This Map Shows The Dominant Religious Group In Every US County

[rug]

Dec. 6, 2013
Michael Kelley

We recently came across this map, based on the 2010 census data, of the largest religious groups in each country of the U.S.

A few observations from the perspective of 2013:

* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormon Church, seems to have heeded Mark Twain's advice: "Buy land, they're not making it anymore." In November the Mormon Church bought 2% of Florida.

* The Bible Belt, comprised mostly of Southern Baptists, is on full display and informs the strong social conservative strain that runs through American politics.

* Catholics barely beat out the Southern Baptists for the highest number of counties with the most adherents. Catholicism's nationwide reach is reminiscent of widespread support of the Notre Dame football team:

"Millions of Catholics—whether Irish, Italian, German or Pole —lived vicariously through the wins and losses of Notre Dame’s football teams. For that vastly immigrant population Notre Dame football symbolized the triumphs of an ostracized people. It also reflected the ascendancy of U.S. Catholics into the nation’s mainstream."

* Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, and West Virgina appear to have the most diversity when it comes to dominant religious groups. On the other side is Vermont and New Hampshire, which are considered the Godless states.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-religious-makeup-of-america-2013-12



Bonus!



http://www.businessinsider.com/infographic-map-world-religions-2012-4#ixzz2mjNJmExx

Go to the link to enlarge it.

[2naSalit]

1. Good info

Thanks for posting.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Hey! What about my peeps?

Are they not including the underground cave from which we control the media?

[rug]

3. Here you go, Manny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jewish_population_in_the_USA_in_2000.svg

For my favorite haimisher mensch.

[Bette Noir]

74. Great.

I moved from one of the most Jewish counties in the country to one which is listed as "none reported."

No wonder my deli failed.

[rug]

75. You had a deli?

There's one in my town but it makes its own bagels as well. They moved from Brooklyn though. Great stuff.

Sorry about your deli.

[BlueJazz]

80. The Jewish people live in the most intelligent places...or they cause the places to be intelligent.

[longship]

4. Love this stuff!

In the second graphic, I note that Scientology does not appear. Apparently Tom Cruise is not doing his job well enough. Maybe he needs to take more of those Scientology super power classes. Eh?

I know that it should appear under the category at the top labelled "New Religious Movements". Apparently the compilators of this graphic were unaware of Scientology's extraterrestrial adherents. If they had included them, it would swallow the whole graphic.



I do not like religion very much, but I despise Scientology.

[alfredo]

76. You have to be of a certain height to be counted.

[longship]

77. Somebody should push the down button on Cruise's elevator shoes. nt

[alfredo]

78. Ha!

[hrmjustin]

5. Looks like the Catholics versus the Baptists.

[rug]

6. Don't worry, we've got them surrounded.

[hrmjustin]

7. lol. I notice that my church is not dominant anywhere in the Us.

[rug]

8. Count your blessings.

[hrmjustin]

9. That is true.

I always look at the Episcopal Church as the chestnuts roasting on an open fire type of church.

[annabanana]

65. naw...

We are too polite to be roasting anybody's chestnuts.

[hrmjustin]

66. lol.

[pangaia]

69. No Presbyterians, either..

bummer... I guess..

[rrneck]

18. Scots Irish rednecks kinda like it that way. Just sayn'. nt

[struggle4progress]

10. Your first map has convinced me that Catholic-bashing is the only way forward

in our Democratic states!

Obviously we cannot continue to secure electoral victories in places like California or New York unless I immediately start to bad-mouth Pope Francis regularly!

Unfortunately, I kinda like the dude, so I'm gonna have to come up with a Catholic-bashing campaign I can stomach

Mebbe, y'know, something with little content but lots and lots of innuendo

Pope Francis -- does he or doesn't he?

Mebbe something like that

[freshwest]

11. Yeah, look at that Catholic Left Coast. What's up with that? They must be hiding, I seldom see 'em..

Except when they voted in our trifecta: A woman governor and two women senators, all three pro-choice, pro-LGBT rights, pro-safety net, firm believers in the separation or church and state, etc. but all Catholic.

Most Catholics I know strongly support secular public services, schools and unions and never bring up religion. This rocked my world. Thought we were all godless Secularists carrying the load by ourselves.

For Pity's Sake! Please explain, thou great diviner of religion...

[struggle4progress]

12. I have a sarcastic streak which I sometimes fail to control

[freshwest]

13. Hey, I didn't have any problem with your post... Just wondering about the anomaly out here, is all..

[AtheistCrusader]

19. They pop up whenever an issue hits the fan. I-1000 in Washington. Top ten opposed donors.

Every single one, a catholic org.
In California, they were by no means alone, but they led the charge for Prop-8

[cbayer]

22. This is not accurate.

The biggest group opposing I-1000 was composed primarily of physicians and other healthcare professionals, disability rights activists, minority rights activists, mental health advocates and hospice workers.

While religious organizations were also involved, they were by not the main groups.

Do you have a list of those top ten donors you refer to?

[AtheistCrusader]

23. Here's the top 6

Connecticut Knights of Columbus: $250,000
Knights of Columbus: $75,250
Washington State Catholic Conference: $70,394
Archdiocese of Seattle: $55,000
Catholic Health Association: $50,000
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: $30,000

The data source for the top ten is offline. Those top donors are ALL catholic orgs.

I don't see any physicians or healthcare professionals or disability rights activists there in that list.
http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_%22Death_with_Dignity_Act%22,_Initiative_1000_(2008)

[cbayer]

25. What do you mean "offline"?

Where did you get that information? YOur link doesn't go to an active page.

All I can find is that the Coaltion donated the most money and they didn't reveal their individual donation lists.

Here is a list of the top individual donors:

Coalition Against Assisted Suicide Location Donation
Georganna Clifford Spokane $ 15,000
Richard Ferry Mercer Island $ 10,000
Craig T. Clifford Spokane $ 5,000
Robert Kelly Seattle $ 5,000
Thomas Matthews Seattle $ 5,000
Dale Peterson Wenatchee $ 5,000
Dr. Shane Macaulay Bellevue $ 5,000
Chris Carlson Spokane $ 3,536
Samual Basta Bellevue $ 2,500
Richard Thrasher Sammamish $ 2,500
Dale Winter

I don't know if any of these people are or are not catholic or whether their religious beliefs had anything to do with their donations.

Anyway, it's trivial. The I-1000 controversy was multi-factorial and those opposed had a variety of reasons for opposing it. FWIW, the Washington State Medical Society opposed it for reasons that I absolutely nothing to do with religion.

[AtheistCrusader]

32. Your browser probably doesn't handle the "_(2008)" at the end of the URL.

Copy the whole line into your address bar, it will load. It does go to an active page.

The other source that I used in the past that had all top 10 no longer appears to exist.

It is not trivial. As I said the top 10 donors (I can source the top six if you copy the entire URL into your browser) are, as I said, all catholic organizations.

I did not say 'individuals'.

Let's see if the DU software can encapsulate it as a excerpt and maintain the full URL:

http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_%22Death_with_Dignity_Act%22,_Initiative_1000_(2008)

Nope. Let's try it another way.
http://ballotpedia.org/Washington_%22Death_with_Dignity_Act%22,_Initiative_1000_(2008)#Opposition

Nope. You'll have to copy-paste it to the address bar.

Not listed, if I remove the 3 individuals whose religious alignment is not publicly stated, I get:

ST MONICAS PARISH $21,650
AMERICANS UNITED FOR LIFE $16,000
ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA $15,000

ST Monica's Parish is, obviously a Catholic entity.

"St. Monica's Roman Catholic Church is a parish of the Archdiocese of Boston, located in Methuen, MA. Our parish life is centered on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass"

Americans United for Life purports to be non-denominational, but by their deeds shall you know them. Currently they are filing a brief on behalf of the Catholic Medical Association suing to block the ACA due to their objections to the contraceptive mandates in the law.

And the last one is... also obvious.

[cbayer]

37. I don't see much point in arguing this much further, but

far and away the biggest donor for the opposition was the "Coalition" which was an organization comprised of many different interests.

And in looking closely at this initiative, it was really problematic in a number of ways from a medical perspective. While I generally support the right to die, this particular proposal appears to have had a lot of reasonable people voicing reasonable opposition to it (including Martin Sheen, FWIW).

I don't doubt that there were catholic groups opposed to this, I just don't think it's a very good example of your initial premise.

Prop 8, on the other hand, is a good example.

[AtheistCrusader]

39. Martin Sheen is a roman catholic.

I cannot identify the religious affiliation of the three individuals in that list, so I will revise my statement:

The top 6 donors in the fight against I-1000 were catholic organizations.

Of the next top 6, three are clearly identifiable as catholic organizations.


The bill is not, never was, problematic from a 'medical perspective'. Sadly, the mother of a good friend of mine used this option last week. Bone cancer is a bitch. Fortunately, she did not have to die, the way my father died, prior to the passage of I-1000.

[cbayer]

47. Agan, I am supporter of the right to die.

And I am probably not as familiar with this as you are, but there appears to be problems in terms of the criteria used and the role of physicians in the process. The objections of many organizations (including the Medical Society and those supporting the rights of the disabled) had nothing to do with religion.

As for Martin Sheen, he has taken stands on many issues that are not consistent with the current positions of the Catholic Church. His choices seem highly personal and not necessarily based on his religion. I see that his ads on this created a significant amount of controversy, but were it up to some in the Catholic church, he would be denied communion because os some of his other positions.

[AtheistCrusader]

50. Sheen outright lied in those ads.

Claiming people with depression could use it. The law expressly forbids it.

The objections were unfounded fear, and it's pretty clear what motivated them.

[SecularMotion]

34. It works with a text display

Death With Dignity Act

HREF link with text display
[link:URL|Text]
URL should include the "http://".
Example: DU3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12561674

[cbayer]

48. Thanks for that. It's a good synopsis of the arguments for and against.

[cbayer]

20. Latinos. Lots and lots of latinos.

[AtheistCrusader]

24. Latinos make up less than 13% of the population of Oregon. (12.2%)

Yet the top religion, statewide is Catholic, excepting six LDS counties, one united Methodist and one Southern Baptist county.

(And not all latino's are Catholic.)

Edit: And Texas has a high Latino/Hispanic population (38.2%), and the state is, by area, county by county, over 50% Southern Baptist Convention dominant. Clearly the Latino population has an influence, because the areas of the state with the highest Latino population is dominant catholic, but by themselves, they'd be knocked well out of the list in Oregon, if not for catholics of other races, particularly the "White alone, percent, 2012 (a)" demographic.

[cbayer]

26. On the west coast, and particularly in California, catholic latinos

are a significant population.

The member I was responding to wondered why the rates of catholicism are so high on the west coast and why they were not that apparent.

I think it is because of the latino population. Of course, I never said it was solely latinos or that all latinos were catholic.

[AtheistCrusader]

33. I guess I have to repeat myself: Latinos are not a large percentage of the population of Oregon.

Unspoken: Oregon is one of three states that make up the contiguous west coast.

Your claim might make sense of California only, wherein you see a similar number to Texas, 38.2% of the population Hispanic/Latino.

Oregon is less than 13%
Washington less than 12%

Both far less than the national average of 16.9%.

The Latino/Hispanic population cannot explain the predominance of Catholicism on the west coast. It might well explain it, specifically, in California.

[cbayer]

38. Yes, I understand that.

It's not a "claim", it's an observation.

How would you explain the predominance of Catholicism in the northwest?

Methinks you are making an argument where there really isn't one. I was merely proposing that areas with large latino populations are likely to also have large catholic populations. Nothing more.

[AtheistCrusader]

41. 'The West Coast' does not have a large latino population.

The Northwest does not have a large latino population. It is between 5-4% below the national average, depending on whether you are looking at WA or OR.

It's a non-sequitur observation that applies strictly to California, only.

[Igel]

55. Diversity.

In a lot of areas there are dozens of smaller denominations. 10% of the population being Catholic might be enough to make Catholicism dominant.

Houston has a lot of Baptists (mostly blacks, some whites). And Episcopalians (mostly whites), esp. in the area I live and work in. Plus a fair number of Methodists (just up the street a ways). And the Mormons have a strong presence, with their own Scout troop and stake. My area has a mosque because of a S. Asian population. Strip out all the Latinos, and there are white Catholics. Nobody has more than a perhaps 25% "market share."

Now add in even the 15-20% Latinos in the area, and call them an even 10% Catholic. Suddenly they're the largest single group. The more even the split, the easier it'll be to have them push Catholicism over the top--which may be as low as 15% in some places in the Pac NW.

[cbayer]

57. Excellent point.

That makes a lot of sense.

[marym625]

36. funny

EASY to Catholic bash. Just look at the Bishops and Cardinals trying to quiet Pope Francis

Cardinal George in Chicago.

Go...

[cleanhippie]

14. Makes it easy to understand just how homophobia and misogyny are still so rampant here.

[Goblinmonger]

15. And also makes understanding why Christians feel so oppressed.

It must be tough being Christian in this country.

[SecularMotion]

16. What are the 10 biggest fast food chains in the United States?

1 Subway - 23,336 U.S. Locations
2 McDonald's - 14,000 U.S. Locations
3 Starbucks - 11,000 U.S. Locations
4 Pizza Hut - 7,566 U.S. Locations
5 Burger King - 7,233 U.S. Locations
6 Dunkin' Donuts - 6,500 U.S. Locations
7 Wendy's - 5,877 U.S. Locations
8 Taco Bell - 5,604 U.S. Locations
9 Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) - 5,162 U.S. Locations
10 Domino's Pizza - 4,927 U.S. Locations


http://ezlocal.com/blog/post/10-largest-fast-food-chains-in-the-us.aspx

[rug]

17. Where's Blimpy's?

I like Blimpy's.

[cbayer]

21. Popeyes for me - any day.

[marym625]

27. Frightening stuff

thanks for the post.
K&R

[cbayer]

28. What do you find frightening about it?

[marym625]

29. The massive control by religion

[cbayer]

31. I'm not sure there is anything about this data that speaks about control.

Just affiliation.

[marym625]

35. Semantics

I don't believe you can belong to, or affiliate with, a religion without it controlling some of what you believe.

I have yet to learn of any religion that treats all people equally.

Just my humble opinion.

[cbayer]

40. I think you are very wrong.

While some religions do control what some people think, some people affiliate with a specific religion because of what they as individuals believe.

Certain forms of sexism, racism and other "isms" tend to exist in almost all large institutions. While that is changing, and while it is particularly slow to change within religious organizations, it is certainly not unique to religion.

[marym625]

42. I respectfully disagree

I believe that the areas/governments that still discriminate on a large scale, such as the US, do so because of religious beliefs.

There is some move toward change in some religions. However, some of that change is to further discriminate.

[cbayer]

43. I agree that there are serious problems with the religious right

and the influence they have had over government, particularly over the last 30 years.

But I also think the pendulum is swinging back and am optimistic.

The two big things that the religious right were promised (reversal of Roe v. Wade and elimination of LGBT rights to marry) both failed, but I agree that some further discrimination has occurred in some areas.

Despite the US being pretty overwhelming religious, support for GLBT civil rights is very high and the country remains pretty evenly split on the issue of abortion.

[marym625]

45. I agree about LGBT

but NOT women's rights and Roe v Wade. Look at Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, Texas, etc, etc. They are dismantling Roe v Wade. ALL based on (supposedly) on religion.

[cbayer]

46. There have been erosions, that's for sure.

I'm not trying to make the argument that religion doesn't do and support some things I strongly object to. I am making the argument that the data presented here doesn't necessarily indicate that the degree of religiosity is a bad thing. I think the maps that show red vs. blue political affiliation are much scarier.

[marym625]

51. I find any current strong party

affiliation scary. Sorry, I am a liberal, progressive but the democratic party is no better than the GOP at the moment. Jamie Dimon, bank fraud, end game memo, NSA, prosecution of whistle blowers, etc etc etc

I believe all religion is bad for civil rights. Just my opinion. I know MANY would disagree with me. But anything that thick in any area (as in the posted map) is frightening to me.

Nice having this discussion. Nice meeting you too cbayer

[cbayer]

52. I have also enjoyed talking with you, marym.

I suspect that although we may disagree on a great many things, we most likely agree on many more.

This can be a tough room, but I hope to see you around here. For the most part, it has generally civil but heated debates and there tends to be interesting reading about lots of different aspects of religion.

[Ishoutandscream2]

67. Most respectful debate I've seen around here in a long time

We could all learn from you two.

[cbayer]

68. I really like your sig line, Isas2.

We could all benefit from reminding ourselves of what it says and applying it to many other things.

Thanks for the kudos. It was truly refreshing to talk with marym and I hope she will come around more often.

[3catwoman3]

54. You might want to take a look...

...at Unitarian Universalism. A more open-minded spiritual community would be hard to find. I have been participating with a UU congregation for 2 years. Our recently retired minister was an atheist, the head of the social justice committee is a pagan, and the head of the social activities committee is yet another atheist. One of the regular vocalists is a Christian in the non-judgmental sense of the word. There is Buddhist group. Many of us are agnostics.

This is my only experience with a UU congregation. I have found there people who walk the walk of making a difference in the world, in many ways.

[marym625]

56. Thanks

I have. I appreciate the information though

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

30. Damn,

too much red around here but I knew it before the map.

[marym625]

44. too much not grey everywhere

[catbyte]

53. Wow, didn't realize Catholics outnumbered Christian/Dutch Reformed here in

Grand Rapids/Kent County, MI. Although they do hold sway in a couple nearby smaller, rural counties.

[heaven05]

58. Southern Baptists will

always be at the top of my sh.. list for their historical and ongoing racism and hate. They are the further from Christ's love than any christians I have had the displeasure of trusting. Snakes!

[yuiyoshida]

59. IT is still true... less than 1% of

Japanese are Christian. Most are Shinto-Buddhist. (99-98%)... I love hearing these stories of Missionaries trying to go Japan and converting people, coming back after 3 months, disappointed, with their quota never reached. Your religion is "bad luck".
So, I guess they focus on China and South Korea now. Some are even stupid enough, to make it into North Korea.

[rug]

60. There should be a reality show about Christian missionaries in North Korea.

[yuiyoshida]

62. I am not sure it would be as funny as

Duck Dynasty ...

[cbayer]

61. Have you seen The Book of Mormon by any chance?

It's a musical about Mormon missionaries in Africa. It's very funny but also very touching in some ways.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

63. Interesting information, but anyone who presents data as circles should be shot, I'm afraid.

Presenting one-dimensional quantities like numbers as two-dimensional area throws in a random square root.

It makes it much harder to judge the relation between different numbers.

For example, look at the above and try to convince yourself that there are more followers of Abrahamic religions than there are Christians and Muslims combined.

[VA_Jill]

64. A lot of unnecessary freaking

is going on in some replies. RINO can also stand for "Religious in Name Only". There are a lot of us who go to church and don't swallow everything we are told. We may go for social reasons, for the community, to give our children roots, for any number of reasons. It doesn't mean we let the church--any church--control our lives. Also, this survey goes by the number of respondents, not by the number of actual folks in the area. The Pacific Northwest has more non-churchgoers than actual religious adherents.

[goldent]

70. I find it odd how religious affiliation is affected so much by state boundaries.

For example, look at the northern border of Oklahoma. Why does religious affiliation change so much when you cross the state line? Is it truly the case, or is there some flaw in the data?

[rug]

71. That's a very good point. Why, indeed?

[No Vested Interest]

72. Don't you think Oklahoma is a special case

in that it was "Indian Territory" and then opened on one particular day to settlers who rushed in, presumably mainly from southern states?

I believe, not just in regard to OK but to many states, that people move into a region and, if they are unaffiliated or not strong believers in the religion they were raised in, join the church/religion of the majority already there.

It seems that Irish Catholics who moved to the rural South in the nineteenth century, finding no RC priests or churches, gravitated to the prevailing churches.

[Good without a god]

73. Well, you can't really tell how MUCH it's changed from that map

All you can tell is that the religion that has a plurality has changed. SB could be ahead 34%-30% south of that border and behind 36-32 above it. The drastic color change does not necessarily mean a drastic change in numbers..something to be careful about when interpreting a map like this. It's not likely the case that SBs disappear when you cross into Kansas, or vice versa.

[BlueJazz]

79. That's cool. Dumb Fucks=Red