US religious revolution cutting number of Protestants

Published on 21/07/2004 01:55

THE United States is undergoing a religious revolution which will soon result in Protestants being outnumbered bypeople of other faiths, other Christian denominations and agnostics, a new survey has found.

While still outnumbering the next biggest group - Catholics - roughly two to one, Protestant denominations have been losing members to people who now identify themselves as having no specific religion, the report said.

Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63 per cent to 52 per cent, after years of remaining stable, according to a study released yesterday by the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago.

The number of people who said they had no religion rose from 9 per cent to nearly 14 per cent over the same time.

The United States "has been seen as white and Protestant", said Tom Smith, director of the General Social Survey. "We’re not going to be majority Protestant any longer."