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The American religious tradition is primarily
Christian, but the Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and
state, freedom of religion and, again, the diversity of the population
means that no one religion holds sway over the entirety of the
population. Culture "wars" often have roots in religious differences,
but religious violence is rare and on a small scale. America is a more
church(-temple-mosque)-going country than most European countries.
According to the 2001 American Religious Identity Survey (ARIS), 76.5%
of Americans, or 159 million people, identify themselves as Christians;
13.2% or 27.5 million identify as non-religious or secular. These two
identifications total almost 90% of attested religious affiliations in
the United States.
Other faiths represented include the 1.3% or 2.8 million of Americans
who identify themselves as Jewish; 0.5% or 1 million who identify
themselves as Muslim; 0.5% or 1 million who identify themselves as
Buddhists; 0.5% or 991,000 who identify as agnostic; 0.4% or 902,000 who
identify as atheist; 0.4% or 766,000 identify as Hindu; and 0.3% or
629,000 who identify as Unitarian Universalist.
According to the same study, the major Christian denominations (making
up the vast majority of faiths actively practiced in the United States)
are (in order): Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian,
Pentecostal (aka charismatic or evangelical), Episcopalian, Latter-Day
Saints, Church of Christ and Congregational.
According to other studies, as reported by the Statistical Abstract of
the United States (the U.S. Census does not query about religion, so
non-governmental sources are used), Americans' self-reported religious
affiliations are 56% Protestant Christianity, 27% Catholic Christianity,
2% Judaism, 1% Orthodox Christianity, 1% Mormon Christianity, 5% "other
specific" and 8% "other" or "did not designate." Some 68% of Americans
are members of a place of worship, and 44% attend that place of worship
regularly.
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