{"id":14436,"date":"2012-05-02T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-02T13:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=14436"},"modified":"2012-05-02T23:32:44","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T05:32:44","slug":"stats-on-religion-in-the-us-mostly-depressing-declines-for-catholics-and-mainline-protestants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/02\/stats-on-religion-in-the-us-mostly-depressing-declines-for-catholics-and-mainline-protestants\/","title":{"rendered":"Stats on religion in the US – lots of decline for Catholics and mainline Protestants"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Association of Religion Data Archives released its 2010 U.S. Religion Census<\/a> yesterday.<\/p>\n

Its summary reports that mainline Protestant churches in the U.S. lost an average of 12.8 percent of adherents in the first decade of the 21st century. Catholics lost 5 percent of their active members in the ten-year period.<\/p>\n

Here is how some of the largest religious bodies in the U.S. fared from 2000 to 2010:<\/p>\n

Muslims:\u00a0\u00a0 +66.6%
\nChurch of JC of Latter Day Saints:\u00a0\u00a0 +45.5%
\n7th Day Adventists:\u00a0\u00a0 +29.5%
\nSBC Baptist:\u00a0\u00a0 +0.1%
\nUMC Methodist:\u00a0\u00a0 -4%
\nCatholics:\u00a0\u00a0 -5%
\nLCMS Lutherans: -9.9%
\nEpiscopalians:\u00a0\u00a0 -15.7%
\nELCA Lutherans:\u00a0\u00a0 -18.2%
\nPCUSA Presbyterians:\u00a0\u00a0 -22%
\nUnited Church of Christ:\u00a0\u00a0 -24.4%<\/p>\n

The entire U.S. population increased by 9.7% from 2000 to 2010 according to the U.S. census<\/a>,\u00a0so a religious body would need to have grown by 9.7% just to maintain its proportion of the population.<\/p>\n

For Catholics and mainline Protestants, these are some hefty drops. And of course the question for Catholics is how much our figures are helped by immigration of Catholics. What would our figures be without immigration?<\/p>\n

The percentage of Catholics in the US population as a whole has dropped significantly in the last decade. This compares with small growth in earlier decades:<\/p>\n

2010:\u00a0\u00a019%
\n2000:\u00a0\u00a022%
\n1990:\u00a0\u00a021.5%
\n1980:\u00a0\u00a021%<\/p>\n

The report shows growing religious diversity in the U.S.:<\/p>\n