There’s an 11-point gap between the share of Black Americans and the share of white Americans who identify as Christians.
This is among the findings of the latest Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study, which found 73% of Black Americans are Christians, as opposed to 62% of white Americans.
Hispanic Americans were found to be in the middle of this gap, with 67% identifying as Christians.
Asian Americans were, by far, the outliers among the four ethnic groups studied. In total, 65% identified with some religious identity, with about half being Christian and the other half representing other religions. Notably, Asian Americans claimed the largest shares of these other religions compared to the other ethnic groups, with 6% being Muslim, 10% Buddhist and 13% Hindu.
So, while Asian Americans may be least Christian or least likely to engage in Judeo-Christian religious practices, they are not unreligious; 81% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body, and 69% say there is something spiritual beyond they natural world.
For the other ethnic groups, only 6% of white Americans, 4% of Black Americans and 5% of Hispanic Americans identified with other religions. And none of these groups exceeded a 3% share of any religious identities that were not Christianity.
The survey did not ask participants about mixed racial or ethnic identities. According to census data in 2020, only 8.8% of the U.S. adult population was multiracial. But while this is a small share, the share was just 2.1% a decade earlier.
When asked about different beliefs and practices, though some are more popular than others, this general distribution remains consistent. Black Americans are most likely to hold religious beliefs or engage in religious practices, typically followed by Hispanic Americans, who are slightly more religious than white Americans. And Asian Americans tend to be least religious.
In terms of religious attendance, a decent share of all the ethnic groups attended religious services once a week or more while growing up: 65% for Black Americans, 59% for white Americans, 50% for Hispanic Americans and 33% for Asian Americans.
As adults, far fewer Americans overall attend a religious service weekly. Only 29% of Black Americans attend a religious service once a week or more — a 36% decrease from their childhood religious tendencies.
White and Hispanic Americans each claim a share of just 24% attending weekly, and Asian Americans follow closely behind at 23%.
However, while each ethnic group saw a significant decrease in religious service attendance from childhood to adulthood, data indicate Black Americans are much more likely than their counterparts to engage in religious or spiritual practices. When asked about the importance of the Bible, 70% of Black Americans said it was “very important,” in contrast to 51% of Hispanic Americans, just 39% of white Americans and 27% of Asian Americans.
In turn, Black Americans read Scripture most often, with 38% reading daily — nearly double the share of white and Hispanic Americans — 11% twice per month and another 11% several times per year.
In tandem with these findings, Black Americans are more than twice as likely to participate in prayer, Scripture study or religious education groups, with 24% attending weekly, 9% once or twice per month and 10% several times per year.
The study also found differences between those born in the U.S. and those born outside the U.S.
Of American born outside the U.S., 58% identify as Christian, 14% with other religions and 26% are religiously unaffiliated. Those born inside the U.S. with one or more parents born elsewhere are slightly less religious; 56% identify as Christian, 10% with other religions and 33% are religiously unaffiliated.
People born inside the U.S. with U.S.-born parents are more likely to be Christian (64%), and less likely to identify with other religions (just 5%). However, although they are more Christian than the other demographics, there is still a 30% share of religiously unaffiliated folks in this group.
When asked how important religion is to their life, those born outside the U.S. were slightly more agreeable; 41% said religion was “very important,” compared to 32% of those born stateside with one or more parents born elsewhere and 38% of those born in the U.S. with U.S. born parents.
When asked about childhood religious attendance, 60% of those born in the U.S. with U.S.-born parents attended weekly religious services, compared to just 46% of those born outside the U.S.
However, there is only a 1-point gap between the two groups when asked about adulthood religious attendance; 25% of those born in the U.S. with U.S.-born parents, and 26% of those born outside the U.S., attend weekly. And when asked about other religious beliefs and spiritual practices, these groups consistently claimed similar tendencies.
