02-27-2008, 12:12 AM
<b>More in U.S. jump to new faiths, poll finds</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->According to the study, 78.4% of Americans are Christians, about 5% belong to other faith traditions and 16.1% are unaffiliated with any religion.
Secular unaffiliated Americans account for 6.3% of the population; religious unaffiliated, 5.8%; atheists, 1.6%; and agnostics, 2.4%.
At 1.7% of the population, Jews make up the next-largest religious group. Buddhists are 0.7% of the population; Muslims 0.6%; and <b>Hindus and New Age followers, both 0.4%</b>.
The study noted that Protestantism is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of denominations loosely grouped around three "fairly distinct" religious traditions -- evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%), mainline Protestants (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
Evangelicals make up the nation's single-largest religious tradition, followed by Catholics, who comprise nearly one-fourth of Americans.
But Catholics also lost more adherents, with one in three adults who were raised as Catholics no longer in the church, the study said. Roughly 10% of Americans are former Catholics. "These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration," the study said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Secular unaffiliated Americans account for 6.3% of the population; religious unaffiliated, 5.8%; atheists, 1.6%; and agnostics, 2.4%.
At 1.7% of the population, Jews make up the next-largest religious group. Buddhists are 0.7% of the population; Muslims 0.6%; and <b>Hindus and New Age followers, both 0.4%</b>.
The study noted that Protestantism is characterized by significant internal diversity and fragmentation, encompassing hundreds of denominations loosely grouped around three "fairly distinct" religious traditions -- evangelical Protestant churches (26.3%), mainline Protestants (18.1%) and historically black Protestant churches (6.9%).
Evangelicals make up the nation's single-largest religious tradition, followed by Catholics, who comprise nearly one-fourth of Americans.
But Catholics also lost more adherents, with one in three adults who were raised as Catholics no longer in the church, the study said. Roughly 10% of Americans are former Catholics. "These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration," the study said.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->