Protestants

[Nick]

Read a report in the paper today there they said for the 1st time in our history Protestants are not the majority in the country.  They are at 48% now.  I guess those who don't claim any denomination is on the raise.  I was hoping it was those who did not buy into the sky daddy theory.

This may make Protestant preachers more bat a$$ crazy as they try to turn the tide.

[screwtape]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=162542720

crack open the champaigne

For the first time in its history, the United States does not have a Protestant majority, according to a new study. One reason: The number of Americans with no religious affiliation is on the rise.

[Nam]

Wiki needs to update its page.

-Nam

[Mr. Blackwell]

Read a report in the paper today there they said for the 1st time in our history Protestants are not the majority in the country.  They are at 48% now.

Is that the same 47-48% Romney was talking about?

[Nam]

Probably.



-Nam

[Garja]

The trend also has political implications. American voters who describe themselves as having no religion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Pew found Americans with no religion support abortion rights and gay marriage at a much higher-rate than the U.S. public at large. These "nones" are an increasing segment of voters who are registered as Democrats or lean toward the party, growing from 17 percent to 24 percent over the last five years. The religiously unaffiliated are becoming as important a constituency to Democrats as evangelicals are to Republicans, Pew said.

nice

[Bereft_of_Faith]

It's a nice trend, but I doubt it will have any political impact in the near future.  It probably indicates an increase in the number of people willing to admit to non-belief, rather than an actual increase in non-believers.  The same people have had the same world-view, whether they were in the closet or out.

Long term, any shift towards the number of people admitting non-belief will be good, because their public presence will encourage others to think differently about their own beliefs, and that will change the actual demographics.

Who am I kidding?  I don't understand people anymore.  I just don't.

[Nam]

People are what you see in the mirror.

INam

[Ed]

Read a report in the paper today there they said for the 1st time in our history Protestants are not the majority in the country.  They are at 48% now.  I guess those who don't claim any denomination is on the raise.  I was hoping it was those who did not buy into the sky daddy theory.

This may make Protestant preachers more bat a$$ crazy as they try to turn the tide.

Protestant Christians make up 48%, what percentage does Catholic Christians make up?

[Nam]

I think Catholics make up 25%.

-Nam

[3sigma]

Protestant Christians make up 48%, what percentage does Catholic Christians make up?

Catholics make up 22% of the population, a decline of 1% from 2007. Protestants have declined by 5% since 2007. Other faiths (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) have risen by 2%, but the largest increase (4.3%) is in the unaffiliateds. However, that doesn’t mean that atheism is on the rise[1]—most of the unaffiliateds still believe in a god or universal spirit.

You can see a summary of the report here or you can download the full report (PDF 1.37 MB).

1.	it is, but only by 0.8% to a mere 2.4% of the population

[Nam]

I was off by 3%. Ain't bad.

-Nam