Yeah it depends on what you are taught, and I wouldn't be as annoyed if we hadn't emphasized over and over, that in this class our standard is self-designation. If Catholics think of themselves as Christians then we count them as such demographically, and OH LOOK THEY DO, and that is how the stats worked every time we discussed the world situation, or the US situation, or regional variation within the US, grr.
Break it into Catholic and Protestant, and Catholics are the largest denomination (around 25% of US with plenty of regional variation), and Protestants all together are just under or just over a majority (right around 50%), with no individual style of Protestant dominating (although again regional variation, Southern Baptists are a very high percentage of the population in Alabama for example). Even broken up, many styles of Christianity are still quite a bit more common than other religions in the US. Jews are around 1-2% of the population, depending on how you ask the question. (More people will say yes if you ask are you a Jew, than will put Jewish if you ask their religion, which makes sense because Jews think of Judaism and a lot more than just a religion.) Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and UUs are each under 1%, but over .3%. Others are even less than 1 in 1000. Estimates for the non-religious vary a lot from study to study, and depend on exactly how you ask, but 15-25% of US is a pretty good estimate. However, this includes people who believe in Jesus and the Bible and such but don't trust organized religion, and don't think of themselves as Christians, like my Dad. Only 5% of the US will claim to be uncertain of the existence of a "God or Higher Power" (although you can get 10% if you leave off the "or higher power" bit). And only about 2% will admit to being atheists on a survey, even if you ask lots of lead up questions about styles of belief and non-belief. Real Atheists are about as common as Jews or Episcopalians in the US, unlike, for example, Europe, where the non-religious are heavily Atheist.
Break it into Catholic and Protestant, and Catholics are the largest denomination (around 25% of US with plenty of regional variation), and Protestants all together are just under or just over a majority (right around 50%), with no individual style of Protestant dominating (although again regional variation, Southern Baptists are a very high percentage of the population in Alabama for example). Even broken up, many styles of Christianity are still quite a bit more common than other religions in the US. Jews are around 1-2% of the population, depending on how you ask the question. (More people will say yes if you ask are you a Jew, than will put Jewish if you ask their religion, which makes sense because Jews think of Judaism and a lot more than just a religion.) Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and UUs are each under 1%, but over .3%. Others are even less than 1 in 1000. Estimates for the non-religious vary a lot from study to study, and depend on exactly how you ask, but 15-25% of US is a pretty good estimate. However, this includes people who believe in Jesus and the Bible and such but don't trust organized religion, and don't think of themselves as Christians, like my Dad. Only 5% of the US will claim to be uncertain of the existence of a "God or Higher Power" (although you can get 10% if you leave off the "or higher power" bit). And only about 2% will admit to being atheists on a survey, even if you ask lots of lead up questions about styles of belief and non-belief. Real Atheists are about as common as Jews or Episcopalians in the US, unlike, for example, Europe, where the non-religious are heavily Atheist.
-Brian M.
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