Religion in the USA and Britain: Some Facts and Figures
David Rush provides some tables and brief comment showing how much more religious the US is than Britain.
‘In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, and consequently hypocrisy must be common; but there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America; and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth.’
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1838.
I found exploring libraries, journals and the web to dig out these data was fascinating. They solidify impressions that have been gathered over the years: the US is a very religious country, although it is becoming more secular.
Britain is very secular, in spite of all the religious ceremony associated with both church and state. This secularity suggests that all the hubbub about homosexuality in the Anglican church is almost a private concern, and not much related to the lives of most British people. The tables show that the US and Great Britain (GB) are indeed very different in terms of religion. Public discourse is very much influenced by these differences.
Comparison of religious belief and participation in the US and GB
The data in Table 1 shows trends in US religious identity between 1972 and 2004. The country is overwhelmingly religious, but the dominance of Protestantism is falling, from 64% of the population in 1972 to just over half in 2004.
What is generally not appreciated is that the proportion of Americans stating no religious identity has risen by almost threefold over the same period, from 5.2% to 14.3%.
There is enormous religious diversity in the US (Table 2).
Much is made of the high proportion of Evangelicals among American Protestants. In fact, there is considerable diversity among Evangelicals, as well as among mainline Protestants. This is clearly illustrated by the great differences among the political orientations of modernist vs. traditional groups within the mainline protestant and Evangelical groupings, as well as the frequency of church going and ideas about God (Table 3).
Church attendance in Great Britain is much, much less frequent than in the US (Table 4). About 40% the US population is in church every week, compared to 14% in GB. Indeed, half the British population never go to church.
Religious belief parallels the other measures of religiosity in the two countries (Table 5). Almost two thirds of Americans believe in a personal God, vs. half as many in GB.
Table 1: Religious Preference, Selected years 1972-2004, US General Social Survey (%)
PROTESTANT CATHOLIC ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHRISTIAN1 JEWISH OTHER MISC2 NONE COL TOTAL 1972 64.1 25.7 3.4 1.7 5.2 100.0 1,608 1976 63.5 26.1 1.8 1.0 7.6 100.0 1,497 1980 63.9 24.7 2.2 2.0 7.2 100.0 1,465 1985 62.5 26.7 2.1 1.6 7.1 100.0 1,529 1990 63.1 23.9 2.0 3.1 8.0 100.0 1,367 1994 59.5 25.5 2.0 3.9 9.2 100.0 2,981 1996 57.4 23.6 2.3 4.9 11.7 100.0 2,899 1998 54.5 25.2 .4 1.2 1.8 1.0 1.9 14.2 100.0 2,797 2000 54.1 24.1 .8 1.4 2.2 1.5 2.0 14.1 100.0 2,813 2004 50.6 25.2 .7 2.6 2.2 1.2 3.2 14.3 100.0 2,800
1 not otherwise specified 2 Buddhism + Hinduism+ other eastern+ Moslem/ Islam+ Native American+ inter-nondenominational
Table 2: Religious and Party Preference, US, 2004
ALL Evangelical Protestant Traditionalist Evangelical Centrist Evangelical Modernist Evangelical Mainline Protestant Traditionalist Mainline Centrist Mainline Modernist Mainline Latino Protestants Black Protestants Catholic Traditionalist Catholic Centrist Catholic Modernist Catholic Latino Catholic Other Christian Other Faiths Jewish Unaffiliated Unaffiliated Believers Secular Atheist, Agnostic
100.0% 26.3 12.6 10.8 2.9 16.0 4.3 7.0 4.7 2.8 9.6 17.5 4.4 8.1 5.0 4.5 2.7 2.7 1.9 16.0 5.3 7.5 3.2 38% 56% 70% 47% 30% 44% 59% 46% 26% 37% 11% 41% 57% 34% 38% 15% 42% 12% 21% 27% 28% 29% 19%
Source: Fourth National Survey of Religion and Politics, Bliss Institute University of Akron, March-May 2004 (N=40000)
Party Affiliation Republican Independent Democrat ENTIRE SAMPLE Evangelical Protestant Traditionalist Evangelical Centrist Evangelical Modernist Evangelical Mainline Protestant Traditionalist Mainline Centrist Mainline Modernist Mainline Latino Protestants Black Protestants Catholic Traditionalist Catholic Centrist Catholic Modernist Catholic Latino Catholic Other Christian Other Faiths Jewish Unaffiliated Unaffiliated Believers Secular Atheist, Agnostic
43% 87% 36% 23% 59% 33% 19% 63% 57% 87% 45% 21% 47% 57% 40% 24% 9% 1% 1% 40% 89% 60% 12% 75% 28% 4% 57% 54% 56% 34% 4% 35% 43% 12% 10% 15% 2% 0%
Legend
Worship attendance: ‘regular’: weekly or more; ‘often’: 1-2 a month to a few times a year; ‘rarely’: seldom or never; View of God: ‘Personal’: God is a person; ‘Impersonal’: God is a spirit or force; ‘Unsure’: not sure or doesn’t believe in God; Source: The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004 :
Public Opinion on Religion and Public Life, John C. Green, Senior Fellow in Religion and American Politics, Pew Forum, and Director, Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, University of Akron, September 9, 2004
Table 3: Worship Attendance and views of God, by denomination, US 2004
Worship Attendance: View of God:
Regular Often Rarely Personal Impersonal Unsure More than 1/week Weekly Monthly Holydays Other holidays Yearly Less often Never Don’t Know No Answer Total Number US 14.2 29.5 15.0 8.1 2.1 6.2 8.1 16.4 0.2 0.2 (100%) 6906 GB 4.3 9.6 8.1 7.4 3.6 7.5 9.7 49.5 0.1 0.2 (100%) 3651
Table 4: Comparative Church Attendance, US & GB, all surveys combined (1982-2004); World Values Surveys
Personal God Spirit or life force Don’t know what to think No spirit God or life force Don’t Know No Answer Total Number US 65.5 24.7 5.9 1.7 1.2 0.9 (100%) 4164 GB 30.9 39.0 16.7 9.6 2.8 1.0 (100%) 3651
Table 5: Belief in God, US & GB, (%), World Values Survey
David Rush is an American retired professor of Paediatrics and Epidemiology. He is an active participant in the SoF email group and has given workshops on non-theism among Quakers in the US and UK.