The United States is on the verge of becoming a country in which Protestants are no longer the majority - probably for the first time in history, according to an extensive survey whose findings illustrate the ever-shifting landscape of religion in America.
Protestants now account for just over 51 percent of the population, according to the survey of more than 35,000 adult Americans by the Pew Forum on Religion and American Life.
As expected, the survey documented the rise of evangelical Protestant denominations - the largest single religious group in the country - and the decline of mainstream Protestant churches.
But the greatest growth was among those who said they had no religious affiliation - about 16 percent of Americans over the age of 18.
"Religious affiliation in the United States is extraordinarily diverse and dynamic," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew organization, which conducted the survey last year.
"The decline in the size of the Protestant denominations is very important for American culture and for American politics, as so much of the values and institutions in American public life came out of Protestantism, were part of mainline Protestantism," Green said in a telephone news conference.
"That is not necessarily bad, it might be good, but it is certainly very different than in the past," he said.
The survey found that 26 percent of Americans belong to evangelical churches, 18 percent to mainline Protestant denominations and 23 percent to the Roman Catholic Church. About 7 percent of the respondents are affiliated with historically black churches, though a growing number of whites and Hispanics are joining those denominations.
The unaffiliated 16 percent represent the fastest-growing group in the country - based on the number of people who grew up in a religion and now say they belong to none.
Overall the survey found, 28 percent of Americans will eventually make a major change from the religion in which they were raised. If switching from one Protestant denomination to another is included, that figure rises to 44 percent.
And one out of four will move from the ranks of church members to unaffiliated status.
Showing the complexity of the American religious landscape, the unaffiliated group also has trouble holding onto its members: More than half of those raised without religious affiliation reported that they have joined a church.
"It is a very competitive marketplace," Greg Smith, a research fellow at Pew said of religion in America. "If you try to rest on your laurels, you are going to be history."
The Catholic Church also has had trouble keeping members. In fact, about 10 percent of the country's 225 million adults describe themselves as former Catholics, according to the survey.
"If everyone raised in the Roman Catholic Church had stayed in it, then Catholics would account for almost one-third of the population instead of less than one-quarter," Green said.
And it took outside help for the Catholic Church to keep its percentage that high. "The Catholic Church was able to maintain the overall share of the religion marketplace that it does because of the extensive wave of immigration into the country, which continues to this day," Green said.
These forces are reshaping the face of the American Catholic Church. Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion and American Life, said that over 70 percent of U.S. immigrants are Christians.
"The balance within the Christian community is very different among immigrants than among native-born Americans," he said. "Among the native-born, it is 2-to-1 Protestant. Among immigrants, it is 2-to-1 Catholic."
Lugo said these immigrants, mainly from Hispanic countries, now make up one-third of all U.S. Catholics, and almost 50 percent of U.S. Catholics under 40.
More than 78 percent of American adults identify themselves as Christians. Less than 5 percent identify with other religions. The largest group among these is Jewish, with 1.7 percent of the population. Those identifying themselves as Buddhists make up 0.7 percent of Americans, the same as Unitarians. That's more than the proportion of American Muslims at 0.6 percent and Hindus at 0.4 percent.
The Pew researchers cautioned that the relatively large number of unaffiliated Americans does not mean a decline in religious belief.
"We asked people how important do they consider religion to be in their lives and more than a third of those unaffiliated, about 6 percent of the U.S. adult population, said that it is important," Smith said. "These are people who want no part of a religion but nevertheless find religion to be at least somewhat important in their own lives."
Only 1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheists (who don't believe in a deity), while 2.4 percent identify themselves as agnostics (who aren't committed).
The survey shows that about 95 percent of Americans have some sort of religious belief.
The Pew survey groups Maryland with the District of Columbia in its findings. Those figures show a larger representation of historically black church members - 18 percent - than the 7 percent national figure. It also shows relatively fewer Catholics (18 percent compared with 23 percent nationally). The region also has a higher percentage of Jews - 5 percent compared with 1.7 percent nationwide.
There are also fewer evangelical Protestants in the Maryland/D.C. figures - 15 percent compared with 26 percent nationally - and marginally more members of mainline Protestant churches - 20 percent compared with 18 percent nationally.
The figure for the unaffiliated here is 17 percent, about the national average.
Emphasizing that like all surveys, this one is a snapshot, Green said it is hard to predict the future of religion in America.
"You do see in the data a great capacity for change, for diversity and dynamism in American religion," he said.
michael.hill@baltsun.com
The complete survey is available at http:--religions.pewforum.org