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When it comes to religiosity, D.C. region is mainstream
By Michelle Boorstein
Maybe the Washington area isn't totally out of touch after all.
A poll released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life shows that Washington, Maryland and Virginia hover pretty much in the mainstream when it comes to self-professed religiosity. Of course the term "religiosity" is subjective, but by the most common yardsticks -- whether you attend worship services frequently, for example -- the region falls roughly in the middle.
The poll, which crunches data actually collected in 2007, found 59 percent of Virginians say religion is "very important" in their lives and 56 percent of people saying the same in Maryland and the District (Maryland and D.C. were combined since the D.C. sample was too small to stand on its own). Those rank 18th and 21st among the states, respectively.
There are four measurements that show a remarkably strong middle ground on these questions. Unfortunately this is the first time Pew gathered this data, so it doesn't show whether the numbers have changed. However, the study follows the release this spring of the American Religious Identification Survey, which happens about once a decade. That found that our region - like much of the country - became more religiously diverse since 1990.
That survey found most notably - again, as in much of the country - that our region saw a big leap in people identifying themselves as having "no religion." In the District, the percent of people who said that went from 7 percent to 18 percent in nearly 20 years. (It also went from 8 percent to 13 percent in Maryland and from 7 percent to 15 percent in Virginia). However, experts on American religion have shown repeatedly that saying you have "no religion" on a survey means neither than you don't practice a religion or hold strong religious beliefs. The rise in what they call "religious nones" coincides with the decline in Americans holding strong denominational identity; in other words, people don't feel the need to characterize themselves as belonging to a particular group, so they may check "none" even though they have some religious identity.
Michelle Boorstein
| December 21, 2009; 3:08 PM ET | Category: God in Government Save & Share:
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Posted by: norriehoyt | December 22, 2009 2:05 PM
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And Mississippi is the least educated and the least well-off financially and the most unhealthy and obese. Seems to be a pattern here.
The Catholic Church made billions on the suffering of it's 'flock'. The Baptists and Evangelicals are doing the same. Shame on them!!! If they really care about their 'flock', if they really want to 'raise' their people up, they'd invest in math and science education, not bible study.
Oh those pesky facts!
Posted by: thebobbob | December 22, 2009 4:17 PM
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The rankings are almost identical to the rankings of the percent black population by state. If adjusted for that, Maryland/DC would be quite an outlier.
Posted by: WmarkW | December 24, 2009 7:39 AM
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For another view of churches in America, see "Churches ad hoc"
www.efn.org/~hkrieger/church.htm
Posted by: HermanKrieger | December 27, 2009 1:42 AM
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The Pew poll combined Vermont and New Hampshire and they came out as the least religious states in the country.
Interesting that Vermont is also the most civilized and the best place to live in the country.
So much for religion.