---

Associated Press, USA
July 20, 2004
Rachel Zoll, AP Religion Writer
www.fresnobee.com

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 7932 • Posted: Wednesday July 21, 2004  

---

(AP) – The United States will no longer be a majority Protestant nation in years to come, due to a precipitous decline in affiliation with many Protestant churches, a new survey has found.

Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63 percent to 52 percent, after years of remaining generally stable, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

At the same time, the number of people who said they had no religion rose from 9 percent to nearly 14 percent, and many are former Protestants, the survey’s authors said.

The study was based on three decades of religious identification questions in the General Social Survey, which the opinion center conducts to measure public trends.

The United States “has been seen as white and Protestant,” said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey. “We’re not going to be majority Protestant any longer.” Respondents were defined as Protestant if they said they were members of a Protestant denomination, such as Episcopal Church or Southern Baptist Convention. The category included members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and members of independent Protestant churches.

Among the reasons for the decline were the large number of young people and adults leaving denominations as the number of non-Protestant immigrants increased, comprising a greater share of the population. Also, a lower percentage are being raised Protestant, Smith said.

Smith said it is also possible that some former Protestants are now identifying themselves only as “Christian,” a choice on the survey.

The Roman Catholic population has remained relatively stable over the period, making up about 25 percent of the U.S. population.

People who said they belonged to other religions – including Islam, Orthodox Christianity or Eastern faiths – increased from 3 percent to 7 percent between 1993 and 2002, while the share of people who said they were Jewish remained stable at just under 2 percent.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Religion Trends Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Religion Trends Read Another Article Previous entry: Court again rejects P&G’s damage suit against Amway Next entry: The cult and the candidate RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Religion Trends Most Popular Today I know the dark side of Scientology…I almost lost my friend when she became obsessed with it ‘Cult’ program in NYC schools Indictment against rabbi Elior Chen: Shook, beat, fed children feces Church of Scientology told to drop Churchill images

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.