Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu American to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, prays in a temple in Washington. File photo
Proportion of Christians in U.S. drops from 78.4 per cent to 70.6 per cent.
The proportion of Christians in the U.S. population dropped by ten per cent over the last seven years, even as Hindus and Muslims nearly doubled their share, according to a recent study.
In its report on “America’s Changing Religious Landscape” released this week, the Pew Research Center said that while the U.S. remained home to more Christians than any other country in the world, and roughly seven out of ten Americans continued to identify with some branch of the Christian faith, “growth has been especially great among Muslims and Hindus, albeit from a very low base.”
The Pew study found that while the proportion of Christians across sub-denominations dropped from 78.4 per cent in 2007 to 70.6 per cent in 2014, the figure for Hindus rose from 0.4 to 0.7 per cent during that period, and similarly for Muslims it rose from 0.4 to 0.9 per cent.
Well educated
The report also shed light on attributes of specific religious communities within the U.S., noting for example that more than one in ten immigrants identified with a non-Christian faith, such as Islam or Hinduism, and that Hindus and Jews continued to be the most highly educated religious traditions.
Thirty-six per cent of Hindus said their annual family income exceeded $100,000, compared with 19 per cent of the public overall, and 34 per cent of the community made between $50,000 and $99,999.
The population of U.S. Hindus also appeared skewed towards younger cohorts, with 56 per cent of them falling within the age range of 30-49 years and 34 per cent within the 18-29 category.
Unsurprisingly an overwhelming majority, 91 per cent, of U.S. Hindus were of Asian origin, with only four per cent or lower percentage each being white, black, Latino or mixed.