Religion in North America began with the religions and spiritual practices of Native Americans. Later, religion also played a role in the founding of some colonies, as many colonists, such as the Puritans, came to escape religious persecution. Historians debate how much influence religion, specifically Christianity and more specifically Protestantism, had on the American Revolution.Compare Steven K. Green, Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding (2015) with Thomas S. Kidd, God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution (2010) Many of the Founding Fathers were active in a local Protestant church; some of them had deist sentiments, such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. Some researchers and authors have referred to the United States as a "Protestant nation" or "founded on Protestant principles,"Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise by Kevin M. Schultz, p. 9Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies by Nancy L. Rosenblum, Princeton University Press, 2000 – 438, p. 156The Protestant Voice in American Pluralism by Martin E. Marty, chapter 1 specifically emphasizing its Calvinist heritage. Others stress the secular character of the American Revolution and note the secular character of the nation's founding documents.
Protestantism in the United States, as the largest and dominant form of religion in the country, has been profoundly influential to the history and culture of the United States. African Americans were very active in forming their own Protestant churches, most of them Baptist or Methodist, and giving their ministers both moral and political leadership roles. The group often known as "White Anglo-Saxon Protestants" have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States, while the so-called "Protestant work ethic" has long held influence over American society, politics, and work culture. In the late 19th and early 20th century, most major American Protestant denominations started overseas missionary activity. The "Mainline Protestant" denominations promoted the "Social Gospel" in the early 20th century, calling on Americans to reform their society; the demand for prohibition of liquor was especially strong. After 1970, the mainline Protestant denominations (such as Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians) lost membership and influence. The more conservative Protestant evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic denominations (such as the Southern Baptists) grew rapidly until the 1990s and helped form the Religious Right in politics.
Though Protestantism has always been the predominant and majority form of Christianity in the United States, the nation has had a small but significant Catholic population from its founding, and as the United States expanded into areas of North America that had been part of the Catholic Spanish and French empires, that population increased. Later, immigration waves in the mid to late 19th and 20th century brought immigrants from Catholic countries, further increasing Catholic diversity and augmenting the number of Catholics substantially while also fomenting an increase in virulent American anti-Catholicism. At the same time, these immigration waves also brought a great number of Jewish and Eastern Orthodox immigrants to the United States. Protestantism in general (i.e. all of the Protestant denominations combined) remains by far the predominant and largest form of religion and the dominant and predominant form of Christianity in the United States, though the Catholic Church is technically the largest individual religious denomination in the United States if Protestantism is divided into its various denominations instead of being counted as a single religious grouping. Overall, roughly 43% of Americans identify as Protestants, with 20% identifying as Catholics, 4% identifying with various other Christian groups such as Mormonism, Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Oriental Orthodox Christianity, and Jehovah's Witnesses; and 2% identifying as Jewish. Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims account for 1% each of the population.
As Western Europe secularized in the late 20th century, the United States largely resisted the trend, so that, by the 21st century, the US was one of the most strongly Christian of all major Western nations. Religiously-based moral positions on issues such as abortion and homosexuality played a hotly debated role in American politics. However, the United States has dramatically and rapidly secularized in recent years, with around 26% of the population currently declaring themselves "unaffiliated", either in regard to a religion in general or to an organized religion."In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace" , Pew Research Center, October 17, 2019, Retrieved July 27, 2020.
Demographics
The US census has never asked Americans directly about their religion or religious beliefs, but it did compile statistics from each denomination starting in 1945.
Finke and Stark conducted a statistical analysis of the official census data after 1850, and Atlas for 1776, to estimate the number of Americans who were adherents to a specific denomination. In 1776, their estimate is 17%. In the late 19th century, 1850–1890, the rate increased from 34% to 45%. From 1890 –1952, the rate grew from 45% to 59%.
Pew Forum data According to the Pew Research Center the percentage of Protestants in the United States has decreased from over two-thirds in 1948 to less than half by 2012 with 48% of Americans identifying as Protestant.Boorstein, Michelle. "One in five Americans reports no religious affiliation, study says." The Washington Post. October 9, 2012. In a 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study conducted by Pew Research Center, it was found that 62% of American adults described themselves as Christian, which was down from 78% of American adults describing themselves as Christian in a 2007 study.
Gallup data The data here comes from Gallup, which has polled Americans annually about their denominational preferences since 1948. Gallup did not ask whether a person was a formal member of the denomination. Blank means that there is no data available for a given year. All of the percentages here are rounded to the nearest percent, so 0% could mean any percentage less than 0.5%.
This decline in Protestant immigration has corresponded to the relaxation of immigration restrictions pertaining to mostly non-Protestant countries. The percentage of Catholics in the United States increased from 1948 all the way to the 1980s, but then began declining again. The percentage of Jews in the United States has decreased from 4% to 2% during this same time period. There has been very little Jewish immigration to the US after 1948 in comparison to previous years. The number of people with other religions was almost nonexistent in 1948, but rose to 5% by 2011, partially due to large immigration from non-Christian countries. The percentage of non-religious people (atheists, agnostics, and irreligious people) in the US has dramatically increased from 2% to 13%. The number of Americans unsure about their religion and religious beliefs has stayed roughly the same over the years, always hovering at 0% to 4%.
+Percentage of Americans by Protestant religious affiliation (1992–2011)Religion199219952000200520102011Southern Baptist9%10%8%5%4%4%Other Baptist10%9%10%11%13%9%Methodist10%9%9%8%7%5%Presbyterian5%4%5%3%3%2%Episcopalian2%2%3%3%2%1%Lutheran7%6%7%5%5%5%Pentecostal1%3%2%2%2%2%Church of Christ2%2%2%1%2%Other Protestant11%9%4%5%4%5%Non-denominational Protestant1%3%4%5%5%4%No opinion5%1%2%1%2%1%
Over the last 19 years, some of the more traditional Protestant denominations and branches experienced a large decline as a percentage of the total American population. These include Southern Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and other Protestants. The only Protestant category that significantly increased its percentage share over the last 19 years is non-denominational Protestantism.
Before European colonization
Native Americans
Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Traditional Native American ceremonial ways can vary widely, and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual tribes, clans and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, or some combination thereof. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the forms of oral histories, stories, allegories and principles, and rely on face to face teaching in one's family and community.
From time to time important religious leaders organized revivals. In Indiana in 1805, Tenskwatawa (called the Shanee Prophet by Americans) led a religious revival following a smallpox epidemic and a series of witch-hunts. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.Adam Jortner, The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier (2011) Tenskwatawa urged the tribes to reject the ways of the Americans: to give up firearms, liquor, and American-style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States. The revival led to warfare led by his brother Tecumseh against the white settlers.Rachel Buff, "Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa: Myth, Historiography and Popular Memory." Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques (1995): 277–299.
Native Americans were the target of extensive Christian missionary activity. Catholics launched Jesuit Missions amongst the Huron and the Spanish missions in California) and various Protestant denominations. Numerous Protestant denominations were active. By the late 19th century, most Native Americans integrated into American society generally have become Christians, along with a large portion of those living on reservations.Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions and American Indian Response, 1787–1862 (1965) The Navajo, the largest and most isolated tribe, resisted missionary overtures until Pentecostal revivalism attracted their support after 1950.Kimberly Jenkins Marshall, ""Navajo Reservation Camp Meeting a Great Success!" The Advent of Diné Pentecostalism after 1950." Ethnohistory 62#1 (2015) pp. 95–117.
Before the American Revolution Religion in the Thirteen Colonies played a central role in the social and political life of early America. The diversity of religious arrangements in the colonies shaped debates over liberty of conscience and influenced the development of the principle of separation of church and state after independence.
The colonies displayed a wide variety of religious practices. In most of New England there were established Congregational churches dating from the early Puritan migration that set the tone for the colonies. There were established Anglican churches in the Southern colonies such as Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Maryland initially offered toleration for Catholics before establishing Anglicanism in 1692 after the Glorious Revolution in England. Colonies such as Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island had no official church and promoted varying degrees of religious freedom.