“Change in Rate of Religious Adherents, 2010 vs 2020” Graphic by Ryan Burge
https://religionnews.com/2023/04/12/we-know-americans-have-become-less-religious-surprising-new-data-shows-us-where/
Posted on 04/22/2023 6:30:08 PM PDT by marshmallow
North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan saw drops in total religious adherents of at least 10%.
(RNS) — One of the most fascinating aspects of American religion is the peculiarity of its distribution across the United States. We know that large swaths of New England are dominated by mainline Protestants and white Catholics, while parts of South Florida have large Jewish enclaves, and Utah is the base for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Seeing these geographic affiliations up close, however, means looking at religious populations at the county level, which is notoriously difficult. Many local religious bodies do not keep accurate membership rolls, and among the influential non-denominational Christian congregations, there is by definition no central recordkeeping about weekly attendance or even the number of houses of worship.
To remedy that, the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies conducts a decennial census with the aim of collecting information about the number of “congregations, members, adherents, and attendees” of as many religious groups as possible, including county data. This group has just released preliminary data from its collection efforts in 2020 and posted it in the Association of Religion Data Archives. Given that the Religion Census has been conducted for decades, it’s possible to measure religious change at the county level, too.
The data solidifies what we know about American religion: Faith is particularly strong in what has traditionally been known as the Bible Belt. In many counties in states like Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, over half of the county-level population is aligned with a religious tradition.
That high level of religious adherence also extends northward through the Great Plains in states like Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. Out West, meanwhile, counties in Washington and Oregon have fewer than 35% of their populations......
(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...
This doesn’t mean “Americans Have Become Less Religious” at all. My guess is the exodus is people who left their churches when they became too ridiculously “woke” to bear.
“We Know Americans Have Become Less Religious.”
How’s that working for you America?
Not sure how I’d test my hypothesis, but I’m guessing less religious but more superstitious.
Morals wise America is drowning.
In 2020 people weren’t permitted in churches.
Many young new churches here now. Conservative church parking lots are full.
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