Graphic of religions in the United States

[JOHNNIE36]

I received an interesting email this morning from a friend. It's from USA Today and is a graphic of the various religions throughout the United States and is depicted by state. If you are interested you can google the site at www.usatoday.com/news/graphics/pew-religion-08/flash.htm

Edited to add that this post is not intended to start any serious discussion on religion. It's just something I had never seen before and thought the forum might be interested.

 

[braumeister]

Not sure about that.
So many of the states are based on just a few hundred random phone calls.
I suspect the margin of error is higher than they indicate.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Dunno, Brau. There are patterns that I recognize.

Where is AK and HI?

 

[Katsmeow]

That was very interesting. I hadn't seen anything like that before. I was surprised by some of the findings.

 

[FUEGO]

Seems about right for my jurisdiction. Lots of "evangelical protestants".

 

[2B]

I don't know about this. It says there are 1% Jehovah Witnesses in Texas. I think is see more of them than any other religion.

 

[scrabbler1]

If "unaffiliated" meants "atheist," then that percentage is consistent with what I read about that growing trend over the years.

 

[Brat]

I don't think one can assume that unaffiliated = atheist. Just because you don't subscribe to a particular faith doesn't mean that you have none.

 

[Katsmeow]

The report says that unaffiliated is basically everyone else not in one of the other categories -- athiests, agnostics, nothing in particular...

I also suspect that there are likely people who are culturally in a particular group or who grew up in a group and would self identify as being Catholic, or Jewish, or Protestant, etc. but might be non-believers.

 

[EvrClrx311]

I knew there were a lot of Mormons in Utah... but I had no idea it was over 50%

 

[W2R]

Dunno, Brau. There are patterns that I recognize.

Where is AK and HI?

I suspect that, as often happens, they are forgotten. So annoying.

 

[MichaelB]

Where is AK and HI?

Who?

 

[W2R]

Who?

Exactly!

You know, those "red headed step-child" territories that think they are really as good as REAL states. OK, OK, I don't live there any more so I'll climb down from my soapbox and stop ranting about people forgetting Hawaii is a state... after all, it's only been a state for 53 years by now...

 

[MichaelB]

Pew Research is a serious place. They list the communications staff on the website so I sent a note to the Communications Director. We'll see...

 

[W2R]

Pew Research is a serious place. They list the communications staff on the website so I sent a note to the Communications Director. We'll see...

Wow, thanks! It hadn't occurred to me to try that.

 

[scrabbler1]

Pew Research is a serious place. They list the communications staff on the website so I sent a note to the Communications Director. We'll see...

Did you ask them about the omission of Alaska and Hawaii data or the other issues we have raised here, or both?

Thanks for pursuing this with them nonetheless.

 

[jennypenny]

I have family at Pew. I'll find out.

edit: any other questions before I call her?

 

[W2R]

Thanks, jennypenny.

 

[MichaelB]

Did you ask them about the omission of Alaska and Hawaii data or the other issues we have raised here, or both?

Thanks for pursuing this with them nonetheless.

I only asked about the map. It is possible some of the questions raised here are in the full report (148 pages) here

jennypenny, thanks.

 

[ziggy29]

Where is AK and HI?

This is exactly what I say in anticipation of a Final Jeopardy question about the 50 states. Alaska, Hawaii and sometimes Rhode Island seem to come up a lot.

 

[W2R]

I only asked about the map. It is possible some of the questions raised here are in the full report (148 pages) here

jennypenny, thanks.

The full report says,

The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey completed telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 35,556 adults living in continental United States telephone households.

(emphasis mine) So, they deliberately left out Alaska and Hawaii. I'm sure this was the intent, as it often is when various organizations or news reports omit Alaska and Hawaii.

I don't think they should claim to have any kind of handle on religions or religious diversity within the U.S. as a whole, if they conducted their survey on only a subset of the United States. If I were editing that report, I'd require them to go back and qualify that in the report, substituting "continental United States (omitting Alaska and Hawaii)" every single place in the report where they now say "United States". Also towards the end I would require them to mention that future endeavors in such work should be done for the entire United States.

 

[Nodak]

I suspect that, as often happens, they are forgotten. So annoying.

Rand McNally once published an atlas of the USA and left out North Dakota and Wyoming.

 

[W2R]

Rand McNally once published an atlas of the USA and left out North Dakota and Wyoming.

Incredible!

 

[lemming]

Knowing those kind of stats is helpful to explain the "you're not from around here are you" reactions. Which I get a lot..

Wonder if they count the people who hang up on them before they get the question out as unaffiliated? Now those are my kind of folks.

 

[MichaelB]

The full report says, (emphasis mine) So, they deliberately left out Alaska and Hawaii. I'm sure this was the intent, as it often is when various organizations or news reports omit Alaska and Hawaii.

I don't think they should claim to have any kind of handle on religions or religious diversity within the U.S. as a whole, if they conducted their survey on only a subset of the United States. If I were editing that report, I'd require them to go back and qualify that in the report, substituting "continental United States (omitting Alaska and Hawaii)" every single place in the report where they now say "United States". Also towards the end I would require them to mention that future endeavors in such work should be done for the entire United States.

Thanks for that. Why do a survey of 48 states? I see no distinctions on the website. Have they put form above function here? For example

See the percentage of each state's population that is affiliated with various religions in the U.S., and explore the religious beliefs and practices of each state's population.

Curious.