Judaism After Christianity,
Judaism is the next largest religious affiliation in the United States, though this identification is not necessarily indicative of religious beliefs or practices. The 2001
ARIS study projected from its sample that there are about 5.3 million adults in the American Jewish population: 2.83 million adults (1.4% of the US adult population) are estimated to be adherents of Judaism; 1.08 million are estimated to be adherents of no religion; and 1.36 million are estimated to be adherents of a religion other than Judaism. ARIS 2008 estimated about 2.68 million adults (1.2%) in the country identify Judaism as their faith. According to a study by the Steinhardt Social Research Institute, as of 2020, the core American Jewish population is estimated at 7.6 million people; this includes 4.9 million adults who identify their religion as Jewish, 1.2 million Jewish adults who identify with no religion, and 1.6 million Jewish children. , (built 1759) in Newport, Rhode Island, has the oldest still existing synagogue building in the United States. Jews have been present in what is now the United States since the 17th century and allowed explicitly since the British colonial
Plantation Act 1740. Although small Western European communities initially developed and grew, large-scale immigration did not occur until the late 19th century, mainly due to persecution in parts of
Eastern Europe. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of
Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors emigrated from
Central and
Eastern Europe. There are, however, small numbers of older (and some recently arrived) communities of
Sephardi Jews with roots tracing back to 15th-century
Iberia (Spain, Portugal, and North Africa). There are also
Mizrahi Jews (from the Middle East,
Caucasia and
Central Asia), as well as much smaller numbers of
Ethiopian Jews,
Indian Jews, and others from various smaller
Jewish ethnic divisions. Approximately 25% of the Jewish American population lives in New York City. According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published in March 2017, based on data from 2010, Jews were the largest minority religion in 231 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country. According to the 1990
National Jewish Population Survey, 38% of Jews were affiliated with the Reform tradition, 35% were Conservative, 6% were Orthodox, 1% were Reconstructionists, 10% linked themselves to some other tradition, and 10% said they are "just Jewish". Thus, the majority of American Jews affiliated themselves with the major Jewish movements: Conservative, Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Already in the 1980s, 20–30% of members of the largest Jewish communities, such as of New York City, Chicago, and Miami, rejected a
denominational label.
Jewishness is generally considered an
ethnic identity as well as a
religious one. Among the 4.3 million American Jews described as "strongly connected" to Judaism, over 80% have some sort of active engagement with Judaism, ranging from attendance at daily prayer services on one end of the spectrum to attending
Passover Seders or lighting
Hanukkah candles on the other. The survey also discovered that Jews in the
Northeast and
Midwest are generally more observant than Jews in the
South or
West. The Jewish American community has higher household incomes than average and is one of the best-educated religious communities in the United States. Compared to other faith groups surveyed (Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Non-Affiliated), ISPU found in 2017 that Muslims were most likely to be born outside of the US (50%), with 36% having undergone naturalization, and the most racially diverse group (Black or African American 25%; White 24%; Arab 18%; Asian/Chinese/Japanese 18%; Mixed 7%; Hispanic 5%; Native American/American Indian/Alaska Native 1%; Other 2%). In addition to diversity, Americans Muslims are most likely to report being low income, and among those who identify as middle class, the majority are Muslim women, not men. Although American Muslim education levels are similar to other religious communities, namely Christians, within the Muslim American population, Muslim women surpass Muslim men in education, with 31% of Muslim women having graduated from a four-year university. 90% of Muslim Americans identify as straight. Most, however, became Christians, and the United States did not have a significant Muslim population until the arrival of immigrants from Arab and East Asian Muslim areas. According to some experts, Islam later gained a higher profile through the
Nation of Islam, a religious group that appealed to black Americans after the 1940s; its prominent converts included
Malcolm X and
Muhammad Ali. The first Muslim elected to Congress was
Keith Ellison in 2006, followed by
André Carson in 2008. Out of all religious groups surveyed by ISPU, Muslims were found to be the most likely to report experiences of religious discrimination (61%). That can also be broken down when looking at gender (with Muslim women more likely than Muslim men to experience racial discrimination), age (with young people more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination than older people), and race (with Arab Muslims the most likely to report experiencing religious discrimination). Muslims born in the United States are more likely to experience all three forms of discrimination: gender, religious, and racial. Like other subcultural and religious communities, the Islamic community has generated its own political organizations and charity organizations.
Hinduism on
Kauaʻi Island in Hawaii is the only Hindu monastery in the United States
Hinduism represents approximately 1% of the U.S. population in 2010s. In 2001, there were an estimated 766,000
Hindus in the US, about 0.2% of the total population. The first time
Hinduism entered the United States is not clearly identifiable. However, large groups of Hindus have immigrated from
India,
Sri Lanka,
Nepal,
Pakistan,
Bangladesh,
Guyana,
Trinidad and Tobago, other parts of the
Caribbean,
southern Africa,
eastern Africa,
Singapore,
Malaysia,
Indonesia,
Mauritius,
Fiji,
Europe,
Australia,
New Zealand, and other regions and countries since the enactment of the
Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. During the 1960s and 1970s, Hinduism exercised fascination and contributed to the development of
New Age thought. During the same decades, the
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a
Vaishnavite Hindu reform organization, was founded in the US by
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. In 2003, the
Hindu American Foundation—a national institution protecting the rights of the Hindu community of the US—was founded. According to the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies newsletter published in March 2017, based on data from 2010, Hindus were the largest minority religion in 92 counties out of the 3143 counties in the country.
Bahá'í Faith (built 1953) in
Wilmette, Illinois, is the oldest extant Bahá'í house of worship in the world and the only one in the United States. The
Baháʼí Faith was first mentioned in the United States in 1893 at the
World Parliament of Religions in
Chicago. Soon after, early American converts began embracing the new religion.
Thornton Chase was the first American Baháʼí, dating from 1894. One of the first Baháʼí institutions in the US was established in Chicago to facilitate the establishment of the first
Baháʼí House of Worship in the West, which was eventually built in
Wilmette, Illinois and dedicated in 1953.
Worldwide, the religion has grown faster than the rate of population growth over the 20th century, and has been recognized since the 1980s as the most widespread minority religion in the countries of the world. Similarly, by 2020, the religion was the largest minority religion in about half of the counties. Since about 1970 the state with the single largest Baháʼí population was
South Carolina. From 2010 data the largest populations of Baháʼís at the county-by-county level are in Los Angeles, CA, Palm Beach, FL, Harris County, TX, and Cook County, IL. However, estimates of the total number of Baháʼís varies widely from around 175,000 to 500,000.
Druze Faith Druze began migrating to the United States in the late 1800s from the
Levant (
Syria and
Lebanon). Druze emigration to the Americas increased at the outset of the 20th century due to the
famine during World War I that killed an estimated one third to one half of the population, the
1860 Mount Lebanon civil war, and the
Lebanese Civil War between 1975 and 1990. According to some estimates there are about 30,000 to 50,000
Rastafari Rastafarians began migrating to the United States in the 1950s, '60s and '70s from the religion's 1930s birthplace,
Jamaica.
Marcus Garvey, who is considered a
prophet by many Rastafarians, rose to prominence and cultivated many of his ideas in the United States.
Buddhism , around 1925
Buddhism entered the United States during the 19th century with the arrival of the first immigrants from
East Asia. The first Buddhist temple was established in
San Francisco in 1853 by
Chinese Americans. The first prominent US citizen to publicly convert to Buddhism was Colonel
Henry Steel Olcott in 1880, who is still honored in
Sri Lanka for his Buddhist revival efforts. An event that contributed to the strengthening of Buddhism in the United States was the
Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893, which was attended by many Buddhist delegates sent from India, China, Japan,
Vietnam,
Thailand and
Sri Lanka. In the late 19th century, Buddhist missionaries from
Japan traveled to the US, and during the same time period, US intellectuals started to take an interest in Buddhism. The early 20th century was characterized by continuing tendencies rooted in the 19th century. The second half, by contrast, saw the emergence of new approaches and the move of Buddhism into the mainstream, making itself a mass and social-religious phenomenon. According to a 2016 study, Buddhists are approximately 1% of the American population. The first Sikh
Gurdwara in America was built in
Stockton, California, in 1912. In 2007, there were estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the United States, with the largest populations living on the
East and
West Coasts, with additional populations in
Detroit,
Chicago, and
Austin. The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism.
Jainism Adherents of
Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s. The United States has since become a center of the Jain Diaspora. The
Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations to preserve, practice, and promote
Jainism and the Jain way of life.
Taoism Taoism was popularized throughout the world by the writings and teachings of
Laozi and other Taoists, as well as the practice of
qigong,
tai chi, and other Chinese
martial arts. The first Taoists in the United States were immigrants from China during the mid-nineteenth century. They settled mainly in California, where they built the first Taoist temples in the country, including the
Tin How Temple in
San Francisco's Chinatown and the
Joss House in
Weaverville. Currently, the Temple of Original Simplicity is outside
Boston, Massachusetts. In 2004, there were an estimated 56,000 Taoists in the US.
Native American religions , in South Dakota, is a sacred site for over 30
Plains tribes.
Sun Dance at
Fort Hall, 1925. Native American
ethnic and
indigenous faiths historically exhibited much diversity, and are often characterized by
animism or
panentheism and
shamanism. Common concept is the supernatural world of
deities, spirits and wonders, such as the
Algonquian manitou or the
Lakota's
wakan. In most areas, without Christian influence, was known a supreme
Great Spirit or
sky deity. Their great
creation myths and sacred
oral tradition in whole, as anthropologists note, are comparable to the Christian Bible. The membership of Native American religions in the 21st century comprises about 9,000 people. Since Native Americans practicing traditional ceremonies do not usually have public organizations or membership rolls, these "members" estimates are likely substantially lower than the actual numbers of people who participate in traditional ceremonies. The following is a list of indigenous American religions those still survive to some degree at the beginning of the 21st century:
Neopaganism Neopaganism in the United States is represented by widely different
movements and organizations. The largest Neopagan religion is
Wicca, followed by
Neo-Druidism. Other neopagan movements include
Germanic Neopaganism,
Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism,
Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism, and
Semitic neopaganism.
Wicca Wicca advanced in North America in the 1960s by
Raymond Buckland, an expatriate Briton who visited Gardner's Isle of Man coven to gain initiation.
Universal Eclectic Wicca was popularized in 1969 for a diverse membership drawing from both
Dianic and
British Traditional Wiccan backgrounds.
Druidry According to the
American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), there are approximately 30,000
druids in the United States. Modern Druidism arrived in North America first in the form of fraternal Druidic organizations in the nineteenth century, and orders such as the Ancient Order of Druids in America were founded as distinct American groups as early as 1912. In 1963, the
Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA) was established by students at
Carleton College,
Northfield, Minnesota. They adopted elements of Neopaganism into their practices, for instance, celebrating the festivals of the
Wheel of the Year.
New Thought Movement A group of churches that started in the 1830s in the United States is known under the banner of "
New Thought." These churches share a
spiritual,
metaphysical and
mystical predisposition and understanding of the
Bible and were strongly influenced by the
Transcendentalist movement, particularly the work of
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Another antecedent of this movement was
Swedenborgianism, founded on the writings of
Emanuel Swedenborg in 1787. The New Thought concept was named by
Emma Curtis Hopkins ("teacher of teachers") after Hopkins broke off from
Mary Baker Eddy's
Church of Christ, Scientist. The movement had been previously known as the Mental Sciences or the Christian Sciences. The three major branches are
Religious Science,
Unity Church, and
Divine Science.
Unitarian Universalism Unitarian Universalists (UUs) are among the most liberal of all religious denominations in America. The shared
creed includes beliefs in inherent dignity, a common search for truth, respect for beliefs of others, compassion, and social action. They are unified by their shared search for
spiritual growth and by the understanding that an individual's theology is a result of that search and not obedience to an authoritarian requirement. UUs have historical ties to anti-war, civil rights, and LGBTQ rights movements, as well as providing inclusive church services for the broad spectrum of liberal Christians, liberal Jews, secular humanists,
LGBTQ people, Jewish-Christian parents and partners, Earth-centered/Wicca, and Buddhist meditation adherents. In fact, many UUs also identify as belonging to another religious group, including atheism and agnosticism. ==No religion==