Demographics is the study of the distribution
of peoples within a geographic setting. For this section, the
setting of interest is the USA, at large.
The buttons at the left are linked to U.S. maps
showing the distribution, state by state. The buttons are in order of population size in the U.S. overall, with Catholicism
showing the largest
number of adherents and Buddhism the smallest (for which data are shown
here).
American Adults
Religious Identification (Age
18+)
|
| Christian Religious Groups |
2001
|
2008 |
| Catholic |
24.5% |
25.1% |
| Baptist |
16.3% |
15.8% |
Mainline Christian
(Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian/Anglican, United Church of Christ, etc.) |
17.2% |
12.9% |
Generic Christian
(Christian Unspecified, Non-Denominational. Christian,
Protestant Unspecified, Evangelical/Born Again) |
6.8% |
5.0% |
Pentecostals/Charismatics
(Pentecostal Unspecified, Assemblies of God, Church of God) |
3.8% |
3.5% |
| Total Christian |
76.7% |
76.0% |
| |
|
|
| Other Religious Groups |
|
|
| Jewish |
1.3% |
1.2% |
| Muslim/Islam |
0.5% |
0.6% |
| Buddhist |
0.5% |
0.5% |
New Religious Movements
& Other Religions |
0.9% |
1.2% |
| |
|
|
| No Religion Groups |
|
|
| Agnostic |
0.5% |
0.9% |
| Atheist |
0.4% |
0.7% |
Not a worldview group, but
rather
individuals who stated: "No
religion" |
13.2% |
13.4% |
| Total No Religion Specified |
14.1% |
15.0% |
All data within this section comes from the 2001 study, the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), by Barry A. Kosmin, Egon Mayer, and Ariela Keysar at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. ARIS 2001 makes data available for the continental U.S. and DC. If you need additional data (such as state by state information on religions) please refer to the study located at http://www.gc.cuny.edu/faculty/research_briefs/aris/key_findings.htm
How can one sensibly compare distributions of various adherent groups?
Some groups number in the millions and others in mere thousands of members.
One way to do this is through the use of demographic maps. With the
help of statistics, a map can be colored to show how
representation of a group (whether small or large) differs across the
states. The ARIS study did not include Alaska or Hawaii due to the
cost of performing the study.
One useful statistical measure for
demographic maps is the quartile. This statistical
grouping bundles equal numbers of counted adherents into four sets. Those
states containing the "lowest representation" quarter of the
total adherents are in the first quartile set and shown in one color, the
next batch (continuation of higher representations forming the second
quartile) are shown in another color, and so on. For quartiles to be of
use, the population under study needs to be quite large.
A second method for demographic maps of small populations is to color the
states according the percent of the religious population in the state. For
example the total population of a given religion might be pictured by coloring
states having 1% one color, 2% another color, and 3% and 4% other colors.
If you need additional data (such as
state by state information on religions) please refer to the study located at
http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm
If you are unfamiliar with these two ideas, a sample case may be helpful.
Example Table and Map (Quartiles and
Percent)
