gallup surveys said they didn’t have a religious identity. At that time, Gallup classified 68% of Americans as identifying with a non-Catholic Christian faith, and 24% who were Catholic.”
In this regard, we’re following if seriously lagging our counterparts in other developed countries. We’re much more religious than most Western Europeans but much less religious than our 1950s and 1960s ancestors. Then again, we don’t know how much of the decline is actual and how much is a function of Americans being more comfortable admitting that they’re non-believers.
