View source for Christianity in the United States

{{short description|Most adhered to religion in the United States}}
{{Christianity by country}}
[[Christianity]] is the most prevalent [[religion in the United States]], in a 2014 survey, 70.6% of adults in the United States identified themselves as [[Christians]];<ref>{{cite web|title=Church Statistics and Religious Affiliations|url=http://religions.pewforum.org/affiliations|publisher=Pew Research|access-date=September 23, 2014}}</ref> down from 75% in 2015,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/187955/percentage-christians-drifting-down-high.aspx|title=Percentage of Christians in U.S. Drifting Down, but Still High|last=Newport|first=Frank|date=25 December 2015|website=Gallup|access-date=5 March 2017}}</ref><ref name="pewforum.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/|title=America's Changing Religious Landscape|last=|first=|date=May 12, 2015|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]: Religion & Public Life}}</ref> 78% in 2012,<ref name="pew2012">{{cite web|date=October 9, 2012|title='Nones' on the Rise|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/|accessdate=|publisher=[[Pew Research Center]]: Religion & Public Life}}</ref> 81.6% in 2001,<ref name="ARIS">{{cite web|year=2001|title=American Religious Identification Survey|url=http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709082644/http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm|archivedate=2011-07-09|accessdate=2007-06-17|publisher=CUNY Graduate Center|df=}}</ref> and 85% in 1990. About 62% of those polled claim to be members of a church congregation.<ref>{{cite book |last= Finke |first= Roger |author2=Rodney Stark |title= The Churching of America, 1776-2005 |year= 2005 |publisher= Rutgers University Press |isbn= 0-8135-3553-0 |pages= 22–23}} online at [https://books.google.com/books?id=NLP0Eb26KlkC Google Books].</ref> The United States has the [[Christianity by country|largest Christian population]] in the world, with nearly 205 million Christians, although other countries have higher percentages of Christians among their populations. The modern [[United States national motto|official motto]] of the [[United States of America]], as established in a 1956 law signed by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], is "[[In God We Trust]]".<ref>{{USC|36|302}} ''National motto''</ref><ref name="USTFS">{{cite web|url=http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx|title=U.S. on the History of "In God We Trust"|publisher=United States Department of the Treasury|accessdate=2009-04-22}}</ref><ref name="USPL84-851">[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-70/pdf/STATUTE-70-Pg732-2.pdf United States Public Law 84-851], United States Public Law 84-851.</ref> The phrase first appeared on U.S. coins in 1864.<ref name="USTFS"/>

All [[Protestantism in the United States|Protestant]] denominations accounted for 48.5%, while the [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic Church]] by itself, at 22.7%, was the largest individual denomination.<ref name="Gallup2017religion">{{cite web |last=Newport |first=Frank |title=2017 Update on Americans and Religion |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/224642/2017-update-americans-religion.aspx |website=[[Gallup (company)|Gallup]] |accessdate=February 25, 2019}}</ref> The nation's second-largest church and the single largest Protestant denomination is the [[Southern Baptist Convention]].<ref name=nccyearbook11>{{Citation | publisher = [[National Council of Churches]] | date = February 14, 2011 | url = http://www.ncccusa.org/news/110210yearbook2011.html | contribution = Trends continue in church membership growth or decline | type = reports | title = Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches | place = US | accessdate = May 14, 2017}}</ref> Among [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christian]] denominations, there are several [[Eastern Orthodoxy in the United States|Eastern Orthodox]] and [[Oriental Orthodox]] churches, with just below 1 million adherents in the US, or 0.4% of the total population.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/rcms_notes.asp |title=ARDA Sources for Religious Congregations & Membership Data |publisher=[[Association of Religion Data Archives|ARDA]] |year=2000 |accessdate=2010-05-29}}</ref>

Christianity was introduced to the Americas as it was [[European colonization of the Americas|first colonized by Europeans]] beginning in the [[Christianity in the 16th century|16th]] and [[Christianity in the 17th century|17th centuries]]. Going forward from its foundation, the United States has been called a [[Protestant]] nation by a variety of sources.<ref>Tri-Faith America: How Catholics and Jews Held Postwar America to Its Protestant Promise by Kevin M. Schultz, p. 9</ref><ref>Obligations of Citizenship and Demands of Faith: Religious Accommodation in Pluralist Democracies by Nancy L. Rosenblum, Princeton University Press, 2000 - 438, p. 156</ref><ref>The Protestant Voice in American Pluralism by Martin E. Marty, chapter 1</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/27/10-facts-about-religion-in-america/|title=10 facts about religion in America|date=27 August 2015|publisher=}}</ref> Protestants are no longer the majority in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title=Protestants no longer the majority in U.S.|publisher=[[CBS News]]|date=9 October 2012|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/protestants-no-longer-the-majority-in-us/}}</ref> Immigration further increased Christian numbers. Today, most Christian churches in the United States are either [[Mainline Protestant]], [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Protestant]], or [[Catholic Church|Catholic]].<ref>God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis, p 284, Philip Jenkins - 2007</ref>

==Major denominational families==
{{Christian denominations in the United States}}
Christian denominations in the United States are usually divided into three large groups: [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Protestantism]], [[Mainline Protestant]]ism, and the [[Catholic Church]]. There are also Christian denominations that do not fall within either of these groups, such as [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy]], but they are much smaller.

A 2004 survey of the United States identified the percentages of these groups as 26.3% (Evangelical), 22% (Catholics), and 16% (Mainline Protestant).<ref name="Green">{{cite web |url=http://www.uakron.edu/bliss/docs/Religious_Landscape_2004.pdf|author=Green, John C|title=The American Religious Landscape and Political Attitudes: A Baseline for 2004| publisher=University of Akron|accessdate=2007-06-18|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050621001046/http://www.uakron.edu/bliss/docs/Religious_Landscape_2004.pdf|archivedate=21 June 2005}}</ref> In a [[Statistical Abstract of the United States]], based on a 2001 study of the self-described religious identification of the adult population, the percentages for these same groups are 28.6% (Evangelical), 24.5% (Catholics), and 13.9% (Mainline Protestant).<ref name='rel-id-2001'>The figures for this 2007 abstract are based on surveies for 1990 and 2001 from the [[CUNY Graduate Center|Graduate School and University Center]] at the [[City University of New York]]. {{cite web | last = Kosmin | first = Barry A. | author2 = Egon Mayer | author3 = Ariela Keysar | title = American Religious Identification Survey | publisher = City University of New York.; Graduate School and University Center | year = 2001 | url = http://www.trincoll.edu/NR/rdonlyres/AFCEF53A-8DAB-4CD9-A892-5453E336D35D/0/NEWARISrevised121901b.pdf | accessdate = 2007-04-04 | url-status = dead | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070614124201/http://www.trincoll.edu/NR/rdonlyres/AFCEF53A-8DAB-4CD9-A892-5453E336D35D/0/NEWARISrevised121901b.pdf | archivedate = 2007-06-14 }}</ref>

===Protestantism===
{{Main|Protestantism in the United States}}
In typical usage, the term ''mainline'' is contrasted with ''evangelical''.

The [[Association of Religion Data Archives]] (ARDA) counts 26,344,933 members of mainline churches versus 39,930,869 members of evangelical Protestant churches.<ref name="ardomain">{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/mainline.asp|title=The Association of Religion Data Archives - Maps and Reports - Reports - Denomination Listing: Mainline|accessdate=5 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021231319/http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/mainline.asp|archive-date=21 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> There is evidence that there has been a shift in membership from mainline denominations to evangelical churches.<ref>[http://www.leanalytics.com/research/ExeSummaryChurchFinanceMarket.pdf "The U.S. Church Finance Market: 2005-2010"] Non-denominational membership doubled between 1990 and 2001. (April 1, 2006, report)</ref>

As shown in the table below, some denominations with similar names and historical ties to Evangelical groups are considered Mainline.<!-- For example, while the [[American Baptist Churches]], the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]], and the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]] are mainline, the [[Southern Baptist Convention]], [[Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod]], and the [[Presbyterian Church in America]] are grouped as [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]. -->  
{|class="wikitable" style="width:100%; border="1" cellpadding="3"
|-
! colspan="5" align="center" | ''Protestant:'' Mainline vs. Evangelical vs. Traditionally Black Church
|-
!width="125" | Family:
!width="50" | US %<ref name=Pew2014>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/appendix-b-classification-of-protestant-denominations/|title=America's Changing Religious Landscape, Appendix B: Classification of Protestant Denominations|publisher=Pew Research Center|date=12 May 2015|accessdate=15 May 2018}}</ref>
!width="225" | Examples:
!width="75" | Type:
!width="50" | % of population
|-
| rowspan="4" align="center" | [[Baptist]]
| rowspan="4" align="center" | 15.4%
| align="center" | [[Southern Baptist Convention]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 5.3%
|-
| align="center" | [[Independent Baptist]], evangelical
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 2.5%
|-
| align="center" | [[American Baptist Churches USA]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 1.5%
|-
| align="center" | [[National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.]]
| align="center" | [[Black church]]
| align="center" | 1.4%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Nondenominational Christianity|Nondenominational]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 6.2%
| align="center" | Nondenominational evangelical
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 2.0%
|-
| align="center" | Interdenominational evangelical
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 0.6%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Methodist]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 4.6%
| align="center" | [[United Methodist Church]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 3.6%
|-
| align="center" | [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]]
| align="center" | [[Black church]]
| align="center" | 0.3%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Pentecostal]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 4.6%
| align="center" | [[General Council of the Assemblies of God in the United States of America|Assemblies of God]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 1.4%
|-
| align="center" | [[Church of God in Christ]]
| align="center" | [[Black church]]
| align="center" | 0.6%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Lutheran]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 3.5%
| align="center" | [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 1.4%
|-
| align="center" | [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 1.1%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Presbyterian]]/<br>[[Reformed]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 2.2%
| align="center" | [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 0.9%
|-
| align="center" | [[Presbyterian Church in America]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 0.4%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Restorationism|Restorationist]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 1.9%
| align="center" | [[Churches of Christ|Church of Christ]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 1.5%
|-
| align="center" | [[Disciples of Christ]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | <0.3%
|-
| rowspan="2" align="center" | [[Anglican]]
| rowspan="2" align="center" | 1.3%
| align="center" | [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 0.9%
|-
| align="center" | [[Anglican Church in North America]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | <0.3%
|-
| rowspan="1" align="center" | [[Holiness movement|Holiness]]
| rowspan="1" align="center" | 0.8%
| align="center" | [[Church of the Nazarene]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 0.3%
|-
| rowspan="1" align="center" | [[Congregational church]]
| rowspan="1" align="center" | 0.8%
| align="center" | [[United Church of Christ]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | 0.4%
|-
| align="center" | [[Adventism|Adventist]]
| align="center" | 0.6%
| align="center" | [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]]
| align="center" | [[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]
| align="center" | 0.5%
|-
| align="center" | Friends ([[Quakers]])
| align="center" | <0.3%
| align="center" | [[Friends General Conference]]
| align="center" | [[Mainline Protestant|Mainline]]
| align="center" | <0.3%
|-
|}

====Evangelical Protestantism====
{{Main|Evangelicalism in the United States}}
[[File:Growth of Denominations in America 1780 to 1860.jpg|thumb|Ever since the [[Second Great Awakening]], Evangelicalism has been very influential. Note the booming membership of [[Baptist]] and [[Methodist]] churches.]]
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement. In typical usage, the term ''mainline'' is contrasted with ''evangelical''.  Most adherents consider the key characteristics of evangelicalism to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion (or being "[[Born again Christianity|born again]]"); some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for [[Biblical authority]]; and an emphasis on the [[death and resurrection of Jesus]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wheaton.edu/isae/defining_evangelicalism.html |title=Defining Evangelicalism |accessdate=2008-03-04 |last=Eskridge |first=Larry |year=1995 |publisher=Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals}}</ref> [[David Bebbington]] has termed these four distinctive aspects ''[[Religious conversion|conversionism]],'' ''activism'', ''biblicism'', and ''crucicentrism'', saying, "Together they form a quadrilateral of priorities that is the basis of Evangelicalism."<ref>Bebbington, p. 3.</ref>

Note that the term "Evangelical" does not equal [[Fundamentalist Christianity]], although the latter is sometimes regarded simply as the most theologically conservative subset of the former. The major differences largely hinge upon views of how to regard and approach scripture ("Theology of Scripture"), as well as construing its broader world-view implications. While most conservative Evangelicals believe the label has ''broadened'' too much beyond its more limiting traditional distinctives, this trend is nonetheless strong enough to create significant ambiguity in the term.<ref>George Marsden ''Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism'' Eerdmans, 1991.</ref> As a result, the dichotomy between "evangelical" vs. "mainline" denominations is increasingly complex (particularly with such innovations as the "[[Emergent Church]]" movement).

The contemporary North American usage of the term is influenced by the evangelical/fundamentalist controversy of the early 20th century. Evangelicalism may sometimes be perceived as the middle ground between the [[Liberal Christianity|theological liberalism]] of the [[Mainline (Protestant)]] denominations and the cultural separatism of [[Fundamentalist Christianity|Fundamentalist Protestantism]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Evangelicals Debate the Meaning of 'Evangelical' |author=Luo, Michael |date=2006-04-16 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/weekinreview/16luo.html?_r=1&adxnnlx=1145227368-p%20hJwvCXS0qceSTw%20jLi8w&pagewanted=all |publisher=nytimes.com}}</ref> Evangelicalism has therefore been described as "the third of the leading strands in American Protestantism, straddl[ing] the divide between fundamentalists and liberals."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060901faessay85504-p20/walter-russell-mead/god-s-country.html |title=God's Country? |accessdate=2008-03-27 |author=Mead, Walter Russell |year=2006 |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |work=Foreign Affairs |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704202535/http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060901faessay85504-p20/walter-russell-mead/god-s-country.html |archive-date=2008-07-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref> While the North American perception is important to understand the usage of the term, it by no means dominates a wider global view, where the fundamentalist debate was not so influential.

Historically, Evangelicals held the view that modernist and liberal parties in the Protestant churches had compromised Christian teachings by accommodating the views and values of the secular [[world (theology)|world]]. At the same time, they criticized Fundamentalists for their separatism and rejection of the [[Social Gospel]] as it had been developed by Protestant activists during the previous century. They argued that the core [[Gospel]] and its message needed to be reasserted to distinguish it from the innovations and traditions of the liberals and fundamentalists.

They sought allies in denominational churches and liturgical traditions, disregarding views of eschatology and other "non-essentials," and joined also with Trinitarian varieties of [[Pentecostalism]]. They believed that in doing so, they were simply re-acquainting Protestantism with its own recent tradition. The movement's aim at the outset was to reclaim the Evangelical heritage in their respective churches, not to begin something new; and for this reason, following their separation from Fundamentalists, the same movement has been better known merely as "Evangelicalism." By the end of the 20th century, this was the most influential development in American Protestant Christianity.{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}

The [[National Association of Evangelicals]] is a U.S. agency which coordinates cooperative ministry for its member denominations.

A 2015 global census estimated some 450,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background in the United States most of whom are evangelicals or Pentecostals.<ref name="academia.edu">{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=Duane|last2=Johnstone|first2=Patrick|title=Believers in Christ from a Muslim Background: A Global Census|journal=IJRR|date=2015|volume=11|issue=10|url=https://www.academia.edu/16338087|accessdate=14 February 2016}}</ref>

====Mainline Protestantism====
{{Main|Mainline Protestant}}
[[File:WashingtonNationalCathedralHighsmith15393v.jpg|left|thumb|upright|The [[National Cathedral]] (Episcopalian) in Washington, D.C.]]
The mainline Protestant Christian denominations are those Protestant denominations that were brought to the United States by its historic immigrant groups; for this reason they are sometimes referred to as heritage churches.<ref>The Death of Protestant America: A Political Theory of the Protestant Mainline
by Joseph Bottum, First Things (August/September 2008)[http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6254]</ref> The largest are the Episcopal (English), Presbyterian (Scottish), Methodist (English and Welsh), and Lutheran (German and Scandinavian) churches.

[[Mainline Protestantism]], including the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]] (76%),<ref name="Faith, Education and Income">{{cite web|url=https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/faith-education-and-income/?_r=1|title=Faith, Education and Income|first=David|last=Leonhardt|publisher=|date=2011-05-13}}</ref> the [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)|Presbyterians]] (64%),<ref name="Faith, Education and Income"/> and the [[United Church of Christ]] has the highest number of [[Academic degree|graduate]] and [[post-graduate]] degrees per capita,<ref name="pewforum.org" /> of any other Christian denomination in the United States,<ref name="auto">{{Citation|url=http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf|title=US Religious Landscape Survey: Diverse and Dynamic|publisher=The Pew Forum|page=85|date=February 2008|accessdate=2012-09-17|ref=refEducationLevel}}</ref> as well as the most [[American upper class|high-income earners]].<ref name="auto1">{{cite news|url=https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/faith-education-and-income/|title=Faith, Education and Income|work=The New York Times|accessdate=May 13, 2011|first=David|last=Leonhardt|date=2011-05-13}}</ref>

[[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]] and [[Presbyterian]]s tend to be considerably wealthier<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS">{{cite news|author=B.DRUMMOND AYRES Jr. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/us/the-episcopalians-an-american-elite-with-roots-going-back-to-jamestown.html |title=THE EPISCOPALIANS: AN AMERICAN ELITE WITH ROOTS GOING BACK TO JAMESTOWN |work=New York Times |date=2011-12-19 |accessdate=2012-08-17}}</ref> and better educated than most other religious groups in Americans,<ref>Irving Lewis Allen, "WASP—From Sociological Concept to Epithet," ''Ethnicity,'' 1975 154+</ref> and are disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American [[business]],<ref>{{cite journal |first=Andrew |last=Hacker |title=Liberal Democracy and Social Control |journal=[[American Political Science Review]] |year=1957 |volume=51 |issue=4 |pages=1009–1026 [p. 1011] |jstor=1952449 |doi=10.2307/1952449 }}</ref> [[law]] and [[politics]], especially the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Baltzell |title=The Protestant Establishment |url=https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich |url-access=registration |year=1964 |page=[https://archive.org/details/protestantestabl00baltrich/page/9 9] |publisher= New York, Random House}}</ref> Numbers of the most [[Old money|wealthy and affluent American families]] as the [[Vanderbilts]] and [[Astor family|Astors]], [[Rockefeller family|Rockefeller]], [[Du Pont family|Du Pont]], [[Roosevelt family|Roosevelt]], [[Forbes family|Forbes]], [[Whitney family|Whitney]], [[Junius Spencer Morgan|Morgans]], and Harrimans are historically [[Mainline Protestantism|Mainline Protestant]] families.<ref name="THE EPISCOPALIANS"/>

According to ''Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States'' by [[Harriet Zuckerman]], a review of American Nobel prizes winners awarded between 1901 and 1972, 72% of American [[Nobel Prizes|Nobel Prize]] Laureates, have identified from a [[Protestant]] background.<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh">[[Harriet Zuckerman]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HAHCzJfmD5IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Scientific+Elite:+Nobel+Laureates+in+the+United+States&hl=iw&sa=X&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAGoVChMIxKistOqUxwIVzNUUCh0pGgC-#v=onepage&q=Scientific%20Elite%3A%20Nobel%20Laureates%20in%20the%20United%20States&f=false Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States]'' New York, The Free Pres, 1977, p.68: Protestants turn up among the American-reared laureates in slightly greater proportion to their numbers in the general population. Thus 72 percent of the seventy-one laureates but about two thirds of the American population were reared in one or another Protestant denomination-)</ref> Overall, 84.2% of all the Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans in [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry]],<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> 60% in [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine]],<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> and 58.6% in [[Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics]]<ref name="Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United Statesh"/> between 1901 and 1972 were won by Protestants.

Some of the first colleges and [[universities]] in America, including [[Harvard University|Harvard]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.news.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html |title=The Harvard Guide: The Early History of Harvard University |publisher=News.harvard.edu |accessdate=2010-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722203532/http://www.news.harvard.edu/guide/intro/index.html |archive-date=2010-07-22 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Yale University|Yale]],<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_057300_matherincrea.htm |title=Increase Mather}}, ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition]]'', [[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref> [[Princeton University|Princeton]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.princeton.edu/pr/facts/revolution.html|title=Princeton in the American Revolution|author=Princeton University Office of Communications|accessdate=2011-05-24}} The original Trustees of Princeton University "were acting in behalf of the evangelical or New Light wing of the Presbyterian Church, but the College had no legal or constitutional identification with that denomination. Its doors were to be open to all students, 'any different sentiments in religion notwithstanding.'"</ref> [[Columbia University|Columbia]],<ref name="McCaughey2003">{{cite book |title=Stand, Columbia : A History of Columbia University in the City of New York |last=McCaughey |first=Robert |year= 2003|publisher=Columbia University Press |location= New York, New York |isbn=0231130082 |page=1 }}<!--|accessdate=April 11, 2011--></ref>  [[Dartmouth College|Dartmouth]], [[Williams College|Williams]], [[Bowdoin College|Bowdoin]], [[Middlebury College|Middlebury]], and [[Amherst College|Amherst]], all were founded by the [[Mainline Protestantism]], as were later [[Carleton College|Carleton]], [[Duke University|Duke]],<ref name="Duke University's Relation to the Methodist Church">{{cite web|url = http://library.duke.edu/uarchives/history/duke-umchh-basic.html| title = Duke University's Relation to the Methodist Church: the basics|quote=Duke University has historical, formal, on-going, and symbolic ties with Methodism, but is an independent and non-sectarian institution&nbsp;... Duke would not be the institution it is today without its ties to the Methodist Church. However, the Methodist Church does not own or direct the University. Duke is and has developed as a private non-profit corporation which is owned and governed by an autonomous and self-perpetuating Board of Trustees.|publisher = Duke University|year=2002|accessdate = 2010-03-27}}</ref> [[Oberlin College|Oberlin]], [[Beloit College|Beloit]], [[Pomona College|Pomona]], [[Rollins College|Rollins]] and [[Colorado College]].

Many mainline denominations teach that the Bible is God's word in function, but tend to be open to new ideas and societal changes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ecai.org/nara/nara_article.html|title=The Decline of Mainline Protestantism|access-date=2009-06-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321192724/http://www.ecai.org/nara/nara_article.html|archive-date=2009-03-21|url-status=dead}}</ref> They have been increasingly open to the [[ordination of women]].

Mainline churches tend to belong to organizations such as the [[National Council of Churches]] and [[World Council of Churches]].

The seven largest U.S. mainline Protestant denominations were called by William Hutchison the "Seven Sisters of American Protestantism"<ref>[http://www.resourcingchristianity.org/Project.aspx?ID=850011 Protestant Establishment I (Craigville Conference)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928035636/http://www.resourcingchristianity.org/Project.aspx?ID=850011 |date=September 28, 2007 }}</ref><ref>Hutchison, William. ''Between the Times: The Travail of the Protestant Establishment in America, 1900-1960'' (1989), Cambridge U. Press, {{ISBN|0-521-40601-3}}</ref> in reference to the major liberal groups during the period between 1900 and 1960.

These include:
[[File:First_Baptist_Church_in_America_from_Angell_St_2.jpg|thumb|The [[First Baptist Church in America]] in [[Providence, Rhode Island]] ([[American Baptist Churches USA]])]]
* [[United Methodist Church]] 6,671,825 members (2018)<ref name="UMC stats">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Church of Jesus Christ - Newsroom|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-07-30|website=churchofjesuschrist.org|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] 3,363,281 members (2018)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/ELCA-Facts|title=ELCA Facts|work=ELCA.org|accessdate=18 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925063917/http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/ELCA-Facts|archive-date=25 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America]] 1,676,349 active baptized members (2018)<ref>{{Citation|url=https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/2018_table_of_statistics.pdf|title=Table of Statistics of the Episcopal Church From 2018 Parochial Reports|publisher=The Episcopal Church|page=3|date=2019|accessdate=2019-09-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905200634/https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/2018_table_of_statistics.pdf|archive-date=2019-09-05|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]] 1,352,678 active members (2018)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/statistics/2018_comparative_summaries_of_statistics.pdf|title=Statistics PCUSA 2018|accessdate=2019-06-07}}</ref>
* [[American Baptist Churches USA|American Baptist Churches in the USA]] 1,145,647 members (2017)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.abc-usa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Summary-of-Denominational-Statistics-Year-End-2017.pdf|title=ABC USA Summary of Statistics|last=|first=|date=December 2017|website=|access-date=1 April 2019}}</ref>
* [[United Church of Christ]] 824,866 members (2018)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uccfiles.com/pdf/2019-UCC-Statistical-Profile.pdf|title=The United Church Of Christ: A Statistical Profile|date=2019|access-date=October 25, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)]] 382,248 (2018)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://juicyecumenism.com/2019/08/20/christian-church-disciples/|title=Disciples of Christ Claim Distinction of Fastest Declining Church|access-date=2019-11-13|language=en}}</ref>

The Association of Religion Data Archives also considers these denominations to be mainline:<ref name="ardomain" />
* [[Quakers in North America|Religious Society of Friends]] (Quakers) 108,500 members
* [[Reformed Church in America]] 223,675  members (2015)
* [[International Council of Community Churches]] 68,300 members (2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1313.asp|title=International Council of Community Churches- Religious Groups - The Association of Religion Data Archives|publisher=|accessdate=26 February 2018}}</ref>
* [[National Association of Congregational Christian Churches]] 65,569 members (2000)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1462.asp|title=National Association of Congregational Christian Churches- Religious Groups - The Association of Religion Data Archives|publisher=|accessdate=5 March 2015}}</ref>
* [[North American Baptist Conference]] 47,150 members (2006)<ref>[http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1085.asp North American Baptist Conference - Membership Data] ARDA</ref>
* [[American Provinces of the Moravian Church|Moravian Church]] in America, Southern Province 21,513 members (1991)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1335.asp|title=Moravian Church in America (Unitas Fratrum), Southern Province- Religious Groups - The Association of Religion Data Archives|publisher=|accessdate=5 March 2015}}</ref>
* [[American Provinces of the Moravian Church|Moravian Church]] in America, Northern Province 20,220 members (2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1334.asp|title=Moravian Church in America (Unitas Fratrum), Northern Province- Religious Groups - The Association of Religion Data Archives|publisher=|accessdate=6 March 2018}}</ref>
* [[Metropolitan Community Church|Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches]] 15,666 members (2006)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1142.asp|title=Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches- Religious Groups - The Association of Religion Data Archives|publisher=|accessdate=5 March 2015}}</ref>
* [[Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] 12,000 members (2007)
* Congregational Christian Churches, (not part of any national CCC body)
* [[Moravian Church]] in America, Alaska Province

The [[Association of Religion Data Archives]] has difficulties collecting data on traditionally [[African American]] denominations. Those churches most likely to be identified as mainline include these [[Methodism|Methodist]] groups:
* [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]]
* [[Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]]

===Catholic Church===
{{Main|Catholic Church in the United States}}
[[File:Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.jpg|thumb|The [[Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] is the largest Catholic church in the [[United States]].]]
The [[Catholic Church]] arrived in what is now the [[United States]] during the earliest days of the [[European colonization of the Americas]]. At the time the country was founded (meaning the [[Thirteen Colonies]] in 1776), only a small fraction of the population there were Catholics (mostly in [[History of the Catholic Church in the United States#English colonies|Maryland]]); however, as a result of expansion in former [[France|French]], [[Spain|Spanish]] and [[Mexico|Mexican]] (i.e., purchase of Louisiana Territory, of  Florida, and of territory acquired after the Mexican–American War) and immigration over the country's history, the number of adherents has grown dramatically and it is the largest denomination in the United States today. With over 67&nbsp;million registered residents professing the faith in 2008, the United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world after [[Brazil]], [[Mexico]], and the [[Philippines]], respectively.

The Church's leadership body in the United States is the [[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]], made up of the hierarchy of [[Bishop (Catholic Church)|bishop]]s and [[archbishop]]s of the United States and the [[U.S. Virgin Islands]], although each bishop is independent in his own [[diocese]], answerable only to the [[Pope]].

No [[Primate (bishop)|primate]] for Catholics exists in the United States. The [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore|Archdiocese of Baltimore]] has ''Prerogative of Place'', which confers to [[Roman Catholic Bishop of Baltimore|its archbishop]] a subset of the leadership responsibilities granted to primates in other countries.

The number of Catholics grew from the early 19th century through immigration and the acquisition of the predominantly Catholic former possessions of France, Spain, and Mexico, followed in the mid-19th century by a rapid influx of [[Irish people|Irish]], [[Germans|German]], [[Italians|Italian]] and [[Poles|Polish]] immigrants from Europe, making Catholicism the largest Christian denomination in the United States. This increase was met by widespread prejudice and hostility, often resulting in riots and the burning of churches, convents, and seminaries.<ref>J. A. Birkhaeuser, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_yRxNAAAAYAAJ] "1893 History of the church: from its first establishment to our own times. Designed for the use of ecclesiastical seminaries and colleges, Volume 3"</ref> The integration of Catholics into American society was marked by the election of [[John F. Kennedy]] as [[President of the United States|President]] in 1960. Since then, the percentage of Americans who are Catholic has remained at around 25%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.adw.org/2010/12/is-the-bottom-really-falling-out-of-catholic-mass-attendance-a-recent-cara-survey-ponders-the-question/|title=Is the Bottom Really Falling Out of Catholic Mass Attendance? A Recent CARA Survey Ponders the Question - Community in Mission|date=15 December 2010|publisher=}}</ref>

According to the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities in 2011, there are approximately 230 [[List of Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States|Roman Catholic universities and colleges in the United States]] with nearly 1 million students and some 65,000 professors.<ref>Jerry Filteau, "Higher education leaders commit to strengthening Catholic identity," NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER, Vol 47, No. 9, Feb. 18, 2011, 1</ref> 12 Catholic universities are listed among the top 100 national universities in the US.<ref>"National University Ranking [2020]," US World and News Report, 2019.</ref> [[Catholic schools in the United States|Catholic schools]] educate 2.7 million students in the United States, employing 150,000 teachers. In 2002, Catholic health care systems, overseeing 625 hospitals with a combined revenue of 30 billion dollars, comprised the nation's largest group of nonprofit systems.<ref>Arthur Jones, "Catholic health care aims to make 'Catholic' a brand name," ''National Catholic Reporter'' 18 July 2003, 8.</ref> Owing to its size, more Catholics hold college degrees (26% of all US Catholics) and earn over $100,000 per year (19% of all US Catholics) than do members of any other US denomination.<ref>"American's Changing Religious Landscape," (see both "Household income of US religious groups" and "Educational attainment of US religious groups" in report), Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015.</ref>

===Eastern Orthodox Christianity===
[[File:St Nicholas Wash DC1.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[St. Nicholas Cathedral (Washington, D.C.)|St. Nicholas Cathedral]] in Washington, D.C., is the primary cathedral of the [[Orthodox Church in America]].]]
{{main|Eastern Orthodoxy in North America}}
Groups of immigrants from several different regions, mainly [[Eastern Europe]] and the [[Middle East]], brought [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] to the United States.{{sfn|FitzGerald|2007|p=269-276}} This traditional branch of Eastern Christianity has since spread beyond the boundaries of ethnic immigrant communities and now include multi-ethnic membership and parishes. There are several Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the US, organized within the ''Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America''.<ref>[http://www.assemblyofbishops.org/ Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America]</ref> Statistically, Eastern Orthodox Christians are among the wealthiest Christian denominations in the United States,<ref name="auto1"/> and they also tend to be better educated than most other religious groups in America, in the sense that they have a high number of [[Academic degree|graduate]] (68%) and [[post-graduate]] degrees (28%) per capita.<ref name="auto"/>

===Oriental Orthodox Christianity===
{{main|Oriental Orthodoxy in North America}}
Several groups of Christian immigrants, mainly from the [[Middle East]], [[Caucasus]], [[Africa]] and [[India]], brought [[Oriental Orthodoxy]] to the United States.{{sfn|FitzGerald|2007|p=277-279}} This ancient branch of Eastern Christianity includes several ecclesiastical jurisdictions in the US, like [[Oriental Orthodox Armenians in the United States|Armenian Apostolic Church in the United States]],<ref>[https://armenianchurch.us/history/ The Armenian Church of America]</ref> and [[Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States]].<ref>[http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/directory/churches_all.php Coptic Churches in the United States and Canada]</ref> There are also dioceses of the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Church]],
[[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Eritrean Orthodox Church]], and [[Syriac Orthodox Church]],<ref>[http://syrianorthodoxchurch.org/directories/world/america/ Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch]</ref> including [[Malankara Archdiocese of North America (Syriac Orthodox Church)|Malankara Archdiocese of North America]]. Also, there are dioceses of the [[Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church]] and the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church in the USA ([[Malankara Orthodox Diocese of Northeast America]] and [[Malankara Orthodox Diocese of Southwest America]]).

===Latter Day Saint movement===
[[File:Salt Lake Temple, Utah - Sept 2004-2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The [[Salt Lake Temple]], which took 40 years to build, is one of the most iconic images of the LDS Church.]]
{{Main|The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints membership statistics (United States)}}
[[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) is a [[nontrinitarianism|nontrinitarian]] [[Restoration (Latter Day Saints)|restorationist]] denomination. The church is headquartered in [[Salt Lake City]], and is the largest originating from the [[Latter Day Saint movement]] which was founded by [[Joseph Smith]] in [[Upstate New York]] in 1830. It forms the majority in [[Utah]], the plurality in [[Idaho]], and high percentages in [[Nevada]], [[Arizona]], and [[Wyoming]]; in addition to sizable numbers in [[Colorado]], [[Montana]], [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Oregon]], [[Alaska]], [[Hawaii]] and [[California]]. Current membership in the U.S. is 6.6 million and total membership is 16.1 million worldwide.<ref name="newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org">{{cite web|url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states|title=LDS Statistics and Church Facts - Total Church Membership|publisher=}}</ref>

In 2010, around 13–14% of Latter Day Saints lived in Utah, the center of cultural influence for Mormonism.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/country/usa-utah |title=USA–Utah |publisher=LDS Newsroom |accessdate=November 11, 2011|date=2011-07-27 }}.</ref> [[Religion in Utah|Utah Latter Day Saints]] (as well as Latter Day Saints living in the [[Intermountain West]]) are on average more culturally and politically conservative and Libertarian than those living in some cosmopolitan centers elsewhere in the U.S.<ref>Mauss often compares [[Salt Lake City]] Latter Day Saints to [[California]] Latter Day Saints from  San Francisco and [[East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)|East Bay]]. The Utah Latter Day Saints were generally more orthodox and conservative. {{Harvtxt|Mauss|1994|pp=40, 128}}; {{Cite web|url = http://pewforum.org/Christian/Mormon/A-Portrait-of-Mormons-in-the-US--Social-and-Political-Views.aspx|title = A Portrait of Latter Day Saints in the U.S.: III. Social and Political Views|date = July 24, 2009|publisher = Pew Research Center}}.</ref> Utahns self-identifying as Latter Day Saints also attend church somewhat more on average than Latter Day Saints living in other states. (Nonetheless, whether they live in Utah or elsewhere in the U.S., Latter Day Saints tend to be more culturally and politically conservative than members of other U.S. religious groups.)<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.gallup.com/poll/125021/mormons-conservative-major-religious-group.aspx|date = January 11, 2010|title = Latter Day Saints Most Conservative Major Religious Group in U.S.: Six out of 10 latter Day Saints are politically conservative|publisher = [[Gallup poll]]|first = Frank|last = Newport}}; {{Cite web|url = http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1292/mormon-religion-demographics-beliefs-practices-politics|publisher = [[Pew Research Center]]|title = A Portrait of latter Day Saints in the U.S|first = Allison|last = Pond|date = July 24, 2009}}.</ref> Utah Latter Day Saints often place a greater emphasis on [[Mormon pioneer|pioneer]] heritage than international Latter Day Saints who generally are not descendants of the [[Mormon pioneers]].<ref name="Thomas W. Murphy 1996">{{cite web |url=https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V29N01_183.pdf |title=Reinventing Mormonism: Guatemala as Harbinger of the Future? |author=Thomas W. Murphy |year=1996 |work=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]] |publisher= |accessdate=November 11, 2011}}</ref>

The [[Community of Christ]] (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is a trinitarian restorationist denomination based in [[Independence, Missouri]], at the theologically significant [[Temple Lot]]. Community of Christ is the second largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement with 130,000 members in the United States and 250,000 worldwide (See [[Community of Christ membership and field organization|Community of Christ membership statistics]]). The church owns many of the early Latter Day Saint historic sites, including the [[Kirtland Temple]], near Cleveland, Ohio, and the Joseph Smith properties in [[Nauvoo, Illinois]]. The Community of Christ has taken an ecumenical and progressive approach recent years including joining the [[National Council of Churches]], ordaining women to the church's priesthood since 1984, and more recently approving the blessing of same-sex marriages.

Small churches within the Latter-day Saint movement include [[Church of Christ (Temple Lot)]], [[Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints]], [[Restoration Branches]], and [[Remnant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints]].

==History==
{{Main|History of religion in the United States|History of Christianity in the United States}}
Christianity was introduced during the period of [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]]. The Spanish and French brought [[Catholicism]] to the colonies of [[New Spain]] and [[New France]] respectively, while British and Germans introduced Protestantism. Among Protestants, adherents to [[Anglicanism]], the [[Baptists|Baptist Church]], [[Congregational church|Congregationalism]], [[Presbyterianism]], [[Lutheranism]], [[Quakerism]], [[Mennonite]] and [[Moravian Church]] were the first to settle in the American colonies.

===Early Colonial period===
The [[Netherlands|Dutch]] founded their colony of [[New Netherland]] in 1624;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0835451.html|title=New Netherland|publisher=|accessdate=5 March 2015}}</ref> they established the [[Dutch Reformed Church]] as the colony's official religion in 1628.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rca.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=6553|title=The Reformed Church in America|publisher=|accessdate=5 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305173253/https://www.rca.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=6553|archive-date=5 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Spanish colonies====
Spain established missions and towns in what are now [[Spanish missions in Texas|Texas]], [[Spanish missions in New Mexico|New Mexico]], [[Spanish missions in Arizona|Arizona]], [[Florida]], and [[Spanish missions in California|California]]. Many cities and towns still retain in the present day the names of the Catholic saints these missions were named for; an excellent example of this is  the full  legal name of the city of Los Angeles: ''El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula'', or ''The Town of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels of the Porciuncula River''.  The city was founded by Franciscan friars, who named their tiny church and later the town that formed around it after the Virgin Mary, also known to Catholics as Our Lady, Queen of the Angels.  Similar patterns emerged wherever the Spanish went, such as [[San Antonio, Texas]] (named for [[Anthony of Padua]]), [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]] (named after [[Francis of Assisi]],) and [[Saint Augustine, Florida]], (named for [[Augustine of Hippo]]), as was Saint Lucy County and Port Saint Lucy in Florida named for Saint Lucy/Santa Lucia although [[Saint Petersburg, Florida]] was not named for St. Peter, but for the city of the same name in Russia.

In the English colonies, Catholicism was introduced with the [[History of Maryland|settling of Maryland]].

Conversion of Native Americans to Catholicism was a main goal of the Catholic missionaries, especially the Jesuits. This was common in places where French influence was strong, like Detroit or Louisiana.

====British colonies====
Many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the 17th century by men and women, who, in the face of European [[religious persecution]], refused to compromise passionately-held religious convictions and fled Europe.

=====Virginia=====
{{main|Religion in early Virginia}}
An Anglican chaplain was among the first group of English colonists, arriving in 1607. The [[Church of England]] was legally established in the colony in 1619; with a total of 22 Anglican clergymen having arrived by 1624. In practice, "establishment" meant that local taxes were funneled through the local parish to handle the needs of local government, such as roads and poor relief, in addition to the salary of the minister. There never was a bishop in colonial Virginia; the local vestry consisted of laymen controlled the parish.<ref>Edward L. Bond and Joan R. Gundersen, ''The Episcopal Church in Virginia, 1607–2007'' (2007)</ref> The colonists were typically inattentive, uninterested, and bored during church services, according to the ministers, who complained that the people were sleeping, whispering, ogling the fashionably dressed women, walking about and coming and going, or at best looking out the windows or staring blankly into space.<ref>Jacob M. Blosser, "Irreverent Empire: Anglican Inattention in an Atlantic World," ''Church History,'' Sept 2008, Vol. 77 Issue 3, pp. 596–628</ref> There were too few ministers for the widely scattered population, so ministers encouraged parishioners to become devout at home, using the ''Book of Common Prayer'' for private prayer and devotion (rather than the Bible). The stress on personal piety opened the way for the [[First Great Awakening]], which pulled people away from the established church and into the unauthorized Baptist and Methodist movements.<ref>Edward L. Bond, "Anglican theology and devotion in James Blair's Virginia, 1685–1743," ''Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,'' 1996, Vol. 104 Issue 3, pp. 313–40</ref>

=====New England=====
A group which later became known as the [[Pilgrim (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] settled the [[Plymouth Colony]] in [[Plymouth, Massachusetts|Plymouth]], [[Massachusetts]] in 1620, seeking refuge from persecution in Europe.

The [[Puritans]], a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. Puritans were English Protestants who wished to reform and purify the [[Church of England]] in the New World of what they considered to be unacceptable residues of Catholicism. Within two years, an additional 2,000 settlers arrived. [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|From 1620 to 1640 Puritans emigrated to New England]] from England to escape persecution and gain the liberty to worship as they chose independently of the [[Church of England]], England being on the verge of the [[English Civil War]]. Most settled in New England, but some went as far as the [[West Indies]]. Theologically, the Puritans were "non-separating [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]]s." The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that is still present in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "[[exceptionalism|redeemer nation]]."<ref>{{cite book|first =Ernest Lee|last = Tuveson|title = Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America's Millennial Role|date = 1968|publisher = University of Chicago Press|isbn = 9780226819211}}</ref>

=====Tolerance in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania=====
[[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious tolerance, separation of church and state, and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished from Massachusetts and founded [[Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community. Some migrants who came to Colonial America were in search of the freedom to practice forms of Christianity which were prohibited and persecuted in Europe. Since there was no state religion, and since Protestantism had no central authority, religious practice in the colonies became diverse.

The [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]] formed in England in 1652, where they were severely persecuted in England for daring to deviate so far from orthodox Anglican Christianity. Many sought refuge in New Jersey, Rhode Island and especially Pennsylvania, which was owned by [[William Penn]], a rich Quaker. The Quakers kept political control until Indian wars broke out; the Quakers were pacifists and gave up control to groups that were eager to fight the Indians.<ref>{{cite book|first1= Joseph E.|last1= Illick |first2= Milton M.|last2= Kline|publisher = Scribner|isbn= 978-0684145655|title = Colonial Pennsylvania: A History|date =1976}}</ref>

Beginning in 1683 many German-speaking immigrants arrived in Pennsylvania from the Rhine Valley and Switzerland. Starting in the 1730s Count [[Zinzendorf]] and the [[Moravian Brethren]] sought to minister to these immigrants while they also began missions among the Native American tribes of New York and Pennsylvania. [[Heinrich Melchior Muehlenberg]] organized the first [[Lutheran]] Synod in Pennsylvania in the 1740s.<ref>A. G. Roeber, ''Palatines, Liberty, and Property: German Lutherans in Colonial British America'' (1998)</ref>

=====Maryland=====
Catholic fortunes fluctuated in Maryland during the rest of the 17th century, as they became an increasingly smaller minority of the population. After the [[Glorious Revolution of 1689]] in England, [[penal laws]] deprived Catholics of the right to vote, hold office, educate their children or worship publicly. Until the [[American Revolution]], Catholics in Maryland, like [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]], were dissenters in their own country but keeping loyal to their convictions. At the time of the Revolution, Catholics formed less than 1% of the population of the thirteen colonies, in 2007, Catholics comprised 24% of US population.

====Great Awakening====
[[File:Church in Shandon, CA.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Spanish-style church in [[Shandon, California]]]]
Evangelicalism is difficult to date and to define. Scholars have argued that, as a self-conscious movement, evangelicalism did not arise until the mid-17th century, perhaps not until the Great Awakening itself. The fundamental premise of evangelicalism is the conversion of individuals from a state of sin to a "[[Born again (Christianity)|new birth]]" through the preaching of the Word. The [[First Great Awakening|Great Awakening]] refers to a northeastern Protestant revival movement that took place in the 1730s and 1740s.

The first generation of New England Puritans required that church members undergo a conversion experience that they could describe publicly. Their successors were not as successful in reaping harvests of redeemed souls. The movement began with [[Jonathan Edwards (theology)|Jonathan Edwards]], a Massachusetts preacher who sought to return to the Pilgrims' strict [[Calvinist]] roots. British preacher [[George Whitefield]] and other itinerant preachers continued the movement, traveling across the colonies and preaching in a dramatic and emotional style. Followers of Edwards and other preachers of similar religiosity called themselves the "New Lights," as contrasted with the "Old Lights," who disapproved of their movement. To promote their viewpoints, the two sides established academies and colleges, including [[Princeton University|Princeton]] and [[Williams College]]. The Great Awakening has been called the first truly American event.

The supporters of the Awakening and its evangelical thrust&mdash;[[Presbyterian]]s, Baptists, and [[Methodist]]s&mdash;became the largest American Protestant denominations by the first decades of the 19th century. By the 1770s, the Baptists were growing rapidly both in the north (where they founded [[Brown University]]), and in the South. Opponents of the Awakening or those split by it&mdash;Anglicans, Quakers, and Congregationalists&mdash;were left behind.

The First Great Awakening of the 1740s increased religiosity in most of the colonies. By 1780 the percentage of adult colonists who formally held membership in a church was between 10-30%, not counting slaves or Native Americans. North Carolina had the lowest percentage at about 4%, while New Hampshire and South Carolina were tied for the highest, at about 16%. Many others informally associated with the churches.<ref>{{cite book |last= Carnes |first= Mark C. |author2= John A. Garraty |author3= Patrick Williams |title= Mapping America's Past: A Historical Atlas |year= 1996 |publisher= Henry Holt and Company |isbn= 0-8050-4927-4 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/mappingamericasp00mark/page/50 50] |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/mappingamericasp00mark/page/50 }}</ref>

====American Revolution====
The Revolution split some denominations, notably the Church of England, most of whose ministers supported the king. The Quakers and some German sects were pacifists and remained neutral. Religious practice suffered in certain places because of the absence of ministers and the destruction of churches, but in other areas, religion flourished.

Badly hurt, the Anglicans reorganized after the war. It became the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Protestant Episcopal Church]].<ref>{{cite book|first = Raymond W |last =Albright|title = A history of the Protestant Episcopal Church|date = 1964|publisher = The Macmillan Co. |isbn = 978-0025006805}}</ref>

In 1794, the Russian Orthodox missionary [[St. Herman of Alaska]] arrived on Kodiak island in Alaska and began significantly evangelizing the native peoples. Nearly all the Russians left in 1867 when the U.S. purchased Alaska, but the [[Eastern Orthodox]] faith remained.

Lambert (2003) has examined the religious affiliations and beliefs of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]. Of the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, 49 were [[Protestantism|Protestants]], and two were [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] (D. Carroll, and Fitzsimons).<ref name="Lambert2003">{{cite book |title=The Founding Fathers and the Place of Religion in America |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |last=Lambert |first=Franklin T. |authorlink=Franklin T. Lambert |date=2003 |publication-date=2006 |isbn=978-0691126029 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/foundin_lam_2003_00_2547 }}</ref>  Among the Protestant delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 28 were [[Church of England]] (or [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalian]], after the [[American Revolutionary War]] was won), eight were [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]], seven were [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], two were [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]], two were [[Dutch Reformed Church|Dutch Reformed]], and two were [[Methodism|Methodists]].<ref name="Lambert2003" />

====Church and state debate====
After independence, the American states were obliged to write [[constitution]]s establishing how each would be governed. For three years, from 1778 to 1780, the political energies of Massachusetts were absorbed in drafting a charter of government that the voters would accept. One of the most contentious issues was whether the state would support the church financially. Advocating such a policy were the ministers and most members of the Congregational Church, which received public financial support, during the colonial period. The Baptists tenaciously adhered to their ancient conviction that churches should receive no support from the state{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}. The Constitutional Convention chose to support the church and Article Three authorized a general religious tax to be directed to the church of a taxpayers' choice.

Such tax laws also took effect in [[Connecticut]] and [[New Hampshire]].

===19th century===
[[File:First Baptist Church-Minneapolis-20070404.jpg|thumb|upright|[[First Baptist Church (Minneapolis)|First Baptist Church]] in [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]]]

====Separation of church and state====
In October 1801, members of the Danbury Baptists Associations wrote a letter to the new President-elect [[Thomas Jefferson]]. Baptists, being a minority in Connecticut, were still required to pay fees to support the Congregationalist majority. The Baptists found this intolerable. The Baptists, well aware of Jefferson's own unorthodox beliefs, sought him as an ally in making all religious expression a fundamental human right and not a matter of government largesse.

In his January 1, 1802, reply to the Danbury Baptist Association Jefferson summed up the First Amendment's original intent, and used for the first time anywhere a now-familiar phrase in today's political and judicial circles: the amendment, he wrote, established a "wall of separation between church and state." Largely unknown in its day, this phrase has since become a major Constitutional issue. The first time the U.S. Supreme Court cited that phrase from Jefferson was in 1878, 76&nbsp;years later.

====Second Great Awakening====
{{main|Second Great Awakening}}
The Second [[Great Awakening]] was a Protestant movement that began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800, and after 1820 membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the 1840s. It was a reaction against skepticism, [[deism]], and rational Christianity, and was especially attractive to young women.<ref>Nancy Cott, “Young Women in the Great Awakening in New England,” Feminist Studies 3, no. 1/2 (Autumn 1975): 15.</ref> Millions of new members enrolled in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations. Many converts believed that the Awakening heralded a new [[Millennialism|millennial age]]. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements designed to remedy the evils of society before the anticipated [[Second Coming]] of [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]].<ref name="Timothy">Timothy L. Smith, ''Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War'' (1957)</ref> The network of voluntary reform societies inspired by the Awakening was called the [[Benevolent Empire]].<ref name=ushistory.org>{{Citation | contribution = Institutionalizing Religious Belief: The Benevolent Empire | title = U.S. History Online Textbook | publisher = ushistory.org | url = https://www.ushistory.org/us/22d.asp | accessdate = February 5, 2011| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200324015851/https://www.ushistory.org/us/22d.asp | archive-date = March 24, 2020 | url-status = live }}.</ref>

During the Second Great Awakening, new Protestant denominations emerged such as [[Adventism]], the [[Restoration Movement]], and groups such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and [[Mormonism]]. While the First Great Awakening was centered on reviving the spirituality of established congregations, the Second focused on the unchurched and sought to instill in them a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meetings.

The principal innovation produced by the revivals was the [[camp meeting]]. When assembled in a field or at the edge of a forest for a prolonged religious meeting, the participants transformed the site into a camp meeting. Singing and preaching were the main activities for several days. The revivals were often intense and created intense emotions. Some fell away but many if not most became permanent church members. The Methodists and Baptists made them one of the evangelical signatures of the denomination.<ref>Dickson D., Bruce, Jr., ''And They All Sang Hallelujah: Plain Folk Camp-Meeting Religion, 1800–1845'' (1974)</ref>

====African American churches====
The [[Black church|Christianity of the black population]] was grounded in evangelicalism. The Second Great Awakening has been called the "central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity." During these revivals Baptists and Methodists converted large numbers of blacks. However, many were disappointed at the treatment they received from their fellow believers and at the backsliding in the commitment to abolish [[slavery]] that many white Baptists and Methodists had advocated immediately after the American Revolution.

When their discontent could not be contained, forceful black leaders followed what was becoming an American habit&mdash;they formed new denominations. In 1787, [[Richard Allen (reverend)|Richard Allen]] and his colleagues in Philadelphia broke away from the Methodist Church and in 1815 founded the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church|African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church]].

After the Civil War, Black Baptists desiring to practice Christianity away from racial discrimination, rapidly set up several separate state Baptist conventions. In 1866, black Baptists of the South and West combined to form the Consolidated American Baptist Convention. This convention eventually collapsed but three national conventions formed in response. In 1895 the three conventions merged to create the [[National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.|National Baptist Convention]]. It is now the largest African-American religious organization in the United States.

====Liberal Christianity====
[[File:St Philip's Church of the Highlands.jpg|thumb|[[St. Philip's Church in the Highlands]], an Episcopal church in [[Garrison, New York]]]]

The "secularization of society" is attributed to the time of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]. In the United States, religious observance is much higher than in Europe, and the United States' culture leans conservative in comparison to other western nations, in part due to the Christian element.

[[Liberal Christianity]], exemplified by some theologians, sought to bring to churches new critical approaches to the Bible. Sometimes called "liberal theology", liberal Christianity is an umbrella term covering movements and ideas within 19th- and 20th-century Christianity. New attitudes became evident, and the practice of questioning the nearly universally accepted Christian orthodoxy began to come to the forefront.

In the post–World War I era, liberalism was the faster-growing sector of the American church. Liberal wings of denominations were on the rise, and a considerable number of seminaries held and taught from a liberal perspective as well. In the post–World War II era, the trend began to swing back towards the conservative camp in America's seminaries and church structures.

====Catholic Church====
[[File:Saint Patrick's Cathedral by David Shankbone.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York|Saint Patrick's Cathedral]] in [[New York City]]]]
{{Main|History of the Catholic Church in the United States}}
{{See also|Catholic Church in the United States}}
By 1850 Catholics had become the country's largest single denomination. Between 1860 and 1890 the population of Catholics in the United States tripled through immigration; by the end of the decade, it would reach seven million. These huge numbers of immigrant Catholics came from [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]], [[Quebec]], Southern Germany, Italy, Poland and [[Eastern Europe]]. This influx would eventually bring increased political power for the Catholic Church and a greater cultural presence led at the same time to a growing fear of the Catholic "menace." As the 19th century wore on animosity waned, Protestant Americans realized that Catholics were not trying to seize control of the government.

====Fundamentalism====
[[File:Bethesda Temple Ap Church Dayton OH.jpg|thumb|Bethesda Temple Apostolic Church in [[Dayton, Ohio]]]]
[[Christian fundamentalism|Protestant fundamentalism]] began as a movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century to reject influences of [[secular humanism]] and source criticism in modern Christianity. In reaction to liberal Protestant groups that denied doctrines considered fundamental to these conservative groups, they sought to establish tenets necessary to maintaining a Christian identity, the "fundamentals," hence the term fundamentalist.

Over time, the movement divided, with the label ''Fundamentalist'' being retained by the smaller and more hard-line group(s). ''[[Evangelicalism|Evangelical]]'' has become the main identifier of the groups holding to the movement's moderate and earliest ideas.

===20th century===

====Evangelicalism====
[[File:AngelusTemple.jpg|thumb|right|[[Angelus Temple]], an Evangelical Church in Los Angeles]]

In the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, there has been a marked rise in the [[Evangelicalism|evangelical]] wing of [[Protestant]] denominations, especially those that are more exclusively evangelical, and a corresponding decline in the mainstream liberal churches.

The 1950s saw a boom in the Evangelical church in America. The post–World War II prosperity experienced in the U.S. also had its effects on the church. Church buildings were erected in large numbers, and the Evangelical church's activities grew along with this expansive physical growth. In the southern U.S., the Evangelicals, represented by leaders such as [[Billy Graham]], have experienced a notable surge displacing the caricature of the pulpit pounding country preachers of fundamentalism.{{Citation needed|date=May 2012}} The stereotypes have gradually shifted.

Although the Evangelical community worldwide is diverse, the ties that bind all Evangelicals are still apparent: a "high view" of Scripture, belief in the Deity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and the bodily resurrection of Christ.

====National associations====
The Federal Council of Churches, founded in 1908, marked the first major expression of a growing modern ecumenical movement among Christians in the United States. It was active in pressing for reform of public and private policies, particularly as they impacted the lives of those living in poverty, and developed a comprehensive and widely debated ''Social Creed'' which served as a humanitarian "bill of rights" for those seeking improvements in American life.

In 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as [[National Council of Churches]], or NCC) represented a dramatic expansion in the development of ecumenical cooperation. It was a merger of the Federal Council of Churches, the International Council of Religious Education, and several other interchurch ministries. Today, the NCC is a joint venture of 35 [[Christianity|Christian]] denominations in the United States with 100,000 local congregations and 45,000,000 adherents. Its member communions include [[Mainline Protestant]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]], [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]], African-American, Evangelical and historic Peace churches. The NCC took a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement and fostered the publication of the widely used ''Revised Standard Version of the Bible'', followed by an updated ''New Revised Standard Version'', the first translation to benefit from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The organization is headquartered in New York City, with a public policy office in Washington, DC. The NCC is related fraternally to hundreds of local and regional councils of churches, to other national councils across the globe, and to the [[World Council of Churches]]. All of these bodies are independently governed.

Carl McIntire led in organizing the [[American Council of Christian Churches]] (ACCC), now with 7 member bodies, in September 1941. It was a more militant and [[fundamentalist]] organization set up in opposition to what became the National Council of Churches.

The National Association of Evangelicals for United Action was formed in St. Louis, Missouri on April 7–9, 1942. It soon shortened its name to the [[National Association of Evangelicals]] (NEA). There are currently 60 denominations with about 45,000 churches in the organization. The NEA is related fraternally the [[World Evangelical Fellowship]].

In 2006, 39 communions and 7 Christian organizations officially launched [[Christian Churches Together]] in the USA (CCT). CCT provides a space that is inclusive of the diversity of Christian traditions in the United States—Evangelical/Pentecostal, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, historic Protestant, and historic Black churches. CCT is characterized by its emphasis on relationships and prayer. Every year these communions and organizations meet over four days to discuss critical social issues, pray and strengthen their relationships.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://christianchurchestogether.org/history-of-cct/ | title=History of CCT | publisher=Christian Churches Together | accessdate=February 1, 2014}}</ref>

====Pentecostalism====
Another noteworthy development in 20th-century Christianity was the rise of the modern [[Pentecostal]] movement. [[Pentecostalism]], which had its roots in the [[Pietism]] and the [[Holiness movement]], many will cite that it arose out of the meetings in 1906 at an urban mission on [[Azusa Street Revival|Azusa Street]] in Los Angeles, but it actually started in 1900 in Topeka, Kansas with a group led by [[Charles Fox Parham|Charles Parham]] and the Bethel Bible School. From there it spread by those who experienced what they believed to be miraculous moves of God there.

Pentecostalism would later birth the [[Charismatic movement]] within already established denominations, and it continues to be an important force in Western Christianity.

====Catholic Church====
By the beginning of the 20th century, approximately one-sixth of the population of the United States was Catholic. Modern Catholic immigrants come to the United States from the [[Philippines]], Poland, and [[Latin America]], especially from Mexico. This [[multiculturalism]] and diversity have greatly impacted the flavor of Catholicism in the United States. For example, many dioceses serve in both the [[English language]] and the [[Spanish language]].

==Youth programs==
While children and youth in the colonial era were treated as small adults, awareness of their special status and needs grew in the nineteenth century, as one after another the denominations large and small began special programs for their young people. Protestant theologian [[Horace Bushnell]] in ''Christian Nurture'' (1847) emphasized the necessity of identifying and supporting the religiosity of children and young adults. Beginning in the 1790s the Protestant denominations set up [[Sunday school]] programs. They provided a major source of new members.<ref>Anne M. Boylan, ''Sunday School: The Formation of an American Institution, 1790-1880'' (1990)</ref> Urban Protestant churchmen set up the interdenominational [[YMCA]] (and later the [[YWCA]]) programs in cities from the 1850s.<ref>David Macleod, ''Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and Their Forerunners, 1870-1920'' (2004)</ref> Methodists looked on their youth as potential political activists, providing them with opportunities to engage in social justice movements such as prohibition. Black Protestants, especially after they could form their own separate churches, integrated their young people directly into the larger religious community. Their youth played a major role in the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and the 1960s. White evangelicals in the twentieth century set up Bible clubs for teenagers and experimented with the use of music to attract young people. The Catholics set up an entire network of parochial schools, and by the late nineteenth century probably more than half of their young members were attending elementary schools run by local parishes.<ref>Timothy Walch, ''Parish School: A History of American Catholic Parochial Education from Colonial Times to the Present'' (1995)</ref> Some Missouri Synod German Lutherans and Dutch Reformed churches also set up parochial schools. In the twentieth century, all the denominations sponsored programs such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.<ref>Thomas E. Burgler, ''The Juvenilization of American Christianity'' (2012)</ref>

==Demographics==

===Demographics by state===
[[File:Map of US, Religions.svg|650px|Christian denomination plurality by state]]

{|
| &lt;30%
| &lt;40%
| &lt;50%
| &gt;50%
|-
| style="background-color: #33ccff;" |
| style="background-color: #0096ff;" |
| style="background-color: #0000ff;" |
|
| [[Catholicity|Catholic]]
|-
| style="background-color: #ff5eff;" |
| style="background-color: #ff0099;" |
| style="background-color: #ff0000;" |
| style="background-color: #be0303;" |
| [[Baptists|Baptist]]
|-
| style="background-color: #ffcc33;" |
|
|
|
| [[Methodism|Methodist]]
|-
| style="background-color: #ffffcc;" |
| style="background-color: #ffff99;" |
|
|
| [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]]
|-
|
|
|
| style="background-color: #009900;" |
| [[Mormons|Mormon]]
|-
| style="background-color: #c0c0c0;" |
|
|
|
| [[Irreligion|No religion]]
|}

{{Hatnote|Numbers in the chart below come from statistics collected by the ASARB<ref>''Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States, 2000.'' Collected by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB) and distributed by the [http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/selectmultistate.asp Association of Religion Data Archives].</ref> in surveys of the churches themselves. Congregational "adherents" include all full members, their children, and others who regularly attend services.}}
<!-- Anyone with data from surveys of individuals is welcome to add it to the chart for comparison.-->
<!-- Instructions for editing Wikipedia tables: [[:meta:MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide:_Using_tables]] -->

===Beliefs and attitudes===
The [[Baylor University]] Institute for Studies of Religion conducted a survey covering various aspects of American religious life.<ref name=baylor>{{cite web |url=http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=41678 |title=Losing My Religion? No, Says Baylor Religion Survey |date=September 11, 2006 |publisher=Baylor University }}</ref> The researchers analyzing the survey results have categorized the responses into what they call the "four Gods": An ''authoritarian'' God (31%), a ''benevolent'' God (25%), a ''distant God'' (23%), and a ''critical'' God (16%).<ref name=baylor/> A major implication to emerge from this survey is that "the type of god people believe in can predict their political and moral attitudes more so than just looking at their religious tradition."<ref name=baylor/>

As far as religious tradition, the survey determined that 33.6% of respondents are evangelical Protestants, while 10.8% had no religious affiliation at all. Out of those without affiliation, 62.9% still indicated that they "believe in God or some higher power".<ref name=baylor/>

Another study, conducted by ''[[Christianity Today]]'' with ''Leadership'' magazine, attempted to understand the range and differences among American Christians. A national attitudinal and behavioral survey found that their beliefs and practices clustered into five distinct segments. Spiritual growth for two large segments of Christians may be occurring in non-traditional ways. Instead of attending church on Sunday mornings, many opt for personal, individual ways to stretch themselves spiritually.<ref name="5kinds">[http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2007/004/1.19.html "5 Kinds of Christians — Understanding the disparity of those who call themselves Christian in America.] ''Leadership Journal'', Fall 2007.</ref>
* 19 percent of American Christians are described by the researchers as ''Active Christians.'' They believe salvation comes through [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]], attend church regularly, are Bible readers, invest in personal faith development through their church, accept leadership positions in their church, and believe they are obligated to "share [their] faith", that is, to [[Evangelism|evangelize]] others.
* 20 percent are referred to as ''Professing Christians.'' They are also committed to "accepting Christ as Savior and Lord" as the key to being a Christian, but focus more on personal relationships with God and Jesus than on church, Bible reading or evangelizing.
* 16 percent fall into a category named ''[[Liturgy|Liturgical]] Christians.'' They are predominantly [[Lutheran]], [[Catholic]], [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]], [[Eastern Orthodox]] or [[Oriental Orthodox]]. They are regular churchgoers, have a high level of spiritual activity and recognize the authority of the church.
* 24 percent are considered ''Private Christians.'' They own a Bible but don't tend to read it. Only about one-third attend church at all. They believe in God and in doing good things, but not necessarily within a church context. This was the largest and youngest segment. Almost none are church leaders.
* 21 percent in the research are called'' [[Cultural Christian]]s.'' These do not view Jesus as essential to salvation. They exhibit little outward religious behavior or attitudes. They favor a [[universalism|universality]] theology that sees many ways to God. Yet, they clearly consider themselves to be Christians.

===Church attendance===
[[Gallup poll|Gallup International]] indicates that 41%<ref name=RelTolRelRate>{{cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_rate.htm |title=How many people go regularly to weekly religious services? |publisher=Religious Tolerance website}}</ref> of American citizens report they regularly attend [[places of worship|religious services]], compared to 15% of [[Culture of France#Religion|French citizens]], 10% of [[Religion in the United Kingdom|UK citizens]],<ref name=bbc20070403>{{cite news|date=3 April 2007 | title = 'One in 10' attends church weekly |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6520463.stm |work=BBC News}}</ref> and 7.5% of [[Religion in Australia|Australian citizens]].<ref>[http://www.ncls.org.au/default.aspx?docid=2250&track=82083 NCLS releases latest estimates of church attendance], [[National Church Life Survey]], Media release</ref>

The [[Bible Belt]] is an informal term for a region in the [[Southern United States]] in which socially conservative [[evangelical Protestantism]] is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. By contrast, religion plays the least important role in [[New England]] and in the [[Western United States]].<ref name="gallup.com">{{cite web|title=Mississippians Go to Church the Most; Vermonters, Least|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/125999/mississippians-go-church-most-vermonters-least.aspx|accessdate=January 13, 2014|publisher=Gallup}}</ref>

====By state====
[[File:Weekly religious service attendance by US State gradient (2014).svg|thumb|Percent of Americans who report attending religious services at least weekly in 2014.{{legend|#023858|≥50% attending weekly}}{{legend|#045a8d|45-49% attending weekly}}{{legend|#0570b0|40-44% attending weekly}}{{legend|#3690c0|35-39% attending weekly}}{{legend|#74a9cf|30-34% attending weekly}}{{legend|#a6bddb|25-29% attending weekly}}{{legend|#d0d1e6|20-24% attending weekly}}{{legend|#ece7f2|15-19% attending weekly}}]]
Church attendance varies significantly by state and region. In a 2014 Gallup survey, less than half of Americans said that they attended church or synagogue weekly. The figures ranged from 51% in [[Utah]] to 17% in [[Vermont]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/181601/frequent-church-attendance-highest-utah-lowest-vermont.aspx|title=Frequent Church Attendance Highest in Utah, Lowest in Vermont|last=Inc.|first=Gallup|access-date=2016-06-28|date=2015-02-17}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Weekly church attendance by state<ref name=":0" />
|-
! Rank !! State !! Percent
|-
| 1 || {{flag|Utah}} || 51%
|-
| 2 || {{flag|Mississippi}} || 47%
|-
| 3 || {{flag|Alabama}} || 46%
|-
| 4 ||{{flag|Louisiana}} || 46%
|-
| 5 || {{flag|Arkansas}} ||45%
|-
| 6 || {{flag|South Carolina}} || 42%
|-
| 7 ||{{flag|Tennessee}} ||42%
|-
| 8 || {{flag|Kentucky}} ||41%
|-
| 9 || {{flag|North Carolina}} ||40%
|-
| 10 || {{flag|Georgia (U.S. state)|name=Georgia}} ||39%
|-
| 11 ||{{flag|Oklahoma}} ||39%
|-
| 12 ||{{flag|Texas}} ||39%
|-
| 13 || {{flag|New Mexico}} || 36%
|-
| 14 || {{flag|Delaware}} || 35%
|-
| 15 ||{{flag|Indiana}} || 35%
|-
| 16 ||{{flag|Missouri}} || 35%
|-
| 17 ||{{flag|Nebraska}} || 35%
|-
| 18 ||{{flag|Virginia}} || 35%
|-
| 19 || {{flag|Idaho}} || 34%
|-
| 20 ||{{flag|West Virginia}} || 34%
|-
| 21 || {{flag|Arizona}} || 33%
|-
| 22 ||{{flag|Kansas}} || 33%
|-
| 23 ||{{flag|Florida}} || 32%
|-
| 24 ||{{flag|Illinois}} || 32%
|-
| 25 ||{{flag|Iowa}} || 32%
|-
| 26 ||{{flag|Michigan}} || 32%
|-
| 27 ||{{flag|North Dakota}} ||32%
|-
| 28 ||{{flag|Ohio}} || 32%
|-
| 29 ||{{flag|Pennsylvania}} || 32%
|-
| 30 || {{flag|Maryland}} || 31%
|-
| 31 ||{{flag|Minnesota}} || 31%
|-
| 32 ||{{flag|South Dakota}} ||31%
|-
| 33 || {{flag|New Jersey}} || 30%
|-
| 34 || {{flag|Wisconsin}} || 29%
|-
| 35 || {{flag|California}} || 28%
|-
| 36 ||{{flag|Rhode Island}} || 28%
|-
| 37 ||{{flag|Wyoming}} || 28%
|-
| 38 || {{flag|Montana}} || 27%
|-
| 39 ||{{flag|Nevada}} || 27%
|-
| 40 ||{{flag|New York}} || 27%
|-
| 41 || {{flag|Alaska}} || 26%
|-
| 42 || {{flag|Colorado}} || 25%
|-
| 43 ||{{flag|Connecticut}} || 25%
|-
| 44 ||{{flag|Hawaii}} || 25%
|-
| 45 || {{flag|Oregon}} || 24%
|-
| 46 ||{{flag|Washington}} || 24%
|-
| — ||{{flag|District of Columbia}} || 23%
|-
| 47 ||{{flag|Massachusetts}} || 22%
|-
| 48 ||{{flag|Maine}} || 20%
|-
| 49 || {{flag|New Hampshire}} || 20%
|-
| 50 || {{flag|Vermont}} || 17%
|}

=== U.S. territories ===

Below is the percent of population that are Christians in the [[Territories of the United States|U.S. territories]] in 2015.<ref>http://thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_5_2.asp <br>http://thearda.com/internationalData/compare2.asp?c=97 <br>http://thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_169_2.asp<br>http://thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_182_2.asp<br>http://thearda.com/internationalData/countries/Country_240_2.asp <br>thearda.com. The ARDA (Association of Religion Data Archives). American Samoa / Guam / Northern Mariana Islands / Puerto Rico / Virgin Islands (U.S.) Retrieved July 6, 2020.</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|- valign="top"
! style="vertical-align:middle;"|'''Territory'''
! Percent<br> [[Christianity|Christian]]
|-
|align=left | {{flag|American Samoa}}
|align=center|87.4%
|-
|align=left | {{flag|Guam}}
|align=center|91.1%
|-
|align=left | {{flag|Northern Mariana Islands}}
|align=center|81.1%
|-
|align=left | {{flag|Puerto Rico}}
|align=center|91.2%
|-
|align=left | {{flag|U.S. Virgin Islands}}
|align=center|81.8%
|}

=== Race ===
[[File:Lacathedral.jpg|thumb|[[Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels]] in [[Los Angeles]]]]
Data from the [[Pew Research Center]] show that as of 2008, the majority of [[White American]]s were [[Christians|Christian]], and about 51% of the [[White American]] were Protestant, and 26% were Catholic.

The most methodologically rigorous study of [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]] religious affiliation to date was the [https://web.archive.org/web/20110409083331/http://latinostudies.nd.edu/pubs/pubs/HispChurchesEnglishWEB.pdf Hispanic Churches in American Public Life] (HCAPL) National Survey, conducted between August and October 2000. This survey found that 70% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans are Catholic, 20% are Protestant, 3% are "alternative Christians" (such as [[Mormonism|Mormon]] or [[Jehovah's Witnesses]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pewforum.org/files/2007/04/hispanics-religion-07-final-mar08.pdf |title=Latinos and the Transformation of american religion |accessdate=2014-10-11 |publisher= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819084342/http://www.pewforum.org/files/2007/04/hispanics-religion-07-final-mar08.pdf |archive-date=2018-08-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to a [[Public Religion Research Institute]] study in 2017, the majority of [[Hispanic and Latino Americans]] are [[Christianity|Christians]] (76%),<ref>[https://www.prri.org/research/american-religious-landscape-christian-religiously-unaffiliated/ America’s Changing Religious Identity]</ref> and about 11% of [[Americans]] identify as Hispanic or Latino Christian.<ref>[https://www.prri.org/research/american-religious-landscape-christian-religiously-unaffiliated/ America’s Changing Religious Identity]</ref>

The majority of [[African American]]s are [[Protestant]] (78%), many of whom follow the historically [[black churches]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/A-Religious-Portrait-of-African-Americans.aspx|title=Pew Forum: A Religious Portrait of African-Americans|date=January 30, 2009|publisher=The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life|accessdate=October 31, 2012}}</ref><ref name=PewForum>[http://religions.pewforum.org/pdf/report-religious-landscape-study-full.pdf U.S.Religious Landscape Survey p.40] The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (February 2008). Retrieved July 20, 2009.</ref> A 2012 [[Pew Research Center]] study found that 42% of [[Asian Americans]] identify themselves as [[Christians]].<ref>"[http://www.pewforum.org/2012/07/19/asian-americans-a-mosaic-of-faiths-overview/ Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths]" (overview) (). [[Pew Research]]. July 19, 2012. Retrieved on May 3, 2014.</ref>

=== Ethnicity ===
[[File:St. Vartan Park td (2018-11-20) 12 - Basketball Court.jpg|thumb|[[St. Vartan Cathedral]] in midtown [[Manhattan]]]]
Beginning around 1600, Northern European settlers introduced [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] and [[Puritan]] religion, as well as [[Baptist]], Presbyterian, [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]], [[Religious Society of Friends|Quaker]], and [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] denominations.<ref>Sydney E. Ahlstrom, ''A religious history of the American people'' (1976) pp 121-59 .</ref>

Beginning in the 16th century, the Spanish (and later the French and English) introduced Catholicism. From the 19th century to the present, Catholics came to the US in large numbers due to the immigration of [[Italian American|Italians]], Hispanics, [[Portuguese American|Portuguese]], [[French American|French]], [[Polish American|Polish]], [[Irish Americans|Irish]], Highland Scots, Dutch, Flemish, [[Hungarian people|Hungarians]], [[German Americans|Germans]], [[Lebanese American|Lebanese]] ([[Maronite]]), and other ethnic groups.

Most of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] adherents in the United States are descended from immigrants of [[Eastern Europe]]an or [[Middle East]]ern background, especially from [[Greek American|Greek]], [[Russian American|Russian]], [[Ukrainian American|Ukrainian]], [[Arab American|Arab]], [[Bulgarian American|Bulgarian]], [[Romanian American|Romanian]], or [[Serbian American|Serbian]] backgrounds.{{sfn|FitzGerald|2007|p=269-276}}<ref>Alexei D. Krindatch, ed., ''Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches'' (Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2011) [http://www.coptics.info/Books/AtlasAmericanOrthodoxChurchesSample.pdf online].</ref>

Most of the [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox]] adherents in the United States are from [[Armenian American|Armenian]], [[Coptic Americans|Coptic]]-[[Egyptian Americans|Egyptian]] and [[Ethiopian Americans|Ethiopian]]-[[Eritrean Americans|Eritrean]] backgrounds.

Along with the [[Ethiopian Americans|Ethiopian]]-[[Eritrean Americans|Eritrean]] Christians also came the [[P'ent'ay (Ethiopian Evangelicalism)|P'ent'ay]] Evangelical Churches, a part of [[Evangelicalism]] that maintains the [[Eastern Christianity|Eastern Christian]] Calendar and other cultural traditions. {{sfn|FitzGerald|2007|p=277-279}}

Most of the traditional [[Assyrian Church of the East|Church of the East]] adherents in the United States are ethnically [[Assyrian American|Assyrian]].<ref name="Henrich2p8182">{{cite book |author1=Heinrich |author2=Heinrich |title=Why Humans Cooperate: A Cultural and Evolutionary Explanation |date=2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=81–82}}</ref>

Data from the [[Pew Research Center]] show that as of 2013, there were about 1.6 million [[Christians]] from [[Jewish]] background, most of them [[Protestant]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/10/02/how-many-jews-are-there-in-the-united-states/|title=How many Jews are there in the United States?|work=Pew Research Center}}</ref><ref name="pew: portrait">{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/chapter-1-population-estimates/|title=A PORTRAIT OF JEWISH AMERICANS: Chapter 1: Population Estimates|work=Pew Research Center|date=October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/.premium-1.549713|title=American-Jewish Population Rises to 6.8 Million|newspaper=haaretz|date=2013-09-30|last1=Maltz|first1=Judy}}</ref> According to the same data, most of the Christians of Jewish descent were raised as Jews or are Jews by ancestry.<ref name="pew: portrait" />

=== Conversion ===
A study from 2015 estimated some 450,000 [[Islam in the United States|American Muslim]]s who had [[convert to Christianity|converted to Christianity]], most of whom belong to an evangelical or [[Pentecostal]] community.<ref name="academia.edu"/> In 2010 there were approximately 180,000 [[Arab American|Arab-American]]s and about 130,000 [[Iranian American]]s who converted from Islam to Christianity. Dudley Woodbury, a Fulbright scholar of Islam, estimates that 20,000 Muslims convert to Christianity annually in the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/why-are-millions-of-muslims-becoming-christian/|title=Why Are Millions of Muslims Becoming Christian?|publisher=}}</ref> Many [[Druze]] immigrants to the [[United States]] converted to [[Protestantism]], becoming communicants of the [[Presbyterian]] or [[Methodist]] Churches.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Arab Americans|first=Randa|last=A. Kayyali|year= 2006| isbn= 9780313332197| page =21 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|quote= Many of the Druze have chosen to deemphasize their ethnic identity, and some have officially converted to Christianity.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life|first=Jeneen|last=Hobby|year= 2011| isbn= 9781414448916| page =232 |publisher=University of Philadelphia Press|quote= US Druze settled in small towns and kept a low profile, joining Protestant churches (usually Presbyterian or Methodist) and often Americanizing their names..}}</ref> 

It's been also reported that conversion into Christianity is significantly increasing among [[Korean Americans]],<ref>{{cite book|last=Yoo|first=David|author2=Ruth H. Chung |title=Religion and spirituality in Korean America|publisher=University of Illinois Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-252-07474-5}}</ref> [[Chinese Americans]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/11/leave-china-study-in-america-find-jesus-chinese-christian-converts-at-american-universities/|title=Leave China, Study in America, Find Jesus|publisher=}}</ref> and [[Japanese Americans]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian Niiya|title=Japanese American History: An A-To-Z Reference from 1868 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZg6Ft_jvJ0C&pg=RA1-PA28|year=1993|publisher=VNR AG|page=28|isbn=9780816026807}}</ref> By 2012, the percentage of Christians within the mentioned communities was 71%,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-8-2/ |title=Pew Forum - Korean Americans' Religions |publisher=Projects.pewforum.org |date=2012-07-18 |accessdate=2013-02-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202232852/http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-8-2/ |archive-date=2013-02-02 |url-status=dead }}</ref> more than 30%<ref name="projects.pewforum.org">[http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-4-2/ Pew Forum - Chinese Americans' Religions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803085803/http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-4-2/ |date=2017-08-03 }}.</ref> and 37%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-9-2/|title=Japanese Americans - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life|accessdate=March 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064956/http://projects.pewforum.org/2012/07/18/religious-affiliation-of-asian-americans-2/asianamericans_affiliation-9-2/|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Messianic Judaism]] (or Messianic Movement) is the name of a Protestant movement comprising a number of streams, whose members may consider themselves Jewish.<ref name =Ariel2000p223>{{Cite book
|last= Ariel
|first= Yaakov S.
|title= Evangelizing the chosen people: missions to the Jews in America, 1880–2000
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=r3hCgIZB790C&q=advocated+offspring+rhetoric+Shalom
|format= [[Google Books]]
|accessdate= August 10, 2010
|year= 2000
|publisher= [[University of North Carolina Press]]
|location= [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina|Chapel Hill]]
|isbn= 978-0-8078-4880-7
|oclc= 43708450
|page= 223
|chapter= Chapter 20: The Rise of Messianic Judaism
|chapterurl=
}}
</ref> It blends elements of religious [[Judaism|Jewish]] practice with evangelical Protestantism. Messianic Judaism affirms Christian creeds such as the messiahship and divinity of "[[Yeshua (name)|Yeshua]]" (the Hebrew name of Jesus) and the Triune Nature of God, while also adhering to some Jewish dietary laws and customs. {{As of|2012}}, population estimates for the United States were between 175,000 and 250,000 members.<ref name = "Posner2012">{{cite journal
| last       = Posner
| first      = Sarah
| date       = November 29, 2012
| title      = Kosher Jesus: Messianic Jews in the Holy Land
| url        = https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/11/kosher-jesus-messianic-jews-in-the-holy-land/265670/
| journal    = [[The Atlantic]]
| access-date= September 10, 2015
}}
</ref>

==Self-reported membership statistics==
This table lists total membership and number of congregations in the United States for religious bodies with more than 1 million members.  Numbers are from reports on the official web sites, which can vary widely based on information source and membership definition.<br>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Self-reported U.S. church denomination membership
|-
! Denomination !! Membership !! Congregations !! Headquarters
|-
| [[Catholic Church in the United States]] || 71,000,000<ref name="Aleteia">{{cite web|url=https://aleteia.org/2019/01/18/the-top-10-most-catholic-countries-in-the-world/|title=The top 10 most Catholic countries in the world|date=18 January 2019|publisher=Aleteia}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/pope-francis-visits-america/burmese-american-catholic-group-part-plan-lift-image-all-asian-n430821|title=Burmese-American Catholics Broaden U.S. Catholic Church|publisher=[[CBS News]]|last=Guillermo|first=Emill}}</ref>|| 17,156<ref name="cara.georgetown.edu">{{cite web|url=http://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/|title=CENTER FOR APPLIED RESEARCH IN THE APOSTOLATE (CARA), Georgetown University > Frequently Requested Church Statistics > Parishes|website=cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/}}</ref> || [[Washington, DC]] ([[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]])
|-
| [[Southern Baptist Convention]] || 14,525,579<ref name="bpnews">{{cite web|url=http://www.bpnews.net/54903/southern-baptist-convention-continues-statistical-decline-floyd-calls-for-rethinking-acp-process|title=Southern Baptist Convention continues statistical decline, Floyd calls for rethinking ACP process|publisher=Baptist Press|accessdate=8 June 2020}}</ref> || 47,530<ref name="bpnews"/> || [[Augusta, Georgia]]
|-
| [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] || 6,721,032<ref>[https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/facts-and-statistics/country/united-states United States - Statistics and Church Facts | Total Church Membership<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> || 14,459<ref name="newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org"/> || [[Salt Lake City, Utah]]
|-
| [[United Methodist Church]] || 6,671,825<ref name="umdata.org">{{Cite web | url=http://www.umdata.org/UMFactsHome.aspx |title = UMData}}</ref> || 31,609<ref name="umdata.org"/> || Without fixed seat. The temporary headquarters is the city where the General Conference takes place, with the event taking place only every 4 years.
|-
| [[Church of God in Christ]] || 5,499,875<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ncccusa.org/news/120209yearbook2012.html|title= National Council of Churches' 2012 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches|website=ncccusa.org/news/120209yearbook2012.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cogic.org/our-foundation/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130312130022/http://www.cogic.org/our-foundation/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-03-12|title=Church of God in Christ Official Website/web/20130312130022/http://www.cogic.org/our-foundation/}}</ref>|| 12,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchfinder.com/denominations/church-god-christ|title=Church of God in Christ Statistics|website=churchfinder.com/denominations/church-god-christ}}</ref> || [[Memphis, Tennessee]]
|-
| [[National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.]] || 5,000,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/national-baptist-convention-of-america-inc|title=World Council of Churches}}</ref> || 21,145 <ref name="Baptist World Alliance Statistics">{{cite web|url=https://www.bwanet.org/about-us2/stats|title=Baptist World Alliance Statistics|website=www.bwanet.org/about-us2/stats}}</ref> || [[Montgomery, Alabama]]
|-
| [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] || 3,363,281<ref name="elca2018stats">{{cite web|title=ELCA Facts|url=https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/ELCA-Facts|website=elca.org|publisher=Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|accessdate=November 11, 2019}}</ref> || 9,091<ref name="elca2018stats"/> || [[Chicago, Illinois]]
|-
| [[National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.]] || 3,106,000 || 12,336<ref name="Baptist World Alliance Statistics"/> || [[Louisville, Kentucky]]
|-
| [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] || 2,510,000 || 7,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/african-methodist-episcopal-church|title=African Methodist Episcopal Church Statistics|website=www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/african-methodist-episcopal-church}}</ref> || [[Nashville, Tennessee]]
|-
| [[Baptist General Convention of Texas]] || 2,079,385 || 5,309<ref name="Baptist World Alliance Statistics"/> || [[Dallas, Texas]]
|-
| [[Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod]] || 1,968,641 || 6,046<ref>{{cite web|url=https://files.lcms.org/wl/?id=0P6YfWqhIvpvei9cTSh0dBsbgoWy78VV|title=The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod Facts|accessdate=16 March 2019}}</ref> || [[Kirkwood, Missouri]]
|-
| [[Assemblies of God USA]] || 1,818,941<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ag.org/-/media/AGORG/Downloads/Statistics/Archived-Full-Reports/2016-Full-Statistical-Report.pdf |title=Assemblies of God (USA) - Official Website, 2016 Full Statistical Report |page=72 |quote=Membership}}</ref>|| 13,023<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ag.org/-/media/AGORG/Downloads/Statistics/Archived-Full-Reports/2016-Full-Statistical-Report.pdf |title=Assemblies of God (USA) - Official Website, 2016 Full Statistical Report |page=72 |quote=Churches}}</ref> || [[Springfield, Missouri]]
|-
| [[Episcopal Church (United States)]] || 1,676,349 || 6,423<ref>{{cite web|url=https://extranet.generalconvention.org/staff/files/download/25584|title=Episcopal Domestic Fast Facts Trends: 2018|access-date=September 24, 2019}}</ref> || [[New York, New York]]
|- 
| [[Progressive National Baptist Convention]] || 1,500,000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pnbc.org/History|title=Progressive National Baptist Convention History|website=www.pnbc.org}}</ref> || 1,200 <ref name="Baptist World Alliance Statistics"/> || [[Washington, D.C.]]
|- 
| [[African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]] || 1,432,795 || 3,226<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/african-methodist-episcopal-zion-church|title=African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Statistics|website=www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/african-methodist-episcopal-zion-church}}</ref> || [[Charlotte, North Carolina]]
|-
| [[Presbyterian Church (USA)]] || 1,352,678<ref name=pcusa2018>{{cite web|url=http://www.pcusa.org/site_media/media/uploads/oga/pdf/statistics/2018_comparative_summaries_of_statistics.pdf|title=Statistics PCUSA 2018|access-date=2019-06-05}}</ref>
 || 9,161<ref name=pcusa2018/> || [[Louisville, Kentucky]]
|-
| [[Churches of Christ]] || 1,352,462|| 14,175<ref>{{cite web|url=http://churchzip.com/statisticalsummary.htm|title=Churches of Christ Statistics|website=churchzip.com/statisticalsummary.htm}}</ref> || None
|-
| [[Pentecostal Assemblies of the World]] || 1,300,000<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pawinc.org/tag/officers/|title=Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Officers|website=pawinc.org/tag/officers/|access-date=2018-04-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424202610/https://pawinc.org/tag/officers/|archive-date=2018-04-24|url-status=dead}}</ref>|| 1,750<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchfinder.com/denominations/pentecostal-assemblies-world|title=Pentecostal Assemblies of the World Statistics|website=www.churchfinder.com/denominations/pentecostal-assemblies-world}}</ref> || [[Indianapolis, Indiana]]
|-
| [[Jehovah's Witness]] || 1,237,054 || 12,594<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/worldwide/US/|title=Jehovah's Witnesses Around the World - United States of America| website=www.jw.org|access-date=April 24, 2020}}</ref> || [[Warwick, New York]]
|-
| [[Baptist Bible Fellowship International]] || 1,200,000 || 4,500<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchfinder.com/denominations/baptist-bible-fellowship-international|title=Baptist Bible Fellowship International Statistics|website=www.churchfinder.com/denominations/baptist-bible-fellowship-international}}</ref> || [[Springfield, Missouri]]
|- 
| [[American Baptist Churches USA]] || 1,186,416 || 5,123<ref name="Baptist World Alliance Statistics"/> || [[Valley Forge, Pennsylvania]]
|- 
| [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]] || 1,166,672 || 5,134<ref>{{cite web|url=http://adventiststatistics.org/view_Summary.asp?FieldID=D_NAD|website=adventiststatistics.org|title=North American Division (1913-Present)access-date=February 7, 2018}}</ref>|| [[Silver Spring, Maryland]]
|- 
| [[Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)]] || 1,076,254|| 6,060<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchfinder.com/denominations/church-god-cleveland-tn|title=Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Statistics|website=www.churchfinder.com/denominations/church-god-cleveland-tn}}</ref>|| [[Cleveland, Tennessee]]
|}

==See also==
{{Portal|Christianity|History|United States}}
*[[Demographics of the United States]]
*[[History of religion in the United States]]
*[[Religion in the United States]]
*[[Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Sources==
* {{Cite book|last=FitzGerald|first=Thomas|chapter=Eastern Christianity in the United States|title=The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity|year=2007|location=Malden, MA|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|pages=269–279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fHtSuvaVAAoC|isbn=9780470766392}}

==Further reading==
* Ahlstrom, Sydney E. ''A Religious History of the American People'' (1972, 2004) the standard history [https://www.amazon.com/Religious-History-American-People/dp/0300100124/ excerpt and text search]
* Askew, Thomas A., and Peter W. Spellman. ''The Churches and the American Experiment: Ideals and Institutions'', (1984).
* Balmer, Randall. ''Protestantism in America'' (2005) 
* Balmer, Randall. ''The Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism'' (2002) [https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Evangelicalism-Randall-Herbert-Balmer/dp/0664224091/ excerpt and text search]
* Bonomi, Patricia U. ''Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America'' Oxford University Press, 1988 [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90445659 online edition]
* Butler, Jon, et al. '' Religion in American Life: A Short History'' (2011) 
* Dolan, Jay P. '' The American Catholic Experience'' (1992) 
* Johnson, Paul, ed. ''African-American Christianity: Essays in History,'' (1994) [http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2f59n80h/?&query=&brand=ucpress complete text online free]
* Keller, Rosemary Skinner, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, eds. ''Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America'' (3 vol 2006) 
* Noll, Mark A. ''American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction'' (2000) [https://www.amazon.com/American-Evangelical-Christianity-Mark-Noll/dp/0631220003/ excerpt and text search] 
* Wigger, John H.. and Nathan O. Hatch. ''Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture.'' (2001) [https://www.amazon.com/Methodism-Shaping-American-Culture-Wigger/dp/0687048540/ excerpt and text search]

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070609091659/http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/geo/courses/geo200/religion.html Map gallery of religion in the United States]

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