Religion in the United States

Religion in the United States is widespread, diverse, and vibrant, and the country is more religious than other wealthy Western nations.[2] An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in a higher power,[3] engage in spiritual practices such as prayer,[4] and consider themselves religious.[5] Christianity is the most widely professed religion, predominately composed of Evangelicals, Catholics, and mainline Protestants.[6][7] Freedom of religion is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Many scholars of religion credit this and the country's separation of church and state for its high level of religiousness;[8] lacking a state church, it completely avoided the experiences of religious warfare and conflict that characterized European modernization.[9] Its history of religion has always been marked by religious pluralism and diversity.[10][11]

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In colonial times, Anglicans, Quakers, and other mainline Protestants, as well as Mennonites, arrived from Northwestern Europe. Various dissenting Protestants who had left the Church of England greatly diversified the religious landscape. The Thirteen Colonies were initially marked by low levels of religiosity.[12][13] The two Great Awakenings — the first in the 1730s and 1740s, the second between the 1790s and 1840s — led to an immense rise in observance and gave birth to many evangelical Protestant denominations. When they began, one in ten Americans were members of congregations; by the time they ended, eight in ten were.[12] The aftermath led to what historian Martin Marty calls the "Evangelical Empire", a period in which evangelicals dominated U.S. cultural institutions. They supported measures to abolish slavery, further women's rights, enact prohibition, and reform education and criminal justice.[14] In the 18th century, deism found support among American upper classes and intellectual thinkers. The Episcopal Church, splitting from the Church of England, came into being in the American Revolution. New Protestant branches like Adventism emerged; Restorationists like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Latter Day Saint movement, Churches of Christ and Church of Christ, Scientist, as well as Unitarian and Universalist communities all spread in the 19th century. During the immigrant waves of the mid to late 19th and 20th century, an unprecedented number of Catholic and Jewish immigrants arrived in the United States. Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century as a result of the Azusa Street Revival. Unitarian Universalism resulted from the merge of Unitarian and Universalist churches in the 20th century.

The U.S. has the largest Christian and Protestant population in the world.[15] According to Gallup, 75% of Americans report praying often or sometimes while 72% report that religion plays a very or fairly important role in their lives.[16] Judaism is the second-largest religion in the U.S., practiced by 2% of the population, followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, each with 1% of the population.[17] Mississippi is the most religious state in the country, with 63% of its adult population described as very religious, saying that religion is important to them and attending religious services almost every week, while New Hampshire, with only 20% of its adult population described as very religious, is the least religious state.[18] Congress overwhelmingly identifies as religious and Christian; both the Republican and Democratic parties generally nominate those who are.[19][20] The Christian left, as seen through figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Jimmy Carter, and William Jennings Bryan; along with many figures within the Christian right have played a profound role in the country's politics.

The religiosity of the country has grown greatly over time;[12] it was far more irreligious at the American Founding than in the present day.[21] Throughout its history, religious involvement among American citizens has gradually grown since 1776 from 17% of the US population to 62% in 2000.[21] According to religious studies professors at Baylor University, perceptions of religious decline are a popular misconception.[22] They state that surveys showing so suffer from methodological deficiencies, that Americans are becoming more religious, religion is thriving, and that Atheists and Agnostics make up a small and stable percentage of the population.[22][23][24] However, Americans have increasingly identified themselves as "nones" — a substantial majority of which believe in a God — for reasons debated among sociologists.[25][24][26][27][28]