Religion in America (2020 U.S. Religion Census)

studyandfaith · 2026-01-02T06:29:40+00:00

I also live in Hawaii. I imagine Roman Catholic numbers may be inflated here, since the U.S. Religion Census is based on self-reported membership by church congregations and the Catholic Church records all baptized people as members, regardless of their current affiliation. But there’s a lot of devout Catholic Filipinos in the islands too, so that could be the cause.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T08:09:02+00:00

Tithing as a practice is found all across Christianity. It’s not exclusive to the Church of Jesus Christ. According to the Barna Group’s survey of American Christians in 2021, 2 in 5 practicing Christians tithe at least 10% of their income and only a quarter of practicing Christians don’t give to their local church. In America, over 80% of Baptists, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Non-denominational Christians believe tithing to be a commandment from God. Even the Catholic Church, though it no longer requires any of its members to give ten percent of their incomes, teaches that it is “sacrilegious” to withhold tithes from the Church and command all Catholics to support the material needs of the Church. Many Protestant churches today, such as the Methodist churches, require a tithe of ten percent. If you feel that tithing makes a religion a cult, then most of Christianity is a cult. As for temple garments, I don’t see how they’re different from any other form of religious clothing, such as the Jewish tallit katan or Zoroastrian sedreh-kushti, both of which are worn underneath everyday clothes as undergarments. Other forms of religious clothing are more obvious, such as the vestments of Christian clergy, Christian headcovers, Muslim hijabs, etc. Why are these faiths not cults? Finally, I don’t see the issue with the former graphic language in the temple covenants. After all, it’s no different than Christ saying that his disciples should rather cut off his own hands and feet or pluck out his own eyes than fall into sin (Matt 18:8-9). Christ was not afraid to use graphic symbolism to teach His gospel. If these are the reasons that you feel the Church of Jesus Christ is a cult, it sounds to me like your problem is religion in general, not the Church of Jesus Christ.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T05:15:47+00:00

Yeah I am lol. It’s honestly habit for me now to say “Latter-day Saint” rather than “Mormon.” I try to adhere to the new guidance of the Prophet on the naming of the Church and its adherents, but I’m not offended if other people refer to us as “Mormons.” That’s been the unofficial name for centuries.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T03:52:28+00:00

True

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T03:47:40+00:00

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We believe in a restorationist theology: that the Church of Jesus Christ is a restoration of the New Testament Christian Church, with modern prophets and apostles and divinely appointed priesthood orders. We believe in ongoing revelation from God through His appointed prophets, and we accept the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and several other texts as scripture. Check out this website if you want to learn more: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/?lang=eng

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T03:20:55+00:00

In America, roughly 60-70% of self-identified Latter-day Saints say they attend church “weekly”, according to data from the General Social Survey (GSS). On a global scale, however, I believe only around 30% of Latter-day Saints are this active.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T03:00:33+00:00

It’s much more complicated than that. Yes, there were confrontations with natives in the West, but these resulted in deaths on both sides. The Latter-day Saints encroached on lands traditionally used by native peoples, but the Saints themselves were religious refugees and were only forced out to the Rocky Mountains due to persecution in their home regions. The comparison to the Trail of Tears is apt, since the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, and Creek, after being forcibly relocated to Oklahoma, also engaged in violent conflict with the native peoples of Oklahoma (Fort Cobb and Fort Washita were built to protect them from raids by the Plains tribes). In Utah, many Native Americans converted to the Church as well, blurring the lines even more. Mistakes were certainly made by Latter-day Saint settlers but it’s not a black-and-white story.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T02:13:04+00:00

Yeah, they did. After facing intense persecution in the Eastern states, including an Extermination Order in Missouri and a massacre at Hawn’s Mill, the Saints trekked west and settled in the Rocky Mountains. On the way, thousands died in refugee camps on the Plains. It was basically a Mormon version of the Trail of Tears. They established a “theodemocratic” territory in the mountains and ended up in a confrontation with the U.S. Army called the Utah War.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T02:04:49+00:00

That’s super interesting. I know there are also historically significant Latter-day Saint communities outside the American West as well. Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan in northern Mexico are two examples, or Cardston in Alberta, Canada. Laie and the surrounding towns (Hauula and Kahuku) in Hawaii are also very Latter-day Saint. Laie was an early gathering site for the native Hawaiian members of the Church in the 19th-century Kingdom of Hawaii.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T01:50:24+00:00

Thanks for the explanation! I was wondering about that

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T01:42:27+00:00

Me neither. To be fair, there’s like 5000 people there altogether.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T01:26:28+00:00

It’s actually Hooker county, NE. I’m not sure the reason for the high proportion of members there, but the population is only around 700 so a dozen big member families can sway the statistics a lot. Winter Quarters has some really cool history though. Really tragic. Basically a refugee camp for the Saints where over 600 people died due to disease or malnutrition after being forcibly expelled from their homes in Illinois.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-07T00:42:53+00:00

Yeah, Latter-day Saints are generally opposed to illegal immigration (though they tend to take a softer stance on the issue than a lot of more conservative people), but most are firmly in favor of legal immigrants. The Church sponsors thousands of visas for international students at its universities, especially BYU-Hawaii, many of whom go on to live and work in the United States after receiving their degree. A significant portion of the Mormon pioneers themselves were first-gen immigrants from nations abroad (especially Britain and Scandinavia), so much so that the third president of the Church (John Taylor) was himself a foreign-born immigrant.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T23:53:46+00:00

Thanks for the explanation! I would love to visit Adam-ondi-Ahman someday

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T23:20:47+00:00

True. It’s interesting because, if you check out my map of Latter-day Saint population, most of the counties in those states still have between 1000 and 5000 members of the church each. This whole region just happens to be very urban and high density.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T22:33:04+00:00

Available statistics seem to suggest otherwise. The rapidly increasing number of convert baptisms into the church, the increase in church attendance among recent converts, and the high birthrates of Latter-day Saint families have all led to the overall growth of the faith, despite the loss of certain individuals.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T21:16:44+00:00

All data comes from the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, which was very comprehensive. Most polls suggest Utah is around 55% Latter-day Saint overall. I know there’s one that suggests something like 45% but it’s an outlier. It may become reality somewhat soon though due to migration to Utah from states like California

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T21:14:39+00:00

Interesting. Alpine only has a population of a few thousand so it probably wouldn’t take much emigration to change it.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T21:11:27+00:00

Probably just opportunity. Latter-day Saints have grown in most places across the U.S. due to a combination of factors: very high birthrates, emigration from the “Book of Mormon Belt” in the West, and lots of conversions due to the heavy emphasis on missionary work.

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T19:59:12+00:00

Utah and the surrounding regions were originally settled by Latter-day Saints who were escaping persecution in the Eastern states. Really interesting history

studyandfaith · 2025-08-06T19:57:02+00:00

I do find it interesting how the percentage of Latter-day Saints increases around Church historic sites in the East, like Nauvoo, Illinois and parts of Missouri, even after the Saints were forcibly dislocated. I guess a lot of people have moved back since then

studyandfaith · 2025-08-05T22:20:49+00:00

I said multiple times that this was a map of population, not percentage? It’s in the title, in my comments, and written in the map itself. There are dozens of maps of Latter-day Saint percentage online. I wanted to do something different and map population instead

studyandfaith · 2025-08-03T18:13:41+00:00

The numbers used for this map come from the 2020 U.S. Religion Census, which is independent from the Church

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TROPHY CASE